Blog

Took Their Ball and Went Home: Staying in Play with Job-Creators

Valentine’s Day was tough on New Yorkers who hoped to benefit from the more than 20,000 new jobs from Amazon’s move there (not to mention all the additional jobs from construction and supporting the new employees). For others, the event is the hoped-for moment where the relative power of corporations, governments and labor shifts back to governments and possibly labor. Expect those who protested against Amazon’s breaks to be disappointed. Instead, the move will be seen as evidence of corporations continuing to gain strength. Read more

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Changed Things More Than You Realize

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made a lot of changes. It was the single largest tax reform bill in nearly 30 years. However, the impact of the TCJA might be a lot broader than most realize. Almost every small business owner in the country is impacted by a new tax deduction called 199A. Read more

Is your pet worth $8,000?

By Doug Gjerde

I was surprised by this story. As I thought about it longer I was reminded that old dogs (me) can learn new tricks.

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Digital Assets – You Already Own Some, Whether You Know What They Are Or Not

By Jamie Hopkins

Recently I gave a presentation to a large group, over 300 in attendance. I asked the group, “How many of you own a digital currency?” Only about three or four hands went up. I was shocked. Read more

7 Year-End Planning Tips from a Wealth Planner

Published by Mark Petersen, Vice President Affluent Wealth Planning

The holidays are upon us, so that must mean it’s time for year-end income tax planning, right? In the past, I would have said yes, but that changed 12 months ago when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 was passed. Read more

The 4 Pitfalls of No Plan

There are some things in life you just can’t plan for: an unexpected illness, job loss, death of spouse, disability…While these major events can impact your life, having an effective game plan can help ensure that it doesn’t ruin your financial well-being. Read more

Improving The Traditionally Allocated Portfolio

Published by Tyler Schlumpf

We’re going to introduce a few mathematical concepts in this article that are crucial to building a portfolio. For those that are already moving their cursor up to the X in the right hand corner, just stick with it! These concepts, whether we choose to learn them or not, have a significant impact on the way we combine investments and are important to understand as we discuss portfolio construction. Read more

4 Simple Steps to Creating an Estate Plan

Published by Beth Schanou, JD

Most of the time, it feels like life is moving at the speed of light. I often feel my entire day, both at home and at the office, is spent in fast forward mode. As if it’s a race to get done as much as possible, I’m running from one thing to the next, all day long, and making sure every household member is fed, cared for, and attends school and their activities. Of course this includes the four-legged members of the family too. Read more

4 Easy Ways to Diversify Your Investments

Published By Jake Bleicher, Equity Analyst

The benefit diversified investments has for a portfolio is simple, in theory. It reduces the impact any individual investment has on the portfolio, and proper diversification can help mitigate losses during a market downturn. In practice however, portfolios can become a large hodgepodge of various assets rather than a methodical allocation. The key is to reduce the correlation between assets so that they generally perform independent of one another. Read more

5 Reasons It’s Important to Set Financial Goals

Published by Rob Furlong, Portfolio Manager

The alarm sounded promptly at 1a.m. Shortly after some rustling and grumbling the tent zippers opened and we stepped out into the frigid air. After a quick breakfast, we began heading uphill into the darkness. For the next eight hours life was little more than listening to the ice crunch with each step as we ascended over 5,000 feet into the thinning air. Shortly after 9a.m. we were at 14,200 feet-on top of one of the highest peaks in the Cascade mountain range. Read more