Thursday, February 16, 2012

December 2011 Market and Planning Update

PLANNING COMMENTARY

Our end of year practice always includes a revisit of key assumptions used in client wealth planning.  We would like to provide a very brief summary of the assumption changes we are implementing for 2012.  Note that these long-term assumptions are being used over a typical clients planning time horizon and are illustrations of what we anticipate prospectively versus simply a measure of what has happened in the past.  READ MORE


INVESTMENT COMMENTARY
We entered 2011 with much hope and promise since the economy was showing signs of continued improvement.  However, extreme volatility took over last year due to Japan’s Tsunami, Libya and other middle-east unrest, a spike in oil prices, Europe’s debt crisis resurfaced, fears of another recession lingered, Congress continued its dysfunctional ways and then the U.S. credit rating was downgraded.  Through all this unrest, our economy showed tremendous resilience.  Investors are pleading for a smoother and much calmer market for 2012.  Unfortunately, we’re not likely to have that.  Uncertainty continues so we’d expect more volatility in the markets.  READ MORE