Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Are you saying that you have to work harder to get the data (e.g. by doing a point by point comparison rather than having the comparisons aggregated)? Or that some data is completely inaccessible?
What more data did you want, and have you looke…
My point was that few would even consider starting down such a path because of tax law changes this decade. I don't see the value in information about a path someone wouldn't even think about. It's different for the few, the wealthy, the lawyered-…
What is it you want to compare?
Price movement? Just below the bolded name of the company on the left is a link: Show Full Chart. This shows you a popup price graph with a comparison box for other stocks.
Total returns? Use the comparison to…
The narrative will actually benefit relatively few - only the wealthy - and virtually none in Georgia.
The clue is the use of the term "Trust B". What was constructed here was an A/B bypass trust. This is a tax maneuver designed to reduce esta…
I meant that the Schedule D stamp appears to be more sloppy editing, not that it really was that old.
I'm sure the IRS is under tremendous pressure to release draft forms - both from the administration that feverishly wants to demonstrate how mu…
This isn't their first cut. I remember posting somewhere a blow by blow description of where the old lines were moved. Nearly no line was eliminated, just moved to new forms so that the 1040 could look like a postcard.
This version looks worse.…
I'd been holding these in my back pocket (meant to post, hadn't gotten around to it):
Ed Slott's column from a month ago:
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/irs-finally-says-back-door-roth-s-are-ok-39697.html
Yale Law and Policy Review, Spring 2017, Slam…
The key reason as I understand it was to keep the trust assets separate from his so if he ever got divorced his wife wouldn't be entitled to anything that he hadn't withdrawn previously.A trust certainly serves that purpose, but isn't necessary to a…
@catch22 - You wrote: "I had hoped for posts about methods being used by others here, that are considered of value to protect family assets through inheritance."
What I tried to do was not post what I'm doing, but rather respond to the question …
Most of these wrap accounts seem pretty similar, and as davidrmoran noted, the fee is typical. So what follows is not a criticism of Merrill Lynch in particular, so much as observations about these plans in general. They do work well for many peo…
I'm not fond of trusts. They have their uses, but IMHO have been oversold. If the sole purpose is to control assets after death, then one might use a testamentary trust rather than an inter vivos trust (living trust), depending on how long the trus…
I've become rather disenchanted with bonds and consequently find the paper's arguments less than persuasive. In part because I question why, at least for long term investors, volatility should even matter. Long term a pure stock portfolio wins out…
Usually one reads about what to do when one leaves an employer. Basically, roll it over (into an IRA or another employer plan), take the cash, or leave it there. But one usually doesn't think about what happens to the money that one leaves there,…
MikeW,
Will you be able to keep the Thrift Savings Plan?
Often, at retirement, these plans can no longer be contributed to and may also have to be transferred out of the Thrift Savings Plan. This was the case for a relative who work for a governme…
" When he says “Roths,” he's talking about Roth conversions as opposed to Roth contributions."
This is largely an artificial distinction. If one shouldn't be converting to a Roth, then one shouldn't be contributing to a Roth either. This is bec…
Thanks Ted. If one uses that to look at rolling ten year periods (there are 81), in 65 of them stocks (S&P 500) outperform 10 year Treasuries and 3 month Treasuries, in 9 of them the 10 years outperform, and in 7 of them cash (3 month T-bill) …
"Morningstar rates its sustainability to be in the top two percent of its category."
That seems like a bit of a non sequitur. I mean it's correct, and would make a lot of sense bringing up in the thread on PRBLX (ESG funds in general). But here,…
While FDSWX isn't my cup of tea, it doesn't look to be an especially bad fund. As you noted, its performance this year has been particularly poor.
If you exclude this year, its five year return (i.e. from Jan 2013 to Dec 2017) is very good. …
@LewisBraham - thanks for the links to Walden. WSBFX doesn't work for me - I prefer to keep bonds and stocks separate, both for control over asset allocation and for ease of tapping less volatile assets. But I might consider something like WAMFX…
"Ah, poor WFC, then, unfairly singled out in headlines."
Hard to tell what you're communicating here. Is it that you find WF isn't worse than the others, it's just that if one doesn't read past the headlines one might get this mistaken impression…
You're starting with an unsubstantiated assumption - that the perfect screen must not already include an ESG filter. That can be deduced that from your statement that adding an ESG filter results in a "narrower universe of stocks". Not "no wider"…
Slate, Grifter or Grafter?, A new parlor game that explains Trumpworld.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/trumps-white-house-can-be-divided-into-grifters-and-grafters.html
WF failed to offer mortgage modifications to 625 homeowners because of an error in computing attorneys' fees. Sure we can consider this as evidence of how bad WF was in processing modifications, regardless of whether the causes were intent or plai…
Phony accounts:Wells Fargo isn't the only bank where heavy sales pressure led employees to open fake accounts.
A federal review triggered by the Wells Fargo scandal found that "weaknesses" at other banks led employees to open accounts without proo…
It's like investing in a fund of hedge funds, in the sense that you're not investing directly in the funds (often you can't), and the funds in turn are investing in equity that you generally can't directly invest in either.
Which is why the fact th…
For some reason FSMEX, FSRPX & PRNHX received no love ...The "some reason" was the imposition of a 0.70% ER cutoff. That appears designed to exclude all but Vanguard (and the Odyssey Primecap "spin-offs"), American, and (some) Fidelity funds.
…
Investment News seems to be putting out a bunch of top 12 (or whatever) funds. Here, it's "best-performing", not "some of the best performing". I guess I don't understand their criteria, because ISTM there are several funds that belong among the…
All of which should go away in a few weeks with a completely different back end. Then you'll have a whole new set of problems to discover. :-)
Regarding Fidelity account updating, my experience is that the Fidelity account pages are updated promp…
The latest tax proposal - to tax only inflation adjusted cap gains - is projected to give 97% of its benefit to the top 10% income earners (according to the Penn-Wharton Budget Model).
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-capital-gains-inflation-i…
When Fidelity first started full view, I talked with their tech dept to ask whether Yodlee was providing the service or whether Fidelity was operating the system in-house behind Fidelity's firewalls. They told me the latter.
I'm not certain wheth…
Much of this trend is by design. That sharp drop in the 90s came when tax laws were changed so that corporations could no longer deduct executive compensation above $1M, except if it was in the form of pay for performance such as stock options. T…
Honestly, I haven't given it that much thought. Though I do draw a distinction between amoral and immoral.
A board member at a small startup where I once worked later committed (and was convicted of) first degree murder. I was rather surprised w…
Credit cards used to be issued by neighborhood banks. My first credit card when I started working and it was hard to get credit was with Gary-Wheaton Bank. I appreciated that and kept the card out of loyalty even after moving away. So I was you…
Frame of reference is important. I've already given examples of poor handling of paperwork by insurers. I could give several others. So I tend to discount complaints like #3.
Edit: the rest is a complete rewrite. @LewisBraham didn't post the…
Trademarking "Boston" does seem absurd, but then there's the Kentucky trademark. A finger linkin' good story. And why we're seeing Colonel Sanders again.
But we both digress.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kfc-and-fried/
https://statuteofr…
Tip on USPTO - you can't link directly, because there's a session ID embedded in the URL and your session expires. I'll assume you looked the same place I did - trademark database search, wordmarks, live&dead entries for Laetrile.
Session st…
It occurred to me that, as with "Medicare for All", we may not be speaking the same language when it comes to "single payer". @Crash seems to be using it to mean where the money comes from (taxes, the government). I apologize if I'm misreading o…
