IN THE KNOW
Monthly Newsletter
January 2020
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At
ML&R Wealth Management
, we want to ensure our clients are
In The Know.
In this month's newsletter we have a timely article and video on
the SECURE Act and how it impacts retirement as well as a review of the past decade in a blog post from Dimensional.
We are a firm that understands that managing your assets is about more than money. It is about empowering your future. At ML&R Wealth Management, we focus on you.
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Annual Letter to our Clients
As we begin the new year and decade, we think it’s important to revisit the general principles which govern our philosophy of investment advice. We all need a good reminder of our investment resolutions that we will adhere to not just in January, but for the all the months, years, and decades still to come. To provide some context, we have also included a review of some of the market and economic data from 2019 as we personally observed them. This is not to be taken as any sort of market forecast. (As we always say, we are planners, not prognosticators.)
Evergreen Investment Principles:
- It will be worth restating, even in the context of a letter primarily focused on the year just past, our firm’s overall principle of investment advice. It is goal-focused and planning-driven, much different from an approach that is market-focused and current-events-driven. Long-term investment success comes from continuously acting on a plan. Investment failure proceeds from continually reacting to current events in the economy and the markets.
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Over the last 24 months, there have been two major Congressional actions that have impacted tax payers, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from 2017 followed by the SECURE Act, which was signed into law at what seemed to be the final hour of 2019. The latter of the two, the SECURE Act, passes into law new rules primarily surrounding individual and employer sponsored retirement plans. In an effort to authorize $1.7 trillion of federal spending, the Act incorporates many rules that will impact all tax payers, but primarily those with substantial tax-favored retirement savings. While there is a lot of good coming out of this Act, there are also some new rules that will cause a greater tax burden, particularly to those who will inherit a retirement account in 2020 and beyond. It is our goal to help our clients and community to better understand the major changes made by the SECURE Act and how it impacts them. As such, below are the major highlights of the SECURE Act.
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Sweeping legislative tax or retirement reforms typically happen only once every decade or so, but the final weeks of 2019 brought the second major piece of Congressional action in the past 24 months, as the SECURE Act was passed and signed into law. Advisor, Vanessa McElwrath, recently sat down with KVUE to share the changes and the potential impact on retirement in the years to come.
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Imagine it is early January 2010 and you are reading a review of the financial markets. Investors have been on a roller coaster over the past three years, living through the stress of the global financial crisis and market downturn of 2008–2009, then experiencing the recovery that began in March 2009 and is still going strong.
Investors who rode out the market’s slide are beginning to be rewarded. But the rebound is 10 months old, and markets have a long way to go to reach their previous highs. Opinions are mixed about what might unfold in the coming year. A December 2009 headline in the Wall Street Journal underscored the uncertainty: “Bull Market Shows Signs of Aging.”
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The publication pointed out that, although stocks have rallied and indices are on the rise, worries are mounting in some quarters that the market is running out of steam.
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Financial Wellness Q&A
In this section we will address common personal finance questions. Email
wealth@mlrpc.com
if you have a question you would like answered.
Question:
If I turned 70.5 in 2019, am I eligible to take advantage of the law’s increase in age for starting RMDs to 72?
Answer:
No. Only account holders who turn 70.5 after December 31, 2019 can start mandatory distributions at 72 years old.
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Cyber-security Reminder
The new year is a great time to clean-up your online habits and start making smart decisions when it comes to internet safety. Checkout the infographic below on some Do's & Don'ts for internet safety.
Click
here
to get the link to share with friends.
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Have you heard? The experts are warning against abbreviating the year 2020. Read
here for more information on why.
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Subscribe to our 401(k) Plan Services Quarterly Newsletter
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Are you responsible for administering your company's 401(k) plan?
Would you like more insight and resources regarding the retirement plan services industry?
If so, please subscribe to our 401(k) Plan Services Quarterly Newsletter. You can check out the last few issues below.
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What's Happening in Austin This Month
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About ML&R Wealth Management:
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At ML&R Wealth Management, we take investing personally. Your ML&R Wealth Management advisor will work to develop a lasting relationship with you, keeping in touch to understand your changing goals and to provide an asset management strategy to help achieve them. Whenever you need sound financial advice, you have a direct line to a trusted advisor.
For over 20 years, we have served individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofits with wealth management services, custom retirement and 401(k) plans, and portfolio management.
We believe in accountability and transparency and operate as a fee-only advisor with fees calculated solely on assets under management.
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