WrapManager's Wealth Management Blog

The Bottom Line Uncertainty about Brexit’s impact may have rippled through financial markets, but so far the biggest economies in continental Europe seem to have taken it in stride. The latest PMI data—reflecting purchasing managers’ answers to a range of questions about business conditions—suggests growth could continue expanding at a slow but steady pace. Coming in at 53.3, the Eurozone Flash Composite PMI for August, was better than expected—and the highest in seven months.1 [+] Read More

Many retirees or those pondering retirement know: sometimes it’s difficult to let go. After spending decades being hard-wired to go to work week-in and week-out—and in many cases enjoying it—just retiring cold turkey can be a lot to process. That’s why many people opt to “phase out” instead, incrementally weaning themselves away from work and towards retirement. Call it, a “gradual retirement.” [+] Read More

The Olympics ended with a spectacular closing ceremony, the event showed competition is alive and well and the United States topped the medal table once again! Thinking about sports does not generally equate to thoughts about retirement or saving for retirement, but a new TD Ameritrade study demonstrates how the two can actually be closely related. The findings of the study may surprise you. [+] Read More

We have a clear investment discipline and a clear compass... After delivering a strong first quarter performance, Polen Capital Management's Focus Growth Portfolio returned -2.62% gross of fees in second quarter 2016. The Russell 1000 Growth and S&P 500 indicies returned 0.61% and 2.46% respectively. Read on for an excerpt of Polen Capital's 2Q 2016 commentary, or view the entire document here. [+] Read More

The U.S. presidential election has capitalized the news media, social media, and pop culture for nearly a year now, and we still have several months before the campaign's end and the voters have their say. Here at WrapManager, we don’t take a political stance on elections, but we do track market trends and activity and the election environment can have an effect on the stock market. It’s interesting to look back at how politics have affected financial markets in the past. Though we can’t predict what might happen this time around, looking back can help us identify previous trends. [+] Read More

Quizmaster, Doug Hutchinson, presents his quiz for the month. Here, Doug provides a an example to show the cost of taking an early withdraw from your IRA. Consider this Scenario: Your friend Ken is entering a Fantasy Football tournament and is considering funding his entry fee by taking an early withdrawal of $2,000 from his Traditional IRA. Assume Ken has a federal income tax rate of 28% and a state income tax rate of 6%. Assume Ken will face an early withdrawal penalty of 10% (there are certain situations where an early withdrawal can be taken without the 10% penalty, but for the purpose of this example assume that Ken faces the early withdrawal penalty of 10%). Ken is 25 years old and is planning to retire in 40 years at age 65. Assume that his IRA will return 7% each year for the next 40 years. What would be the total cost of Ken’s early withdrawal considering both the immediate penalties/taxes and the growth in his IRA that he will miss due to taking an early withdrawal? [+] Read More

Two strategies designed to maximize Social Security retirement benefits just got cut, but it doesn’t mean your benefits have to shrink too (more on that later). Effective May 1, the U.S. government adopted rules that will bar the "file and suspend strategy" for people born after April 30, 1950, putting an end to a unique strategy for drawing Social Security that helped many retirees boost their lifetime benefits significantly. [+] Read More

The worst of the U.S. profits recession appears to be over... Richard Turnill, BlackRock’s Global Chief Investment Strategist, gives us the week in review. Turnhill was previously Chief Investment Strategist for BlackRock’s fixed income and active equity businesses, and has also led the Global Equity investment team. Read an excerpt of his weekly commentary below, or view the entire weekly investment commentary here. [+] Read More

Two years ago we wrote an article about how high income earners—who are generally excluded from Roth IRAs because of income levels—could still technically contribute to Roth IRAs if they used the right methods. We wrote that “high income earners could make non-deductible contributions to a Traditional IRA (non-deductible IRA), then take that money and move it into a Roth IRA.” This method allowed income earners access to the benefits of the Roth IRA, which notably are: the ability to grow your money tax-free and also make tax-free withdrawals. [+] Read More