Beacon Wealthcare |

10 Apr 2025 Uncertainty, Optimism, and Pausing Tariffs

Posted at 13:30h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

On December 31st, 2024, Karen Langley wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled, "Stocks Cap Best Two Years in a Quarter Century," which feels like it could have been written a quarter century ago. As I start to write this (it's Wednesday morning),...

06 Mar 2025 What’s the ROI of Working With a Financial Advisor?

Posted at 07:05h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

Over the years, there have been a few attempts to quantify the value of working with a financial advisor. Clearly, not an easy task. Clients are different, financial advisors are different. That variability makes measurement difficult. In 2001, Vanguard published a paper titled Vanguard's Advisor...

06 Feb 2025 The Future of Social Security

Posted at 13:35h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

It's no secret that Social Security is in trouble. For years, the annual report prepared by the Board of Trustees for the Federal OASDI (Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) program has warned us that the trust fund that bridges the gap between benefits paid...

12 Dec 2024 2025 Contribution Amounts, Tax Bracket Changes, and Social Security Increases

Posted at 20:32h in The Friday Brief by Ryan Smith, CFP®, RICP®, CTS™, MSFP

We are close to year-end so we wanted to provide an update on 2025 tax brackets, Social Security benefits, and retirement plan contribution amounts. In addition, certain provisions of the SECURE Act 2.0 take effect next year so be sure to read to the end...