Blog

31 Mar 2017 Are We Talking the Same Language?

Posted at 15:01h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

The financial services industry, like the medical industry, the marketing industry, and the automotive industry, all have their their unique shorthand terms and abbreviations that are clear to insiders, but confuse and obscure understanding for outsiders. It's called 'the curse of knowledge.' Jane Kennedy defines the curse of knowledge as "a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand."

24 Mar 2017 The Danger of Not Knowing What You Don’t Know

Posted at 11:41h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

You just bought a new laptop and learned that its operating system doesn't run your most important software. Someone is going to get a very nice birthday present. You're stuck in traffic. After all your research and planning, you're going to miss your vacation flight.

17 Mar 2017 Legislation – It’s Back for Better or Worse

Posted at 12:23h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

This is how's it's done folks - legislation is actually happening. It's been so long since we've seen Congress work, no one; including the media, the talking heads, the guy in the street, even many congressmen and women, really know what to think or how to act.

10 Mar 2017 What are Jobs Telling Us?

Posted at 10:08h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

The US added 235,000 jobs in February, nearly 20% more than expected by economists. Unemployment fell to 4.7%, even as the number of Americans rejoining the workforce, measured by the labor participation rate, increased.

03 Mar 2017 How Does Your Investment Portfolio Compare to the Yale Endowment’s?

Posted at 14:08h in The Friday Brief by Jared Korver, CPA, CFP®

Two of the most important aspects of a good investment philosophy can be summed up by the following questions. 1) Is this strategy likely to work? 2) Will I be able to stick with this strategy for long periods of time throughout the inevitable ups and down of the stock market? At Beacon, we have a thoughtful, well-defined investment philosophy that we think answers both of the above questions in the affirmative.

24 Feb 2017 Thought Determines Behavior

Posted at 14:40h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Socrates said that thought determines behavior, so it follows that if we want to improve our behavior, we should improve our thoughts. How do we do that? Our brain is the most powerful and complex organ in our body. It can accomplish wonderful things when we allow it to work naturally, as it is designed.

17 Feb 2017 “It’s The Economy, Stupid”

Posted at 13:35h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Amidst all the political hysteria, gamesmanship, claims of chaos, in-fighting, and media counter-punching, Mr. Trump would be wise take to heart James Carville's 1992 winning campaign slogan for Bill Clinton's presidential run to defeat President George H. W. Bush - "it's the economy, stupid." Rather than insult, the phrase is intended to be an admonition not to underestimate the importance of the economy in every policy and political decision a president makes.

03 Feb 2017 New Trump Executive Orders Have the Financial Services Industry Cheering

Posted at 12:31h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Today Mr. Trump signed an order that will dismantle or reduce a Labor Department rule introduced a year ago that holds brokers and insurance agents who work with retirement savings to a higher standard, known as the fiduciary standard. It requires financial professionals to work in the best interests of their clients, avoiding as many conflicts as possible and to clearly disclose any conflicts that do exist.

27 Jan 2017 The ‘New Anything But Normal’

Posted at 13:21h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008, in 2010, PIMCO CEO Mohamed A. El-Erian delivered a lecture entitled "Navigating the New Normal in Industrial Countries." The thrust of his talk was to warn investors, economists, and policy makers not to expect, as many did, economic growth to return to pre-crisis levels. The extent of damage done to the economy through an increasing drag of reactionary regulations and skyrocketing government debt, not to mention distrust of the system would take years, or decades to reverse.

20 Jan 2017 45: Seachange

Posted at 11:52h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

With today's presidential inauguration, we embark on a social, political, market, and economic journey arguably unlike any we've ever seen in our lifetimes or in the history of this country. The degree of disappointment and hurt on one side is balanced by joy and hope on the other. We will likely see and hear equal amounts of both for weeks and months time to come.