News & Updates

No one ever said you could live like royalty on Social Security. The program was always intended to provide a foundation for retirement but not to completely replace one’s working income. Having said that, it is wrong to ignore the importance of Social Security in developing a retirement strategy, given...

In a recent article, The Social Security “Reset”, I talked about how to partially undo the benefit reduction that results from taking early Social Security retirement benefits. I pointed out that the rules allow a recipient to suspend retirement benefits upon reaching full retirement age (FRA) in order to earn...

(Note: Social Security benefits are gender-neutral, but in this article I will refer to the wife as the recipient since statistically this is typically the case.) Sociologists have a name for folks who divorce after age 50—“gray divorcees”—and their numbers are on the rise in the U.S. In fact, more...

April 19, 2014|Joe Alfonso, Guest blogger, The Christian Science Monitor Retirees who begin collecting Social Security before their full retirement age can take a significant cut to their benefits — but there may be a way to “reset” that process and ease those reductions....

The following is our update of global market performance in Q1 2014. Q1 2014 Global Market Performance...

March 6, 2014|Cliff Newell, The Lake Oswego Review Baby boomers urged to find best way to receive benefits The boom is on when it comes to people signing up for Social Security. Many baby boomers have already retired and many more will be retiring soon. That is why it would...

Many current retirees decided to begin taking Social Security retirement benefits well before their full retirement age (FRA). The FRA is the age at which a beneficiary is entitled to receive a full Social Security retirement benefit based on their lifetime earnings record. In some cases, the need for income...

Investment decisions should be based on empirical data and modern financial science. Modern Portfolio Theory and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, informed by nearly a century of market information, show that a passive investment approach that shuns market timing and individual stock picking gives an investor the best chance of capturing...

The following is our update of global market performance in Q4 2013. Q4 2013 Global Market Performance...

December 23, 2013|Bruce W. Fraser, Bankrate.com Remember playing Legos as a kid? You could quickly take a random pile of blocks and build something solid. The steps to building wealth are not so different, as the process involves a series of small decisions that move us along, one building block...

The following is our update of global market performance in Q3 2013. Q3 2013 Global Market Performance...

  It never fails to happen. Whenever events such as the current US government shutdown or the impending debt ceiling deadline arise, the media declare these crises and speculate regarding their impact on our lives. Reporters often solicit advisor opinion at times like these regarding the advice we would give...

Your life insurance needs may change without you even realizing it. You may have purchased life insurance years ago, and never gave it a second thought. Or, you may not have life insurance at all–and now you need it. When your life circumstances change, you have a fresh opportunity to...

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of estate planning, regardless of the size of your estate or the stage of life you’re in. A close second to the need to plan your estate is getting it done correctly, based on your individual circumstances....

The following is our update of global market performance in Q2 2013. Q2 2013 Global Market Performance...