News & Insights

Resources on Trusts, Investments, Estate Planning, Financial Issues, and Living Well

A trusted advisor is someone who works with your best interests in mind, making decisions based on your desired outcomes and future needs.  Being mindful of those that you choose to be in your inner-circle to advocate when you need them the most is essential.  Working amongst the vulnerabilities of older adults and individuals with [...]
When the doctors say, “there is nothing more we can do,” hospice says, “yes, there is—we can provide comfort care.” While most people connect hospice to dying, I like to think of hospice as a gift. Hospice helps people live as fully and as comfortably as possible after it has been determined that medical treatment [...]
The US economy is struggling through its worst decline since the 1930s. Corporate earnings have plummeted, and numerous CEOs are refusing to offer forecasts for upcoming quarters. Nonetheless, the major stock indexes have rallied to or above all-time highs. Investors appear willing to disregard weak fundamentals so long as the Federal Reserve continues to produce [...]
Late in the second quarter, I wrote To Be Equity-Lite or Equity-Heavy?, which spelled out the predominant arguments for and against significant equity ownership in the current environment. I encourage you to read or reread that article to evaluate your own reasons for remaining either equity-lite or equity-heavy. Departing from our typical Quarterly Commentary format, [...]
One of Mission’s core services, Securities Custody, is a term widely used by the securities and banking industries, but is not commonly understood by the investing public.  So, what in the world does it mean? A “Custodian” is a financial institution (trust company, bank, brokerage firm) that keeps custody of stocks, bonds, and other assets. [...]
During the first quarter, we experienced the fastest ever 35% decline from an all-time high in US equity market prices. The subsequent remarkable recovery rally regained most of the lost ground in barely a month and a half. Commentators are currently marveling about the disconnect between aggressively rising stock prices and the weakest economic data [...]
As the month of April closed last week, Wall Street celebrated the S&P 500’s powerful 12.7% advance, the strongest monthly gain in 33 years. Whether that success points to continued gains in the short run, however, is open to question. Looking back, two even more profitable months saw slightly varied outcomes. The most profitable month, [...]
Two articles from The Wall Street Journal weekend edition struck me as particularly helpful to readers seeking insight into prospects for the pandemic, the economy and the investment markets. Relative to the coronavirus pandemic and its potential effect on the economy, let the authors Louise Radnofsky and Ben Cohen speak for themselves: There has always [...]
In just under two months, stock prices worldwide have plummeted from historic highs to bear market lows and have rocketed part way back up again. The coronavirus has infected nearly 2 million people, killing over 100,000, and shut down vast swaths of the world economy. In less than one month, our way of life has [...]
In our January Commentary, we noted that the Fed had dropped short-term interest rates in late-2019 in three distinct quarter point increments to the year-end level of 1.50-1.75%. As the coronavirus spread around the world in early-2020, the central bank cut interest rates on March 3 by half a percentage point, its biggest single cut [...]