Growth is an important theme at Brown and Company.  We place a tremendous emphasis on hiring great people, utilizing the latest technology to improve efficiency and re-investing back into the client experience.  It is through growth that we are able to deliver our best work to our clients.

It is not uncommon to see old video footage of Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos on social media. We’re all interested in what these influential leaders of two of the most iconic companies in the world have had to say. What is unusual is to see both of them say nearly the exact same thing in two separate interviews around the same time period.

A common fact pattern for our clients is that they will have multiple income streams when they stop working.  Social Security benefits, private pensions, annuity payments, income from real estate holdings, income from private equity and mineral royalty checks: these sources of income will often play a vital role in creating a successful long-term plan for financial independence.

Sir Edmund Hillary is widely known as the first man to have climbed Mount Everest. Hillary and his companion Tenzing Norgay reached the peak in 1953. There is some controversy, however, that another man named George Mallory was actually the first to reach the summit. Mallory's climb occurred nearly 30 years earlier, but was never confirmed because he did not survive the descent.

The Federal Reserve announced its expectation not to raise short-term interest rates any more in 2019, reflecting a more subdued forecast for economic growth in the remainder of the year.  Previously, the Fed had indicated that it expected to hike short term rates by a quarter percentage point twice more in 2019.  The current Fed Funds target rate will remain at 2.25-2.5%.  [1]

Martin Walsh attended the Barron’s Team Summit in Las Vegas in early February.  The conference is an invitation-only event, aimed at recognizing the achievements of the top financial advisors in the United States.  Mark R. Brown has been a perennially leader in Colorado atop the Barron’s Top 1,200 Advisors list.

In a world of increasing complexity and unprecedented technological advancement, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. As a result, simplification can be a real gift. Ask anyone who has recently tried to research and enroll in health care benefits, and they will gladly accept an expert’s offer to simplify all of it.

The question of when to file for Social Security benefits is a frequent topic of conversation with our clients.  Even with ultra-high net worth clients, the value of the income stream from Social Security is large enough to warrant a careful discussion.  Indeed, the capitalized value of an inflation-adjusted income stream that pays several thousand dollars per month for the rest of someone’s life is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

One of the most common descriptions of financial planners and advisors is that we are problem solvers. But while it is certainly true that advisors need to be able to solve problems for clients, we would argue that the value of problem solving is not what it used to be. The greater value an advisor can provide is to correctly anticipate problems before they occur. We call this “upfront hindsight.”

Historically, financial advisors have tended to think of two broad categories of investors: do-it-yourselfers and delegators. Delegators tend to seek out advice and are willing to pay for it. Whereas, DIY types are less inclined to see the value of wealth advice and, therefore, are less willing to hire someone to help them. That’s the theory, anyway, but we’ve found that this type of categorization can be misleading.

We see a very common fact pattern among retired couples, a potential pitfall that can lead to unintended consequences if not planned for appropriately.  Often, a husband has been the primary breadwinner for a family and has been the dominant decision maker on most financial decisions of consequence.  These financial decisions include hiring a wealth advisor and making investment decisions on behalf of himself and his family.  It is an arrangement that can go unquestioned for decades.  The problem is: what if a husband pre-deceases his wife?  Will she be properly cared for with a well-conceived plan?

As technology has improved and it has become increasingly easier to open accounts and invest money in a diversified portfolio, people are often asking whether financial advice is worth paying for.  Or, more specifically, what is the value of financial advice?

There has been much doom and gloom predicted for the stock market looking ahead to 2019, at least in some corners of the investment world.  Much of the volatility in the market that we witnessed at the end of 2018, and the ensuing pessimism from investors, is predicated on a potential economic recession for the U.S. and global economies.  And there is no doubt that if a severe recession were to be anticipated in the United States, that the stock market would suffer.

Intermediate and long-term interest rates have fallen significantly in the past few months. For those who have yet to lock in long-term mortgage financing on their home, the recent decline in yields represents a new opportunity to lower their monthly mortgage payment.

Going back to World War II, there have been 14 bear markets, with 7 of them accompanied by a U.S. economic recession and 7 during economic expansions. The recessionary bear markets were quite painful for stock investors, with an average S&P 500 decline of 37%.

Mark Brown and the Brown and Company team attended a luncheon with Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in Denver on November 28^th.  Dr. Bernanke is now an advisor to PIMCO, one of the largest fixed income managers in the world.  The lunch was a forum put on by PIMCO in order to better understand Chairman Bernanke’s current insights on the markets.  It was a very interesting lunch and it was particularly exciting to hear Chairman Bernanke’s thoughts about the financial markets, interest rates and politics from the seat of a private citizen.  David Braun, a fixed income portfolio manager at PIMCO, joined Chairman Bernanke on stage to ask questions and engage in a dialog.

Crude oil has officially entered into a bear market, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices down over 20% from their highs in early October.  The selloff in oil was as drastic as it was sudden.  Prices have approached $50 per barrel of WTI, the lowest price since November of 2017.  What happened to oil and why did the move occur so suddenly?

We are a nation of procrastinators, at least with respect to charitable giving.  Indeed, a very large percentage of charitable giving occurs According to the National Philanthropic Trust, 30% of all charitable gifts in the United States are given in December.  Further, more than 10% of giving is done in the last two days of each calendar year.  So it is very likely that you may have some last minute charitable giving to do between now and year-end.