Author: News Room

Fed Using The Wrong Rulebook When the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates to fight inflation two years ago, I worried. My professor alarm flashed red; the tactic it seemed to be using—to create a recession to discipline workers—is flawed, costly and outdated. Workers’ wages have lagged productivity for decades, as the Economic Policy Institute has faithfully reported. This is because employers have power to set wages. They aren’t the passive agents you learned about in baby economics class operating on a knife edge to keep prices at a minimum and forced to pay market wages. Employers protect profits by…

We have recently collaborated with KPMG Private Enterprise to create the Family Office Compensation Benchmark Report 2023. From our surveys, we found that a hefty 40% of Family Offices worldwide do not have an Investment Committee. Investment is at the core of a Family Office. While many Family Offices have their dedicated team of investment professionals that manage their investment portfolios, the importance of an Investment Committee is often overlooked in the Family Office world. This article discusses the importance of an Investment Committee and provides insight into why your Family Office may need it. An Investment Committee refers to…

When families suddenly find themselves with a massive influx of cash due to a liquidity event, like the sale of a business, receiving a large inheritance, or simply find that their growing wealth exceeds their ability to manage it internally, they may decide it’s time to join a multi-family office. Multi-family offices handle the wealth administration of ultra-high-net-worth families and typically are either a registered investment advisor, which is regulated by the SEC, or a trust company, regulated by the states. Due to the growing ranks of wealthy individuals and families in recent years, many financial services firms are now…

We’re in an interesting time, financially speaking, with a unique set of financial circumstances. There’s likely an inverse relationship between your cash accounts and your mortgage. A decent, high-yield savings account is somewhere around 4% APR, and if you were able to lock in a low interest rate years ago, you may have a rate as low as 3.125% or somewhere in there. It’s an unusual environment where savings accounts are yielding a better return than a 30-year mortgage. This was the beauty of those low interest rates a few years ago, it allowed many to take advantage and lock…

Many advisors in your firm may believe the best way to deliver personalized service to high-value clients is to be as “hands on” as possible. That often translates into spending lots of time constructing, monitoring and adjusting portfolios for important clients. While it may seem oxymoronic at first, the automation that technology provides can actually enhance the personalization and “high-touch” service that advisors want to deliver. Advisors sometimes have doubts about how easy implementing new technologies will be. Still, you can make a compelling case that the right technological solutions enable advisors to spend more time on the areas of…

The IRS has released its strategic operating plan for spending $80 billion in extra funding over the next decade. Here’s a look at what it does—and doesn’t—include. What’s Not Included When flipping through what the IRS calls an “ambitious effort to transform the tax agency and dramatically improve service to taxpayers and the nation during the next decade,” it might help to know what’s not in the plan. There is no 87,000 agents statistic-that-wasn’t. In fact, the report is surprisingly scant on numbers. That may well be purposeful—newly installed IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has made clear that he intends to…

A new report by data analytics provider CoreLogic reveals in many ways a tale of two very different housing markets. At one extreme, the West is slowing, and at the other extreme, the East is rising. Even as home prices grew for the 133rd straight month in February, the 4.4% increase still was nothing to write home about. That’s because it was the lowest recorded since 2019. Eight states and districts recorded annual home price losses, with much of the depreciation seen in the relatively expensive West, including California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Utah. The recent wave of layoffs at…

A gated 75-acre estate in the heart of Bedminster, New Jersey, hunt country can accommodate an array of equestrian pursuits, with multiple riding arenas and thoughtfully designed modern barns surrounded by meticulously detailed landscaping. The property draws inevitable comparisons to world-class equestrian properties in Lexington, Kentucky, and Wellington and Ocala, Florida, said Sharon Ortepio of Turpin Realtors, the listing agent for the estate. The design aesthetic merges modern architecture with a traditional feel. Standout facilities include a 20,000-square-foot indoor riding hall designed by Beyer Blinder Belle that features skylights that span the length of the arena, retractable windows, free-span trusses…

It’s a bit early in 2023 to talk about record real estate prices, yet here we are. A 10-acre estate in Southern California’s prestigious Rolling Hills Estates recently sold for $12.5 million, the highest home price on the Palos Verdes Peninsula so far in 2023. The home on Georgeff Road was snapped up in one day. “The first person who saw it bought it — full price,” says selling agent Suzanne Dyer of Strand Hill Properties. The ranch-style home behind gates in Rolling Hills Estates is a sprawling hilltop property in the middle of horse country. Residents have access to…

A Westport home located between the beach and downtown was reimagined by a design and build team. They transformed the turn-of-the-last-century Dutch Colonial into a modern farmhouse with luxurious updates while retaining the original charm. The team of designer Bob Costanza, architect Doug Cutler and builder Oscar Leal of Beachwalk Homes worked together to keep the original foundation and curved roofline, and added modern wings to the footprint, expanding the home to 5,400 square feet. An oversized porch wraps around the main level, with a foyer that leads to a large great room with a gas fireplace and 20-foot cathedral…