How To Stay Financially Stable When The World Might Be Falling Apart

WASHINGTON – Elizabeth Warren unveiled a policy proposal Thursday to slap new rules on private equity and “useless speculation” on Wall Street while rolling back President Trump’s deregulation of the financial industry.

Over the last four decades, the average income of retiree households significantly outpaced those still in the workforce.

In fact, new client assets accounted for more than five times the amount of new assets for RIAs than did growth of existing clients in 2018, making it unsurprising that advisors’ top strategic initiatives involved boosting business through individual or business referrals, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab. These firms represent $1.1 trillion in…

By Reade Pickert and Katia Dmitrieva. —U.S. retail sales and factory output in June exceeded expectations and underscored steady economic growth even as Federal Reserve officials signal they’ re prepared to reduce interest rates. The value of retail purchases rose 0.4% for a second month, more than the 0.2% median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists,…

Note: Not adjusted for inflation; Data: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Chart: Chris Canipe/Axios The total net worth of the bottom 50% of Americans fell to -$143 billion in the second quarter of 2010 — meaning the lowest 50% of earners had collective liabilities far outpaced their collective assets, largely underwater home and auto loans. Their net worth remained negative…

I hate that it’ s inescapable. What I don’ t hate is the investment opportunities the 2020 election will present us. The latest polls from ABC and The Washington Post show The Donald at his best since taking office, with a 44% approval rating overall.

Retail sales soundly topped expectations in June, pointing to healthy consumer spending. Dow Jones futures remained higher after the data.

Life insurance companies increased their mortgage investments to levels higher than historical norms, creating more potential danger for their portfolios in the event of a real estate downturn, a Fitch Ratings report said.

Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re right, apparently. This year’s mistake cost the wealthy an estimated $136 billion so far, according to an Investor’s Business Daily analysis of data from Capgemini’s World Wealth Report. 

WASHINGTON – President Trump is withdrawing a plan to ease the financial bite of costly medications for people on Medicare by letting them receive rebates that drugmakers now pay to insurers and middlemen, the White House said Thursday.

With steep competition for talent, it’s important to think outside the conventional benefits packages to help your workforce build retirement savings.

WASHINGTON ― Bernie Sanders would tax plutocratic estates. Elizabeth Warren would apply an annual “wealth tax” to fortunes above $50 million. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has pitched a 70% top tax rate for multimillionaires.  But for Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives, taxing the rich has been more of an abstract goal than an actual policy priority.  House…

An improving economy is boosting an exodus from wirehouses to RIAs.

•The Fed expects unemployment to stay low and inflation to gradually rise, Mr. Powell told the House Financial Services Committee. •But he added that“ uncertainties around trade tensions and concerns about the strength of the global economy continue to weigh on the U.S. economic outlook.”. “That the Fed is considering a rate cut at a moment when the United States…

But at the White House, President Trump and his health officials are busily using the law to pursue key proposals. Last week, the president highlighted a policy in the works meant to narrow the gaps between what drugs cost in the United States iand overseas. “What they’ re doing now is tolerating this ambiguity between the flat-out rhetoric of‘ repeal Obamacare’ and…

The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan resolution Tuesday emphasizing the importance of state securities regulators in investor protection and urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to collaborate more with these regulators. Ayanna Pressley, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, introduced the resolution last month in…

WASHINGTON _ A top Senate Democrat has some stark advice for Amy McGrath, who said Tuesday she’ll challenge Republican titan Mitch McConnell next year for the Senate. McGrath’s announcement was another in a series of Democratic moves aimed at flipping the Senate, which McConnell and Republicans have controlled for the past three years.

It’ s not just that 21 million people would probably lose health insurance, or that 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions would lose their protection. Those effects would be the major focus of attention if the Affordable Care Act were to be struck down. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court heard arguments from 18 Republican-led states and the…

The U.S. government could run out of money to pay all of its bills by early September if Congress doesn’t rush to raise the debt ceiling, a think tank said Monday, a time frame that could force lawmakers to act much sooner than planned. In May, it had projected that Treasury would have until October or November before it ran into debt ceiling problems.

