Author: News Room

There’s a wide variance of life expectancies among the 50 states in the U.S., according to a recent report prepared by Assurance — an insurance technology platform that helps consumers with decisions related to insurance and financial well-being. Figure 1 shows the 10 states with the highest life expectancy, starting with Hawaii. Figure 2 shows the 10 states with the lowest life expectancy, starting with Mississippi. Assurance scoured life expectancy data prepared in January 2023 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With this data, Assurance created several easy-to-understand graphics that offer information about life expectancies. Life Expectancies…

To Doug, the end point was near and clear. He saw retirement within the next three years. With a sparkle in his eye, he pointed to where he and his wife, Sue, were to retire. Looking out, Doug spread his arms as if to hug the distant pine-covered mountains, he declared, “Yep! Sue and I will be retiring to our second home over there near our favorite hiking trails, plenty of fishing, and skiing.” The look of satisfaction on Doug’s face was short lived. Sue, Doug’s wife of 40-plus years, briskly moved from his side, blocking his path, stopping Doug…

For most computer literate elders, online shopping is a great convenience and is usually fine — until something goes wrong. With an aging parent who is a little confused, or who has memory problems, online purchases can become a trap. While most purchases go as planned, one can understand that sometimes the wrong thing is delivered or what is paid for doesn’t arrive. Sometimes all too much arrives and no one stops it. The aging parent who has a little trouble keeping track of things will not know how to address these things successfully. They may be baffled by return…

Why are there significant differences in U.S. life expectancies by state? Answers to this question can potentially be found by digging into the underlying influences on this basic measurement of well-being in a broad population. The life expectancies discussed in this post were published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January 2023 and collected by Assurance, an insurance technology platform. Below are the top 10 and bottom 10 states by life expectancy according to this set of rankings: Top 10 States By Life Expectancy 1. Hawaii (80.7 years) 2. Washington (79.2 years) 3. Minnesota (79.1 years) 4.…

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…