AdviceIQ Articles

  • Why Use an Advisor?

    Submitted by Larry Light on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 12:00pm

    A lot of folks think they can handle their finances by themselves and don’t need someone looking over their shoulder. They are wrong. Even the smartest self-directed investors should consult a financial advisor.
     
    Every player needs a coach. Those sleek athletes headed for the summer Olympics in London didn’t get that way by themselves. They had a knowledgeable person overseeing their training and health. Even the great Warren Buffett has a team of smart financial types, including his best friend Charles Munger, examining his ideas.
     

  • Despite Droop, No Bear

    Submitted by Ray Ferrara on Thu, 05/17/2012 - 9:00am

    April produced the first negative return for the Standard & Poor’s 500 since November 2011, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average had a very slight gain. Thus far this month, both the S&P and the Dow are down. But the recent downdraft doesn’t likely mean we are entering a bear market.
     

  • How Germany Can Save the EU

    Submitted by Kevin Flynn on Wed, 05/16/2012 - 3:00pm

    Worried about Greece, and will it exit from the euro, the European Union or both? But the real solution to the Gordian knot isn’t for Greece to leave the euro-zone. It’s Germany that ought to leave the currency union.

    Give Germany back the mark. This would be a blessing for worldwide markets, which have gone through hell. The question of a Hellenic leavetaking has been a Damoclean sword overhanging markets for much of the last two years. 

  • Real Estate in Your IRA?

    Submitted by Russell Francis on Wed, 05/16/2012 - 12:00pm

    With housing prices and interest rates so low, isn’t it a good time to invest your individual retirement account in real estate? Some promoters are pushing properties in IRAs. Think twice before you do.
     

  • How to Protect Your Home

    Submitted by Kimberly J. Howard on Wed, 05/16/2012 - 9:00am

    Your biggest investment in this age of economic meltdown likely still is your home. Sure, it may have lost value since 2007. But you can protect it – in ways that go beyond staying current on the mortgage.
     
    A home is more than a financial investment. It is an emotional investment. The feeling of owing your dream house is the experience of a lifetime. You relish having something that's all yours – a place where your own style statement tells the world who you are.
     

  • Advisor Gripe: Scared Clients

    Submitted by Larry Light on Tue, 05/15/2012 - 3:00pm

    Advisors struggle all the time with investors swept up by whatever is in vogue. The latest trend can lead clients astray and damage their finances, advisors say. Tech stocks in the late 1990s? Real estate plays in the last decade? For today’s scared clients, safe havens are popular.
     

  • Choosing a Good Trustee

    Submitted by Rick Kahler on Tue, 05/15/2012 - 12:00pm

    How do you find the right trustee to manage your finances if you can no longer do so, or handle the affairs of your minor children if you die young? This is an important question that too few think about.
     
    Let’s say you are a single parent and pass away when your kids are in junior high. Giving them your assets directly makes no sense; they’re too young to manage the largess. Instead you put the assets into a trust for a competent adult to tend until they are old enough. Finding that adult is key.
     

  • What Is Fair in a Divorce?

    Submitted by Tom Orecchio on Tue, 05/15/2012 - 9:00am

    All is fair in love and war… but not in divorce.  If your marriage is headed in this direction, you need to know what the rules are.
     
    When a couple decides to dissolve their marriage, most states require an “equitable” or “fair” division of marital property. But what constitutes equitable or fair?
     

  • That Sell in May Adage

    Submitted by George Clausen on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 3:00pm

    There is an old trading adage: “Sell in May and go away.” The thinking is that stocks slump in the warm months, and recover in the fall, so why go through the pain? The adage is wrong, though.
     
    Typically, May is a decent month for market gains. But June through September is usually very trying for investors. Maybe the best option is to sell your equity positions the last market day of May. 
     

  • A Long-Term Care Guide

    Submitted by Walid L Petiri on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 12:00pm

    Father time eventually catches all of us, even the models of healthy living. That means we must plan for our long-term care needs. This is complicated. Where to begin?
     
    First, don’t think you will be the exception who will not need LTC. Today, with 85 and older the fastest growing demographic group in the country, it is likely that at some point most of us will need a nurse, an aide or some other medical care provider. Or we will need to live in a nursing care home or assisted living facility.
     

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SMART ADVICE

 

A Tragic Mistake: ‘I Don’t Need Help Handling my Money’

 

By Larry Light, Editor-in-Chief

May 1, 2013

 

We all like to think we’re smart and self-sufficient. A lot of folks believe they can manage their financial lives by themselves. These do-it-yourselfers are woefully wrong.

 

AdviceIQ is about giving the world the wisdom of smart, honest (none can have any regulatory infractions) advisors. Are we blindly pro-advisor? No, we are clear-eyed about being pro-good advisor. Everyone, even the financial cognoscenti, should have such a helper to sort out life’s perplexities.

 

Lamentably, the financial crisis and the Bernard Madoff scandal convinced many to steer clear of advisors. According to a Deloitte consulting firm study, 57% of those polled say they’re more comfortable handling their retirement planning on their own. Plus, 38% contend they need no professional advice to plan.

 

Really? A story from Paul Sullivan shows how wrong-headed they are. Sullivan is enormously well-versed in personal finance, which he writes about for the New York Times. But it turns out that even he could use some help with his portfolio. One day he went before Tiger 21, an investment club of very wealthy (with at least $10 million in net worth) types who assessed his financial situation. To Sullivan’s surprise and dismay, the group found major holes: He and his wife didn’t have enough insurance, they carried an unneeded vacation home and spent too much.

 

The blasé DIY attitude vexes Edmond Walters, founder and chief executive of eMoney Advisor, which provides support services to advisors. He watches discount broker TV ads that promise you can direct your investments by yourself, without paying an advisor. “It’s dangerous,” he says. “The ads say you can come home after work and spend a couple of hours trading a month. But the professionals have a lot more information than you.” Result: You get slammed.

 

As the Times’ Sullivan attests, it’s good to have a more knowledgeable someone guiding you, an expert who keeps up with all the arcane changes in the financial arena. Do you know how much disability coverage you need? Are you saving adequately for your kids’ education? How much money are you wasting for no good reason? Will your investments support you through your retirement?

 

Walters spent almost two decades as an advisor before he started his current company. “But,” he says, “even I have an advisor.”

 

 

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