And one of them, perhaps not surprisingly, is about to be put forward for a seat on the Federal Reserve board by President Donald Trump. In particular, he’s been having a series of Twitter snits regarding Fed Chairman Jay Powell, even going so far as to suggest that he could look to replace the Fed chief, whom Trump named to the top slot, but whose tenure he’s been unhappy…

—Citigroup Inc. economists are growing more confident in their forecast for the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged this month, a call that leaves them at odds with many investors and fellow analysts. The nation’ s 224,000 surge in payrolls in June and recent de-escalation of trade tensions between the U.S. and China are reasons to think the Fed may…

Dennis Gibb used client funds to pay for his own business and personal expenses, such as mortgage and car payments.

If you’re looking for income from dividend stocks, follow the money. CEOs with chunks of some S&P 500 are hauling in big income, and you can get a piece.

So it’ s come to this: surgery, deferred annuities and rock’ n’ roll. In April, the band postponed the start of its North American tour so that Mick Jagge ar could have surgery, reportedly to replace a damaged heart valve. But it turns out that the band chose, as its sole tour sponsor, the Alliance for Lifetime Income— a trade association that promotes the sale of annuities.

A life insurance company wants a federal judge to decide who should receive a $10,000 life insurance payout for a 2-year-old boy whose parents were sentenced to probation after the toddler overheated and died. The St. Joseph News-Press reports that the Life Insurance Company of North America said in the lawsuit filed Monday that Blaze Saliger’s mother, 24-year-old Kailie Saliger, awoke in October 2018 to find the toddler dead.

A magistrate judge for the Southern District of Ohio recommended that a motion by Ohio National Life Insurance to dismiss a class action lawsuit against it involving the termination of trail commissions on certain variable annuities be denied, according to court documents. Judge Stephanie Bowman issued the report last week in a class action suit filed in…

–Inside 60 Wall Street, the American headquarters of Deutsche Bank AG, the signs of trouble are everywhere. Begin on the 46th floor, overlooking the East River: brown boxes have been stacked in the offices of the senior-most executive in the Americas. So it goes nowadays at Deutsche Bank in New York, where everybody, from the executives down, seems to sense that more…

may recall host Drew Carey describing it as“ the show where everything’ s made up and the points don’ t matter.”. You may have noticed MMT trending in the news in the past few months, thanks in large part to the fact that it’ s supported by a number of far-left socialist politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Think“ Medicare for all,” free college…

–Almost all American retirees claim Social Security at the wrong time, a new report estimates, which means they will miss out on a collective $3.4 trillion in benefits before they die. When to take Social Security is a key decision for America’ s elderly, for whom the program has become a critical safety net. Unlike investments and other sources of retirement income,…

—The Congressional Budget Office has just released its projections for the U.S. federal budget during the next 30 years. The picture is one of steadily rising deficits. Federal government borrowing now amounts to about 4.2% of gross domestic product each year.

2020 Democrats couldn’ t agree on how to overhaul the economy. •Senator Elizabeth Warren wants the government to clamp down on oil and pharmaceutical companies, and to replace private health insurance with single-payer care. Warren’ s call to break up tech giants like Facebook and Google.

The International Accounting Standards Board has some amendments to the standard after hearing complaints from insurers.

PORT ST. JOE— When Michael McKenzie and Marci Brannen returned home three days after Hurricane Michael, a toppled pine tree lay across their entrance just a few blocks from the water. Before they even knew the extent of the damage, they filed claims from her parents’ home in Georgia. Their wind insurer offered $16,000 for a new metal roof, which would also need repairs…

The“ us” includes self-made billionaires like the financier George Soros and Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, as well as heirs to dynastic riches like the filmmaker Abigail Disney and Liesel Pritzker Simmons and Ian Simmons, co-founders of the Blue Haven Initiative, an impact investment organization. “We thought it would be a good idea,” Mr. Simmons explained…

