The following article by Adam Meyerson is taken from the Hillsdale College newsletter, Imprimus. The article is available as a pdf file, The Generosity of America.
Adam Meyerson has been president of The Philanthropy Roundtable since 2001. From 1993 to 2001, he was vice president for educational affairs at the Heritage Foundation. He served as editor-in-chief [...]

As the stock market has improved, more investors have shifted their concern from weathering the financial crisis to anticipating the inflationary effects of rising federal spending and debt. Many folks are asking how they can prepare for potentially higher inflation. This article explores two basic ways to address inflation uncertainty and highlights asset groups that [...]

by Bob Veres
All of a sudden, it seems like everybody in the financial planning world is talking about Roth IRAs and Roth conversions.  In fact, an article in Financial Planning magazine–one of the trade magazines in our world–recently proclaimed 2010 “The Year of the Roth.”
What’s the big deal?  Roth IRAs are interesting to professionals for [...]

by Bob Veres
An article in the December 31 issue of the Wall Street Journal makes a point that many of us in the financial planning world have long suspected.  It says that the CGM Focus fund was the top performing mutual fund, by far, over the past ten years, generating an annualized return of more [...]

Why would anyone purposely buy the most risky, meaning volatile, asset class for their investment portfolio? Because, it will provide the highest expected return. How has that worked out for investors during 2009?
Great, actually. The Emerging Markets asset class is the most volatile broad asset class there is. How was the performance last year when [...]

“Merrill Lynch, with Wal-Mart’s blessing, was choosing mutual funds based on payments that the funds would make to Merrill Lynch,” says Braden attorney Derek Loeser of Keller Rohrback in Seattle, Wash. “This explains the anomaly of a $10 billion plan ending up with off-the-shelf retail funds that just so happen to share revenue.”
Forbes magazine reports [...]

Businesses and individuals making 2009 contributions to charity should keep in mind several important tax law provisions that have taken effect in recent years. Some of these changes include the following…
IR-2009-114, Dec. 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — Individuals and businesses making contributions to charity should keep in mind several important tax law provisions that have taken effect [...]

It is the season of giving and I think it is wise to give as wisely as possible.
Cash is often not the most effective thing to give. Appreciated securities are a more efficient choice.
I know the thought is that the market is down, how could there be appreciated securities out there? Well, you might be [...]

by Ashlea Ebeling, 12.22.09, 03:00 PM EST
The research tax credit, AMT protection and others are likely to be revived, but it’s a pain for taxpayers.
When members of the U.S. Senate finally head home this week, they will be leaving the future of 50 individual and business tax breaks in limbo. All expire at the end [...]

The Conference Board, a private research group, has released its statistics for November. The index of Leading Economic Inidicaters rose 0.9% last month, up from 0.3% in October making this the eighth consecutive month for positive results in the index.
November’s numbers actually outperformed the 0.7% expected by many economists.
The positive performance came from improvements in [...]