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There will be great stress in your family when you become incapacitated. Strong opinions are expressed by sometimes well-meaning family members that paralyze decision making. This is the exactly the wrong time to require your spouse or children to begin a search for a competent trustee who will guide them.

Only several weeks ago, the stock markets were careening lower. Even as an upward movement began, most saw this "V" as a short-term bounce. The technical thinking was that the market needed more time trading in the lower end of this trading range.

Are we in a correction or have we entered a bear market? One answer is in the financial text books that define a decline off the highs of 10% as a correction, and a 20% decline as a bear market. Such clear-cut definitions make news reporting easy.

The recent hack into the Marriott/Starwood Hotels database impacted up to 500 million customers worldwide. To place this in perspective, the population in the United States is 325 million, so it is reasonable to assume a widespread impact on this data breach.

Hooray, they won! Now what? Except for the winning politicians, everyone else continues their daily tasks. Commerce continues, life continues, all with the saving grace we will be spared from receiving further political advertisements and mailers.

In a recent conversation about differing cultures, I was struck by the wisdom of a simple proverb I had never heard before.

Is it a Vice President, a Managing Director, A Portfolio Manager, or a Salesman? You won't know who is minding your money until you start asking questions.

More than half the effort in successful investing is to avoid making big mistakes. Everyone can make a mistake, but the key is knowing which stocks are more likely to fail and then avoid investing in them.

Since 2008, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) has distorted interest rates by lowering its benchmark interest rate to zero. The, it agreed to print money to revive the credit markets.

There are points in your life where it makes sense to set up a trust. We see credit shelter trusts that are set up to take care of loved ones after your passing. For two main reasons, I am seeing a resurgence of revocable trusts.

Time after time, we see a stock price immediately move 5% to 10% just after a company news release. Did the company suddenly become a different company from yesterday? Rarely is this the case.