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to former congressman Beto O’Rourke and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Chris Van Hollen will announce a new plan to impose a 10 percent surtax on income above $2 million. He intends to pair it with a provision to end the “stepped-up basis” treatment of inherited assets, which helps shield the ultrawealthy from income…

A new survey of the Democratic candidates by The New York Times finds that many of them prefer less sweeping changes than the Medicare for All Act, the single-payer bill introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and supported by Senator Elizabeth Warren and several other presidential hopefuls. Even some candidates who back the single-payer approach of Medicare…

The key challenge is to accelerate the process without sacrificing the value traditional underwriting adds, writes CIO of Prudential’s individual life and annuities unit.

The Fed this week decided against immediate action while signaling it could cut rates later this summer if the economic picture grows darker. And Powell made clear that will turn in part on whether Trump escalates his trade war, which he framed as a chief menace to extending the economic expansion.. Trump and his administration remain committed to the idea the…

President Trump wants the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, and he is looking to fill the remaining two spots on the central bank’s board with people who agree with his views. On Tuesday, the president held out the possibility of attempting to remove the central bank’s chair if the Fed doesn’t cut rates, a legally questionable step that has never been taken…

A new study finds that within the next two years, all large and midsize carriers will use predictive analytics in their group life operations, while nearly half of small insurers will deploy similar capabilities.

WASHINGTON— Federal Reserve officials are expected to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, but officials face a tough decision as economic data sends conflicting signals, trade tensions run high and political pressures mount. Mr. Trump increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods only days after the Fed’ s last gathering, and has…

President Trump faces a number of major decisions on trade and the budget in the coming months just as the U.S. economy faces the biggest head winds of his tenure, forcing him to decide whether to recalibrate as recession fears mount for next year. Trump has threatened to escalate trade conflicts with China, Mexico, the European Union and Japan, spooking business…

President Trump’s campaign has reportedly fired three pollsters after internal numbers showing him trailing Democratic challengers in key states leaked to the media. But there’s another set of numbers that should arguably concern the Trump reelection effort just as much: Corporate tax revenue is down 9 percent this year after dropping 31 percent last…

“It’ s been devastating to me,” said Elizabeth Belin, who lives in Columbus. The two policyholders have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Health Insurance Innovations, based in Tampa, Fla., accusing the company of misleading them about the kind of policy they were buying. Critics of the government’ s decision, including the Association for Community Affiliated…

As President Trump rails against the Federal Reserve and urges it to lower interest rates, a similar push is coming from a group founded this year by three left-leaning millennials— albeit for very different reasons. Mr. Trump regularly points out that inflation is low and says that the Fed should slash rates, which would weaken the dollar and help with his…

A slow-moving crisis is approaching for Social Security, threatening to undermine a central pillar in the retirement of tens of millions of Americans. “Old people not getting the Social Security checks they have been promised? The last time Social Security faced a crisis of this kind, in the early 1980 s, a high-level bipartisan effort was needed to keep retirees’…

They blamed Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration for problems that the market has faced, and appeared to conclude that they would need to shore up or expand Obamacare before pursuing other, more comprehensive measures. Richard Neal, D- Mass., told Republicans that they had an opportunity to vote for improvements to Obamacare, formally known as…

Cisco Systems chipped in a 1.5% gain as it neared a buy point. The stock has sketched a stage two, flat base. A stage two base is actionable.

Increasing trade tensions between the U.S. and China took a bite out of riskier fixed income securities in May as investors favored Treasury bonds.

The American economy is showing signs of cooling, and Wall Street is counting on Jerome H. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, to come to the rescue. Just last month, Fed officials agreed to leave rates unchanged as Washington’ s trade war with China seemed on the brink of being resolved. But Mr. Trump renewed his fight just days after that April 30 and May 1…

“The Fed never had to rescue the economy from past presidents’ trade wars, or from policies that presidents embarked upon against the wishes of advisers,” said Gary Richardson, an economics professor at the University of California at Irvine who used to be the official Fed historian. The Fed is likely to signal its next step at its policy meeting this month, and…