The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards is finally taking measures to clean up the error-filled reporting on its website that classifies many troubled financial advisors as having "clean" records. The CFP has been relying on these advisors to self-report any bad behavior, and with predictable results that has failed. Many of the advisors, who are mostly brokers and insurance agents, are regulated by FINRA as well. FINRA has disclosed their bad behavior, but CFP has missed the mark. That might finally change. Jason Zweig and Andrea Fuller report at The Wall Street Journal: The … [Read more...]
Gold/Silver Coins No Longer Allowed in Safe Deposit Boxes
A son of long-time subscribers to Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report emailed me last week about a letter his parents had received from their bank branch. Not a phone call to set up a meeting, a letter. According to him, the bank sent the letter to his parents stating that no gold or silver would be allowed in the bank’s safe deposit boxes. There was no explanation for the change in the letter. The note wasn’t from a small local bank on Main Street, USA. This bank is one of the biggest players in the world. Its regional branches extend like tentacles to every street corner … [Read more...]
Trump Era Adds 10,000 Points to the Dow, and Counting
Fox Business's Jonathan Garber reports that on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 28,332.74, and therefore had climbed more than 10,000 points since Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States on November 8, 2016. That's a 54% gain, excluding the Dow's all-important dividends. He writes: The gains show why U.S. markets have become the envy of the world under Trump, who has followed through on his promises of cutting taxes and regulations and rewriting global trade deals in America's favor. By comparison, global exchanges such as Hong Kong’s Hang … [Read more...]
Rich CEO, Poor CEO? Why Fidelity is Number One
You have read about why Fidelity is Number One. Today, I want to point your attention to the massive consolidation happening in the financial services industry, most notably the recent Schwab/TD Ameritrade hook-up. What concerns me is the potential for the customer to be lost in this chaos and whether or not these deals are even worth it. At the end of the day who benefits from more customers? Probably not the customer. This is yet another reason why Fidelity is Number One. It is privately held—guided by a third-generation family member in CEO Abigail Johnson. Forbes just listed … [Read more...]
Season’s Greetings from Newport
Rich State, Poor State Rankings: This One Tops New England
If you like the mountains (summer or winter) then you need to visit North Conway, NH. Becky and I have a cabin in Bartlett just up the road and have spent a ton of time in North Conway even before we had a home in the area. If you’re a skier you have plenty of slopes to enjoy within 40-minutes or less including Bretton Woods—ranked by Conde Nast Traveler as the #6 resort in the U.S. and Canada. This week Stephen Moore and his partners Arthur Laffer and Jonathan Williams released the 12th edition of their annual Rich States, Poor States report. The best-ranked state in New England was New … [Read more...]
RAGE Gauge: Trump Powers Positivity
My RAGE Gauge shows Americans feeling good about their lives right now. Risk is still elevated but has been trending in a better direction. One place Americans seem to be worried about is their Second Amendment rights. After calls in the Democrat primary for the outright confiscation of guns, Americans started buying firearms at increased rates for the first time in years. FBI data show that November was the first year-over-year increase in the number of background checks for gun sales in well over two years. Unemployment is at a 50-year low, the stock market has been strong, and America … [Read more...]
A Tax-Free Savings Plan for Your Grandchild
Pay attention here. When you beat inertia and get on the track to retirement savings, a lot of opportunities tend to come your way. One of those opportunities is having time to focus on other members of your family. When it comes to investing, you and I know the most powerful tool to wealth is compound interest. But it requires time—a commodity in abundance when you're young—and money. That’s where you come in (sorry). You know the path to my rich grandchild, poor grandchild. You have the knowledge and the money (you don’t need a truck load) to teach them in real dollars about compound … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: “My life Has Always Been One of Very Good Fortune”
When Fred Cox retired from the NFL in 1977, the placekicker had scored 1,365 points. But his most famous score happened when he was approached by an entrepreneur named John Mattox in 1971, explains The Week. Entrepreneur Mattox wanted Cox to help create a backyard field goal kicking game. In response to Mattox’s prototype (a heavy football), Cox responded, “You’re gonna have a bunch of sore-legged kids.” “Cox asked a friend in the injection molding business to create a prototype,” explains The Week, “the resulting foam pigskin was light, aerodynamic, and a hit with neighborhood … [Read more...]
Banks Are Selling Your Private Info to Strangers
Most Americans have become accustomed to the idea that when they use Google or Facebook, information on their Internet habits is being sold to advertisers who want to target them with ads. But until now that phenomenon has been mostly confined to cyberspace, and there are ways to avoid them. That's all beginning to change though. Now industries that were around even before the Internet are attempting to make profits from your private information. The most dangerous of these is your bank. The Associated Press has reported that banks are selling information on customers' spending habits to … [Read more...]
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