Blog | Podcast Appearances
Behind the Scenes of Your Portfolio: ETF & Mutual Fund Research & Monitoring
For many investors, once they have made a decision to purchase an ETF or mutual fund, they tend to breathe a sigh of relief and move on. Although there needs to be significant upfront due diligence in selecting investments, we do not recommend blindly trusting that the managers remain consistent, nor that the specific investments continue to fit into your portfolio. One important ongoing aspect of investment management is to ensure the investment vehicles recommended remain as high conviction as when we first recommended them.
Ben Hockema reviews the first quarter performance and updated economic data, while also looking ahead to the rest of 2024.
Behind the Scenes of Your Portfolio: Taxes & Asset Location
Often overlooked when thinking about your portfolio are the different ways that taxes are generated, based upon the type of accounts that own various asset classes. According to the “Vanguard Advisor’s Alpha” framework study from August 12, 2022, just by optimizing the location that different asset classes are held can add up to 0.60% annually in higher after-tax returns for investors!
February 2024 Market Update
Stocks advance in February with indexes like the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hitting new highs. While a new high for an index is not a new thing, in fact it happens quite regularly and often without material consequence, there was a recent new high that is worth reflecting on. The Japanese equity index (the Nikkei 225) hit a new all-time high for the first time since 1989! We’ll do the math for you: that’s 34 years…
Behind the Scenes of Your Portfolio: Rebalancing
We are starting a new series of blog posts looking behind the scenes of how we manage portfolios for our ongoing clients. Many of these things have been discussed in various levels of detail in the past, but we wanted to give you a full picture of what happens on an ongoing basis. Let’s begin discussing “Rebalancing”…
Investment Note - Look for the Positive
Ben discusses the historical stock market positive performance amid endless negative news events, as well as the positive trends for this time of year.
How We Choose Investment Vehicles
There are many different opinions on the best way to build out an investment portfolio. As you may be aware, we have partnered with Fiducient Advisors to deepen our investment research capabilities since early 2022. We work directly with our team of over 40 analysts at Fiducient to research asset allocation decisions and the best way to structure the portfolio. This is especially valuable as the investment markets and the world generally seem to change at a much faster pace than before.
2023 International Investment Market Update – New Funds
Ben discusses the reasons behind the most recent changes to investment portfolios for Illuminate Wealth Management clients. This includes a discussion of the shifting investment environment and the need to move towards more active exposure to Developed International and Emerging Market stocks.