Our country is currently experiencing an enormous increase in fraud schemes and identity thefts related to COVID-19. Fraud schemes include everything from selling fake cures online to phishing emails posing as the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to malicious websites and apps that appear to share coronavirus information but actually lock your devices until … Read More
Financially Related Myths Surrounding COVID-19
So much news, so little time. It is hard to know what is true and what is not, what we should, and should not, be doing, but we are, daily, fielding a number of inquiries from clients related to the financial implications of what is happening (because it is an integral part of our job). We are devoting this episode … Read More
The CARES Act and What it Means for You
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020, the “CARES Act”, was signed by President Trump on Friday, March 27, 2020. This is the third major piece of legislation signed into law since COVID-19 burst onto our radar, and it contains many Band-Aids™ to put on the open wound that is this novel coronavirus. There is a great … Read More
Some Thoughts on the Current Situation
I don’t know when the stock market will come back, or how strongly, or which sectors, and so providing advice is crystal ball reading at its most opaque. Right now, any spare money is best invested in U.S. Treasury obligations, but money that is already in the stock market is clearly not available to put elsewhere without having to realize … Read More
A Cautionary (Healthcare) Tale
This is a story about healthcare, about choices and circumstances and how everything can fall apart in an instant. It began with my first job after graduate school, which was awful and paid poorly, but came with solid gold healthcare coverage, fully paid by my employer. The insurance included no co-pays, no deductibles, and no co-insurances. And I used it … Read More
Twas the Night Before Christmas
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…, except for the family tax consultant, who was still figuring out what, if anything, her clients should be doing before the end of 2017. In case you haven’t heard, or have, but are muffled in confusion about what it all means, there’s significant new tax … Read More
Equifax Security Breach
You may be aware that Equifax, one of the three major credit monitoring companies, publicly announced on September 7, 2017, that there was a cybersecurity breach of their data affecting approximately 143,000,000 U.S. consumers dating back to May 2017, and discovered by them late in July. This article is on that Equifax security breach. Among the information accessed by unauthorized … Read More
Small Business Lessons
In 1999, my family and I made an uncertain landfall in Vermont. Now, thirteen years later, we can look back on a turbulent adventure that has given us a quality family life and a profitable and fulfilling business. As 2012 begins, my business has become a muscular enterprise. I have learned much, since I first hung out my shingle, about … Read More
Political Instability In China
Given that political and economic unrest have been so widespread this year, it should come as no surprise that there are political rumblings in the Middle Kingdom. China, the world’s most populous state, is watching its exports to the U.S. and Europe fall for the first time since it became an exporting powerhouse. Even as demand for its goods declines … Read More
Welcome To The Season Of Excess
Thanksgiving is now a memory, and the party season has sprouted from the doldrums of November. My mailboxes, both real and virtual, are full of once yearly greetings from friends and family, including the ubiquitous one-size-fits-all one page letter with filtered family news, and the remaining spaces are crammed with catalogues trumpeting the newest, the best, the most humorous, and … Read More