Our Taxpaying ‘Golden Hour’ Won’t Last: These 4 Urgent Moves Can Help Insulate Your Wealth Before It’s Too Late
As posted by Kiplinger For most Americans, the weeks and months following Tax Day are characterized by a collective sigh of relief. Returns are submitted, checks are cut, and paperwork is filed away for another year. This year, complacency is a risk you can’t afford. As a wealth planner, I view our current environment as […]
The Illusion of Protection: An Unborrowed HELOC Won’t Shield a Home’s Equity
As published in Rethinking65 As wealth managers, we frequently hear clients propose creative strategies to shield their assets from potential litigation. One concept that surfaces regularly is the idea of setting up a home equity line of credit (HELOC) on a primary residence — but leaving it completely unborrowed—to protect the home’s equity. The theory […]
Week of March 29, 2026 – Weekly Economic Commentary
The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has gained considerable attention recently with a forecast for US inflation in 2026 well above 4% as a result of escalating oil prices and other consequences of the Iranian war. This forecast was contained in an interim economic outlook formulated sometime after the start of the conflict and published […]
Proposed “Millionaires Tax”: Should Washington Residents Worry?
Approved by the state legislature this month, Washington’s proposed Millionaires Tax would impose a 9.9% levy on household income exceeding $1 million annually. The bill will become law in April unless Governor Bob Ferguson vetoes it. Critically, the tax applies only to earnings above that threshold – not total income. If a household earns $1,000,500, only $500 […]
Strait of Hormuz: Risk Markets Veer Off the Straight and Narrow
U.S. equity indexes finished lower in a volatile week shaped by geopolitical tensions and resulting volatility in oil prices, persistent inflation concerns, and a somewhat hawkish interpretation of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy signals. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fared worst, declining 2.11%, followed by the Nasdaq Composite, which shed 2.07%. The S&P MidCap 400 Index held up best but […]
Week of March 22, 2026 – Weekly Economic Commentary
As we enter week four of the Middle East War, with interest rate decisions by the Bank of England, the ECB (European Central Bank), and the Federal Reserve all recently put behind us (all of them choosing to leave rates unchanged) the near-term focus is on oil and gas prices and the Strait of Hormuz. […]
Monitoring Inflation Shock Potentially Transitioning to Growth Shock
Executive Summary The S&P 500 fell for the third week in a row, with the Nasdaq down eight times in the last nine weeks. The dollar strengthened against the major currencies as investors moved toward safer assets and ended at its strongest level of the year albeit still down year over year. Rising oil prices […]
Week of March 15, 2026 – Weekly Economic Commentary
Data availability is critical to financial markets, economists and businesses and data can come from many organizations, including but not-exclusively agencies of the Federal Government. A number of well-established industries have created surveys and other forms of data collection with long track records; some examples are residential construction National Association of Home Builders Index), autos (the Michigan Survey of […]
Market Leadership Broadens as Rotation Continues
Executive Summary The S&P 500 Index declined -0.8% in February, but the headline masked broad underlying strength. The equal-weighted S&P 500 gained +3.5%, Large Cap Value rose +2.6%, and the Russell 2000 added +0.8%, as the rotation toward smaller and more value-oriented companies continued. In contrast, Large Cap Growth declined -3.4% and the Nasdaq fell -2.3% as […]
Week of March 1, 2026 – Weekly Economic Commentary
The extremely valid question regarding the impact of war in the Middle East on the global economy simply cannot be well-answered at this time. Several immediate areas of concern are clear — oil and gas supplies and prices, transportation flows and costs in the Red Sea (headed to the Suez Canal) and the Persian Gulf (Straits of Hormuz), and […]
AI Disruption Pauses While the US Economy Remains Resilient
Executive Summary Last week, the S&P 500 returned +1.0%. Markets continued to be whipsawed as traders assess the impact of AI across a number of industries; oil rose and perceived inflation risks kept a lid on bond prices as the U.S. continues a substantial military buildup in the Middle East. Late in the week, the U.S. Supreme Court […]
Key Data Delays and Investor Priorities: What to Watch This Week
Data releases from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — and from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which uses BLS economists and staffers to prepare some of its data — continue to be erratic and uncertain. The very short partial government shutdown last week, as a result of the fight over budget appropriations for ICE, interrupted and delayed […]