Directed Trust Arrangements
Directed Trust Arrangements When clients are considering trusts as part of a plan to manage assets, one issue that can emerge is a client’s prior negative experience with trust companies. Some clients, whether by way of being the beneficiary of a trust, or when they worked with a trust company on behalf of a minor…
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The Earnings Bar is High for Corporate America
The Earnings Bar is High for Corporate America Stocks entered a cyclical bear market in 2022, and perhaps for good reason. Yes, interest rates were on the rise. Yes, valuations in 2021 were extended and needed to cool off. Yes, geopolitical turmoil and inflation weighed on the market’s collective mind. Yes, economists were practically unanimous…
Quarterly Client Letter: Q2 2024
Quarterly Client Letter: Q2 2024 When you find a truly wonderful business, stick with it. Patience pays, and one wonderful business can offset the many mediocre decisions that are inevitable. -Warren Buffett We were pleased to see that the five most profitable companies of the Fortune 500, based on profits generated in 2023, were, in…
Hardware is Eating the World
Hardware is Eating the World “While the hardware and software layers in technology are mutually dependent, the location of talent and resources across their respective ecosystems is not static.” In 2011, Marc Andreesen famously wrote that “software is eating the world”. It’s a fun article to read 13 years on. Consider just how voracious software’s…
My Personal Approach to Budgeting
My Personal Approach to Budgeting For years, I struggled with implementing an effective budgeting tool, drowning in the minutia of expense categorization. Should Chipotle go into Restaurants or Fast Food? Or maybe Fast Casual? Turns out, the correct category probably should have been, “Who cares?” Rather than trying to categorize every single expense, which in…
Inherited IRAs and the 10-Year Rule: Beware of Potential Tax Consequences in the Future
Inherited IRAs and the 10-Year Rule: Beware of Potential Tax Consequences in the Future If you have inherited an IRA after 2019 from a non-spouse, it is highly likely you are subject to the rule under the SECURE Act (passed in December 2019) forcing beneficiaries to distribute the entire account within 10 years. There are…
Quarterly Client Letter: Q1 2024
Therefore, we are prepared for a very broad range of interest rates, from 2% to 8% or even more, with equally wide-ranging economic outcomes — from strong economic growth with moderate inflation (in this case, higher interest rates would result from higher demand for capital) to a recession with inflation; i.e., stagflation. Jamie Dimon, Chairman…
Stock Review: Fortinet (FTNT)
Stock Review: Fortinet (FTNT) We recently added Fortinet (FTNT) to our model stock portfolio*. FTNT is a leading cybersecurity company based in the U.S. with over 700,000 customers worldwide. In 2023, they generated $1.7 billion of free cash flow on revenues of $5.3 billion. FTNT is characteristic of the businesses that we like to own: They have an incredible…
What Is Money For?
What Is Money For? Shelby Cullom Davis got his start in the stock market in the early 1940’s on the heels of the Great Depression. He bought equities on the cheap at a time when other investors had given up on the stock market and just as the United States emerged as the world’s most…
Death, Taxes, and Identity Theft
Death, Taxes, and Identity Theft Although Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote on the certainty of death and taxes didn’t include the risk of identity theft, it would be fitting in today’s world. Every year, identity thieves attempt to pilfer billions in federal withholdings from unsuspecting individuals. It has become crucial for taxpayers to exercise extra vigilance,…
Quarterly Client Letter: Q4 2023
“I think that a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time.” Charlie Munger, 2017 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Investing in financial markets is a constant education. A year ago, a Bloomberg survey of economists forecasted a 65% probability of recession for 2023. As the year progressed, there were plenty of reasons…
Obsessing Over Interest Rates
Obsessing Over Interest Rates “The theory of interest bears a close resemblance to the theory of prices, of which, in fact, it is a special aspect. The rate of interest expresses a price in the exchange between present and future goods. Just as, in the ordinary theory of prices, the ratio of exchange of any…
You Only Have to Get Rich Once
You Only Have to Get Rich Once Charlie Munger recently appeared on the Acquired Podcast. Needless to say, we are fans of Munger and recommend listening to the full interview. The interviewers asked Charlie what advice he would give to young people today. Charlie was, unsurprisingly, quite modest in his response. He spent considerable time…