One way to help boost returns without incurring any extra risk is called tax harvesting, which sounds a lot more difficult than it truly is. Simply put, it is the sale of securities at a loss in an effort to offset your capital gains liability.

When it comes to executive-level pay or compensation, financial compensation comes in a number of forms, including salary, bonuses, and other forms of compensation, such as equity compensation. This type of compensation is often used as a way to reward performance as well as entice talented professionals into executive levels in a corporation.¹

As with any type of compensation plan, there are both pros and cons of contributing to them. When it comes to the NQDCs some of the advantages that come from contributing include:

Six months ago, if you would have described a scenario involving more than 40 million people filing for unemployment, plunging corporate profits, and a highly contagious worldwide pandemic all translating to portfolios that are essentially flat for the year, we would have considered that to be highly unlikely. And yet, here we are.

This is the latest in a continuing series of posts where we feature a member of our team using a Q&A format so you can get to know them a little better – both personally and professionally.

Plan B™ is an important part of Brown and Company’s personalized financial analysis and retirement consulting services, custom tailored to help you deal with the ‘What if?’ scenarios life and retirement may throw at you.

After years spent launching and growing your business, the day will finally arrive when you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. But, just as starting your business involved hard work and planning, the process of exiting your firm can be a long and challenging process.

Markets higher after holiday - Following the big gains in US equities last week, the S&P 500 Index opened above the 3000 level for the first time since early March. Asian and European markets fared better as well, with Japan a standout. Moreover, WTI crude prices are higher after a solid four-week showing. Meanwhile markets remain supported by signs of recovery as more of the US economy reopens

We have experienced a significant rebound in investment returns since late March, but if current conditions worsen are you prepared for another market downturn?

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve invested a great deal of time and effort into building your company. With day-to-day demands, it may be difficult to imagine your eventual transition into retirement. Yet, if you want to build personal financial security and ensure business continuation, it is important to plan ahead. Business succession planning can help create retirement income for a retiring business owner and facilitate the transfer of operations and/or ownership to family or another entity. A succession plan can also provide a strategy to handle unforeseen events, such as death or disability.

Whether your business has been temporarily closed by a state shelter-in-place order or is still operating as a provider of essential services, balancing your revenue needs with protecting the safety of your employees and customers can be an unprecedented challenge. Learn more about some of the resources available to help small businesses survive this pandemic, as well as steps businesses can take to keep employees healthy and safe.

It is important to stay in the know about knowing when to enroll in Medicare.

Headlines had oil selling at -$37.63 per barrel at close on Monday, April 20. The negative sign in front? Sellers had to pay buyers $37.63 to take the oil off their hands. Except this wasn’t the price of oil. It was the price of a useful financial instrument, called a futures contract, in this case a contract for delivery of oil in May at a particular price. The nearest futures contract in date is often used as a proxy for the price of oil, since it trades regularly and usually tracks the price of oil well. But on Monday, quirks in the futures market created an artificial price that, while historic and capturing the extreme stress we’re seeing in the oil market, was not quite the same as the actual price of oil.

Financial planning is never more valuable than it is during times like these. But it needs to be an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.

As an investor, you may be observing a couple things. First, the stay-at-home orders and the timeline pertaining to COVID-19 are being extended out. Second, there is a general sense that the news is going to get worse before it gets better. So, given that, why not take some money out of the market and wait for things to start to turn around?

With 90% of the country now in lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19, large swaths of the economy and small businesses are in dire need of assistance for survival. To provide this support, a slew of policies are being implemented by the government, including the CARES Act that was signed into law on Friday, March 27.