Greetings!
Hey, everyone!
As always, welcome to all the first-time readers from the March round of workshops.
Speaking of workshops: as I mentioned last month, we're getting set to do a couple at Lineberger's Steakhouse in Sherrills Ford next week. One of the workshops is already full, but there's still a little bit of room in the other if you or anyone you know is interested in attending!
I've included Jim's article from April's Lake Norman Magazine this month. He discusses some of the ins and outs of the financial services industry.
Jim also gave me a second Thought of the Week that I didn't show a preview of below since it's mostly just a laundry list of things, but I did upload it. It's about some changes in tax returns from 2010 to 2011. I'm sure many of you have already gotten your tax returns taken care of, but if you haven't (like me), the article can be found right here.
 -- Tyler Stillman |
Who's on First: Understanding the
Financial Services Industry
Lake Norman Magazine, April 2012
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Are you ever confused about the financial services industry and who does what, why they do it and what they charge? What's the difference between working with Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Edward Jones, Prudential, MetLife or an independent financial advisor? Does it all seem confusing? I've had numerous requests to touch on this subject and make it simple, so here's my two cents.
The folks who already know us know that we always talk in terms of three basic places, or "money worlds," where you can place your money. No, I'm not talking about under the pillow, under the mattress or buried in the backyard! The three places, or worlds, we discuss are banks, insurance companies or Wall Street/broker-dealers. Here's the confusing part: these days, all three deal in each other's business! It seems they all want to promote each other's stuff and confuse the consumer into making unsuitable financial decisions.
Read more...
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Extending the War on Seniors, Savers & Retirees
Thought for the Week, March 5, 2012 |  One of our more controversial recent expressions is that the policies of world central banks, and those of our own government, are having the effect of "Waging War on Seniors, Savers and Retirees."
Domestically, Federal Reserve policy has reduced short-term interest rates to nearly zero. This means that if banks take in cash deposits and buy government securities, they receive virtually nothing in return. Therefore, they cannot pay anything out to the customer who gave them the cash deposit in the first place.
If the customer wants to lock their money up for an amount of time, the bank can buy a longer-term treasury and receive a little more interest, but there's still not going to be too much left to pay the customer, especially when the bank's cost of administering the account is taken into consideration.
See page two for a chart of current Treasury yields.
This is one reason why Bank of America and other large institutions are looking around to find ways of charging customers. I guess the airlines have done well out of levying additional charges for everything, so why not the large national banks?
Read more... |
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