Our Commentary

This past Sunday, the U.S. Treasury seized control of behemoth mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a move aimed at averting collapse of the two organizations and the potential snowball effect on credit markets here and abroad. The takeover solves an immediate problem but raises many more questions. First and foremost, is the government’s latest […]

Perhaps the greatest issue facing retirees is paying for healthcare services. Research suggests that out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare cost retirees an average of $215,000. This is not an insignificant sum considering the average retiree has saved less than $50,000. Knowing this emphasizes the importance of developing a well thought out retirement healthcare strategy. If you are like most […]

The subprime mortgage crisis continues to worsen as evidenced by the increasing withdrawals and loans taken from company sponsored retirement plans. For the first half of 2008, hardship withdrawals are up 21% over the same period last year. As the mortgage crisis deepens, the number of people seeking hardship withdrawals from their company retirement plan is likely […]

 Certainly the current real estate market has created opportunities for home buyers, whether looking for a just-built home or an older home. Most home buyers give little thought to the cost of homeowner’s insurance or how those costs are determined. While insurers look at a number of factors to determine premiums, here are two you should consider:  […]

Last week the Department of Justice announced that it had charged eleven people with orchestrating the largest theft of credit card information in history. It is estimated that over 40 million people had their credit card information stolen. How could this have happened? It seems that the cyber thieves, using laptops, drove around retail stores until they found […]

Over the past two weeks, I’ve discussed strategies for transferring your business to family members. If you do not plan to leave your business to a family member, you will want to take steps to maximize its value upon a sale. When we ask our business owner clients what they plan to do with their business, more […]

The President this week signed into law a $300 billion housing rescue bill aimed at helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure and sets the stage for bail-out funding of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, if needed. The law takes effect on October 1st and allows thousands of at-risk borrowers to refinance their unaffordable original mortgages […]

Last week I discussed three strategies for transferring the family business to family members. An often critical element in a well designed family transfer strategy is a well-crafted buy-sell agreement. More often than not, I find that no buy-sell agreements are in place. In many other cases, the current buy-sell agreement no longer reflects the wishes of the […]

You may be surprised to learn that 90 percent of businesses are family owned. Only 30 percent of family businesses survive to the next generation of family members and only 15 percent survive to the third generation. The reason? Illiquidity and estate taxes are one reason but in far too many cases, family dynamics make a sale or […]

With the housing market in a state of turmoil, many people are wondering, what, if anything, they should or could do to improve their home financing plan.  Over this past year, the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates in an effort to inject more liquidity into our financial markets and keep general interest rates down.  […]