Quarterly Investment Update- The End of an Era?
April 15, 2010 | 
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Slightly more than a year has past since the worst stock market crash of our lifetime. Historically, investors’ psyche has followed a typical path. See what our investment team has to say about where we’ve been and where we might be going in the Quarterly Update.
Questions?
jon.dinkins@glassjacobsonia.com
Investment Update- How is 2010 Really Going?
April 13, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
- The US equity market continued its strong performance in the first quarter of 2010, the fourth consecutive quarter with above-average returns. The broad US market gained about 6% in the quarter, with all asset classes delivering solid gains again. Performance in other developed markets around the world was mixed.
- European markets as a whole had negative returns for the quarter, with Spain, Greece, and Portugal all suffering double-digit losses. On the other hand, developed markets in the Asia Pacific region, led by Japan, which had an outstanding quarter, generally fared much better. The US dollar gained ground against most major currencies, especially the euro and the pound, which hurt the dollar-denominated returns of developed market equities.
- After being the top-performing asset class for the past four quarters, emerging markets cooled off in the first quarter, although returns were still solidly positive. As in the case of developed markets, there was much dispersion in the performance of different emerging markets and asset classes. Most emerging markets experienced solidly positive returns in the first quarter, but some of the larger markets such as Brazil, China, and Taiwan had negative returns. The US dollar lost ground against the main emerging market currencies in the first quarter, which contributed to the dollar-denominated returns of emerging market equities.
- Value stocks outperformed growth stocks across all market capitalization segments in the US, while the opposite was true in other developed markets. In emerging markets, large cap value stocks trailed large cap growth stocks, while small cap value stocks outperformed small cap growth stocks.
- Along the market capitalization dimension, small caps outperformed large caps in the US, in other developed markets, and in emerging markets.
- Real estate securities were among the top performers in the first quarter in the US, but they had a flat performance in other developed markets.
- Fixed income securities had positive returns in the first quarter. Longer-term securities tended to have better performance than short-term ones.
Life’s 5 Most Common Financial Hazards
March 30, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Glass Jacobson’s Christine Schmitz will be presenting at the Maryland Chapter of the American Association of University Women’s spring convention on April 10th.
Her presentation, “Life’s Financial Hazards: Strategies to Overcome Risk” outlines 5 of the most common hurdles people fear and unfortunately face:
- inevitable crises (i.e., the last 2 years!)
- outliving your money
- long-term care costs
- not understanding the insurances you own
- estate tax on your assets
Her presentation discusses how proper planning can calm some of these fears and prepare you should you encounter any unforeseen issues.
The Convention is open to members of the AAUW. For more information on the AAUW, visit www.aauwmd.org.
For more detail on life’s 5 most common financial hazards, please contact Christine at Christine.schmitz@glassjacobsonia.com.
2010 Outlook- Bull or Bear?
March 25, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
One of our top priorities is to bring you current information and forward-thinking insights about our financial markets. Glass Jacobson recently sent our entire financial service team to attend Charles Schwab & Co.’s Regional Investment Conference. We heard many notable speakers, including former Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner, Legg Mason’s Bill Miller, and Charles Schwabs’ Chief Market Strategist Liz Ann Sonders.
Their central message forecasting the path of the 2010 economic recovery outlined two possible scenarios (based on economic and historical precedence). First case: we are on the path to full-blown recovery at this point and entering a Bull Market. The second, and a bit more pessimistic: the recovery from the 2008 collapse will be tempered by another short drop and we are entering a Bear Market period.
For more from the conference, click here: Schwab Investment Outlook 2010
Questions?
Jon.dinkins@glassjacobsonia.com
Need Help Funding Long Term Care Insurance?
March 23, 2010 | Subscribe to our RSS Feed
There have been important changes in the tax free exchange rules for life insurance and annuities. These changes may help you if you have a need for long term care insurance.
As of January 1st, 2010, the Pension Protection Act has made it possible to use cash from life policies to fund long term care premiums through a 1035 tax free exchange. This means that if you have life insurance policies with cash value that you might not really need any longer, you could fund a long term care policy to protect yourself and your family without reaching into your pocket any deeper.
There is a lot of information coming out to us every day on this change and we are working to keep up to date on how the various insurance companies are utilizing this change.
Submitted by Christine Schmitz
Questions?
christine.schmitz@glassjacobsonia.com