Insights

By Craig Lemoine, Ph.D., CFP®, Director of Consumer Investment Research “How much do I need for retirement?” It’s a question I often hear, and one that seems straightforward enough to tackle. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t quite so simple.

By Ryan Yamada, Senior Wealth Planner    When putting away for retirement, we often dream about all the things we’ll be able to do with that money – traveling, going out to eat, maybe trying new hobbies. 

By Jamie Hopkins, Managing Director, Wealth Services  Sonu Varghese, Director, Investment Platforms; and Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist, contributed to this report.    Senate Democrats have reached a general agreement on a bill to address climate change, taxes, health care, inflation …

By Scott Kubie, Senior Investment Strategist    The first half of the year proved challenging for even the most hardened of investors. High inflation. Continual losses in the S&P 500. Bear market. Fed rate hikes. It all added up to the third most volatile market in 25 years.  

By Craig Lemoine, Ph.D., CFP®, Director of Consumer Investment Research At their most basic level, executive compensation plans are designed to attract, retain and motivate top talent and leadership. But truly successful plans are designed to be much more than providing a high salary to a k …

By Craig Lemoine, Ph.D., CFP®, Director of Consumer Investment Research  We speak a secret language in financial planning. So much of our world is filled with abbreviations surrounding insurance and investment products, processes, education and accomplishments.  I could say “Tammy, a CLU an …

Tom Fridrich, Senior Wealth Planner    Once upon a time, people would put money in their 401(k) or IRA accounts and know that – should their retirement savings outlive them – their loved ones would inherit the rest and all would essentially be well. 

Karl Strube, Senior Tax Planner The transition from employment to retirement can be complex. For decades, you received either a regular paycheck or earnings from self-employment, and now that will slow or stop. To compound that, you’ll be taking money out of all these accounts after putting …

All planning – but especially tax planning – should line up with your goals. You should never do anything solely because you’re going to get a tax benefit. Rather, you should always do things that tie back to your goals, with tax benefits being an added bonus.

We’re in a pretty interesting juncture in the markets. As we kick off the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the omicron variant is spreading across the country.

During the pandemic, my family moved into a new house. We weren’t planning on moving, but that didn’t stop us from participating in the pandemic housing boom. But we did so at a time where the kids weren’t yet out of school, so for about three weeks, we owned two homes. Instead of having to …