The holiday season is a time when people are especially vulnerable to scams. This is because they are busy and often have their guard down. Criminals take advantage of this by circulating fake e-gift cards, posing as charities, targeting specific demographics, and so on. We will discuss Google's five most popular scams being circulated this holiday season. 1) E-gift card scams. With the holiday...
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” – Charles MacKay What is Herding Bias? In behavioral finance, herding bias refers to investors' tendency to follow and copy what other investors are doing. When markets are volatile, it could lead to behavior that is not fully rational such as...
By: Paul Horn, CFP®, CPWA®, Senior Financial Planner I am under the firm belief that as long as the IRS exists, we have job security. Trying to understand and interpret the IRS feels akin to reading hieroglyphics with no formal training. Often the IRS will create a new rule, but it generally takes time for them to interpret and clarify the ruling. We have seen this occur with rules around how...
By: Paul Horn, CFP®, CPWA®, Senior Financial Planner As parents we always want to see our kids succeed and do better than we did. This means many times we want to invest in their future for various things. Most of the time parents want to save for education, but there could be other reasons to save. For example, helping them buy their first home, seed money to start their business venture, or...
Congratulations Chad Noorani, QKA for being selected again to NAPA’s 2023 “Aces”: Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisors Under 40. Established in 2014, the list of "Aces" - our Top Young Retirement Plan Advisors - is drawn from nominations provided by NAPA Broker-Dealer/RIA Firm Partners, vetted by a blue-ribbon panel of senior advisor industry experts based on a combination of quantitative and...
By: Henry VanBuskirk, CFP®, Wealth Manager Investing is a broad concept that has a wide array of definitions that differ depending on whom you ask. If you ask a recent college graduate, parents in their early 40s with two young children, and an elderly retired couple to define what investing means to them, you will probably get three wildly different answers. They all have different...
Muhammad Ali, "I don't always know what I'm talking about, but I know I'm right." This quote from the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali, sums up our next behavioral bias, “Confirmation Bias”. In other words, we start with a view of a particular topic and then search for information that upholds that view. From real-world examples in sports and the news, to how this bias may impact your...
The original due date of the CARES Act and SECURE Act amendments for qualified plans, other than governmental plans, was the last day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2022, which means December 31, 2022, for calendar year plans. This has been extended to December 31, 2025, regardless of plan year end. However, the deadline for governmental plans (414(d) plans, 403(b) plans...
December 2022 1st: Participant Notices – Annual notices due for Safe Harbor elections, Qualified Default Investment Arrangement (QDIA), and Automatic Contribution Arrangements (EACA or QACA). 30th: ADP/ACP Corrections - Deadline for a plan to make ADP/ACP corrective distributions and/or to deposit qualified nonelective contributions (QNEC) for the previous plan year. Discretionary...
As the year comes to a close, you may wonder what plan records must be kept and what items can be tossed. Historical plan records may need to be produced for many reasons: an IRS audit, a DOL investigation or simply questions from participants about their benefits or accounts to name a few. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) takes the position that plan records should be kept until all benefits...
Each year, a great deal of attention is paid to the upcoming year end work: census gathering, compliance testing, 5500s, oh my! But the year-end also brings with it a host of items that may need attention before the year closes. Below are a few action items that may need to be considered. Changes were made for the current plan year or upcoming plan year that required an amendment. Example: As of...
Save even more for retirement in 2023 due to record breaking increases in limits. On October 21, 2022, the IRS announced the Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) affecting the dollar limitations for retirement plans for 2023. Retirement plan limits increased well over the 2022 limits, the largest increase in over 45 years. COLA increases are intended to allow participant contributions and benefits...
Global financial markets declined again in the third quarter as inflation persisted and remained at 40-year highs, geopolitical tensions escalated even further, and the Federal Reserve continued to aggressively raise interest rates. In late July, the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) raised interest rates by another 75 bps but comments by the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, indicated a potential...
Although this year has felt spooky, the U.S. stock market rallied in October after enduring several straight months of losses, leading to optimism that the end of the bear market may be in sight. Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 ended the month up 8%. Ten of the 11 sectors of the S&P 500 rose during the month, with energy stocks leading the way higher.Gilts (a UK...
By: Henry VanBuskirk, CFP®, Wealth Manager With all of the recent headlines in the news about mortgage rates increasing and waning home affordability, it seems daunting for the first-time home buyer. A 30-year fixed mortgage now exceeds 7%, a level that hasn’t been seen since 2008. That same 30-year fixed mortgage was around 3% just a year ago. The reality here is that you aren’t going...
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