Category: Wealth Management
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$100,000,000,000,000 (Wealth Inequity in America)
One hundred trillion dollars. That’s the total net worth of all Americans in 2017*. It’s a staggering number. For practical discussion purposes, we might say that figure is the net worth of rich Americans. The top 160,000 households (one tenth of one percent) control a quarter of this wealth. About half of all this U.S. wealth…
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“Putting America First”
This week the president-elect said “My agenda will be based on a simple core principle, putting America first”. Perhaps no single sentence could state so succinctly what is wrong with Trump’s thinking. This strategy may have worked well in building a real estate empire but it is just as likely to lead to disaster, tragedy,…
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New study give insights to ‘Upper Middle Class’
A new study released last month by Urban Institute titled “The Growing Size and Incomes of the Upper Middle Class” by Stephen J. Rose investigates shifts in household income in the United States. The most obvious conclusion is that the portion of Rich and Middle Upper class households have grown sharply over the past 25 years while…
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“Could crowdfunding be the next big investment scandal?”
British newspapers are buzzing this week with headlines like “Could crowdfunding be the next big investment scandal?” Let’s be clear about a few things here in the U.S: The reference to “investment” means that we are discussing equity crowdfunding. This is different from most types of crowdfunding that you’ve heard or read about. Buying stock…
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Crowdfunding data on small business equity financings
I took time last night to analyze newly released data from the first 50 (more or less) small business equity crowdfunding deals completed in the United States. Some interesting trends are emerging that have significance for investors and issuers; I’m sure I’ll have more to say soon.
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The demand for alternative investments
Establishing a safe stream of investment income has been a significant challenge for investors and the challenge is expanding. The Wall Street Journal today reports “There is now $13 trillion of global negative-yielding debt, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. That compares with $11 trillion before the Brexit vote, and barely none with a…
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Bala Cynwyd investment scam hits close to home
Hardly a week goes by that I don’t read about some homeowner being defrauded by an unscrupulous building contractor or an elderly person being lured into an investment scam. I’ve written and talked about dozens of such schemes over the past three decades. Yet year after year the stories keep coming. The latest incident occurs…
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Testing a new social media marketing message
I plan to test a new social media marketing message in this last week of June. The volume of incoming phone calls to my office that I rely upon to keep my practice in operation has dropped off since the end of tax season. This is partly due to seasonal variation but I also sense that…
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How to copy Trump’s financial success
Comedian Steve Martin did a routine in the late 1970s on “how to be a millionaire”. A million dollars seemed to be a lot more money back then and a worthy goal for many. The January 21, 1978 skit on Saturday Night Live was performed for all of America: “You can be a millionaire and never pay taxes!…