9 Jul 2014

When Interest Rates Rise

With the Federal Reserve now unwinding their bond purchasing program known as quantitative easing, it’s likely that the Fed will start to raise short-term interest rates at the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016 (assuming no new information). Now that we ‘know’ that the Fed will raise rates, what will happen when interest rates rise?  The short answer is that it depends.  I know that’s an unsatisfying answer,… Read More

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30 Jun 2014

Financial Times Top 300 RIAs Includes Acropolis

The Financial Times Top 300 RIAs includes Acropolis in their inaugural ranking! A subscription may be required, but here is the link to the report. When we started out nearly 12 years ago (our anniversary is in August), we received a few accolades from a magazine published by Bloomberg that consistently said that we were one of the fastest growing firms. Still, compared to other firms on the list, we were… Read More

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10 Jun 2014

Prepare for Your Tax Return & Get Better After-Tax Returns

Tax season doesn’t have to be stressful. With the right system, you can gather your documents efficiently, maximize deductions, and even improve your investment strategy to boost after-tax returns. Below, we combine expert guidance on preparing your tax documents with strategies to optimize your portfolio for tax efficiency. Step 1: Create a Tax Document System Tax time doesn’t have to be drudgery. With a simple system, you can gather all… Read More

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9 Jun 2014

Cash is Trash

A recent report by State Street’s Center for Applied Research recently found that individual investors favor cash the world over.  In the US, investors keep 36 percent of their investible assets in cash.  Globally, that’s a little less than average.

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3 Jun 2014

Do Hedge Funds Hedge?

Bloomberg News reported yesterday that the private equity giant KKR was closing down a hedge fund that they formed three years ago.  KKR is one of the largest and most successful private equity firms in the world, but they have struggled to find their way in other areas of the asset management business. The hedge fund, known as KKR Equity Strategies, wasn’t successful attracting assets with only 20 clients investing… Read More

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27 May 2014

Black Swans

One of the justified criticisms of modern finance is that it relies too heavily on the normal distribution curve – also known as the ‘bell curve.’ In fact, there’s a classic joke (that I think I’ve told here before) about the finance professional that has his head in the oven and feet in the freezer, but on average, feels fine. Critics argue that the normal distribution doesn’t capture the true… Read More

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22 May 2014

Bank Loan Risks

Interest rates are low and many investors are worried about rising rates, which can hurt bond prices.  As always, Wall Street has rushed to the aid of investors by creating products to meet this need, just as they did with internet funds in the late 1990s and real estate funds during the bubble. One of the ‘solutions’ that Wall Street has created to meet investor demand is something called a… Read More

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14 May 2014

Dogs of the Dow

The first investment strategy that I can remember hearing about is the Dogs of the Dow strategy. One of my parent’s friends, who knew I was interested in stocks back in high school, told me one of the ‘secrets’ to beating the market. The strategy is fairly simply: start with the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and sort them by their dividend yield.  Buy the 10… Read More

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12 May 2014

IRA Rollover Rule Changes

I am a little embarrassed to admit that there are so many rules about IRAs that I find it difficult to keep them straight and I have to refer back to a guide that I have and constantly have to ask other Acropolitans if I’ve got my facts straight.  There are a lot of rules, even more exceptions and getting it wrong can be costly. A recent IRS ruling highlighted… Read More

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28 Apr 2014

The Trouble with College Savings

As loyal readers know, I am a big fan of 529 savings plans and am a Missouri Most customer on behalf of my two grade school aged daughters. I was reminded of why a high quality education is so important: on average, the unemployment rate declines as education levels increase and incomes increase. The chart shows that for those who didn’t finish high school, the unemployment rate is 11 percent… Read More

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