Blog

Too often, estate planning has been dominated by tax issues.  With the recently increased exemption amounts, fewer families will have to write a check to Uncle Sam upon the passing of a loved one.  However, challenges still exist that are not focused on mitigating taxes. Avoiding Probate.  Probate is the court-supervised process of transferring property from a decedent’s estate to the named heirs.  Much has been made of the...

It’s looking hopeful that the IRA Charitable Rollover could be brought back for 2014… Read this article on Forbes    ...

Financial planning brings with it a wide range of concerns,but according to a recent study, saving for retirement remains chief among them. Gallup's most recent Economy and Personal Finance poll, released April 22, revealed that 59 percent of Americans were either "very worried" or "moderately worried" about not being able to comfortably retire. That majority affirmed retirement savings' place atop the list of financial worries, of which there were...

Global equity markets were generally positive in the 1^st quarter of 2014.  After a weak start in January, February was strong and March added further to gains for the quarter, albeit that nearly all the March gains came on the very last business day of the month.  There were a couple surprises in the quarter.  Real estate, which was only modestly positive for all of 2013 while other equity asset...

At Foster Group, we love talking with our clients about charitable giving, gifting to kids or grandkids, or anything else related to generosity. Some find that unusual for a financial advisor – but we understand it’s really an important part of any successful financial plan. Recently, Carl Richards shared some thoughts about a succinct post from author Seth Godin that I thought was great! We want to help our clients have...

What's your measurement? “Our worries – when it comes to money – are about psychology as much as economics, the soul as much as the bank balance.” John Armstrong, How to Worry Less About Money 2012 and 2013 were such good years for US stock investors that some of us can begin to forget what large losses feel like. In recent conversations with physician investors, especially younger ones, I've been posing the question, “How...

Password security is a huge concern to many, especially after the national Target security breech and now the newest website security issue, the Heartbleed Bug.  This concern was identified last week and has to do with the website security mechanism called OpenSSL.  OpenSSL was designed to prevent hackers from retrieving personaldata submitted by users to a particular website. Foster Group wants...