The landscape of the bond market has undergone massive changes over the years. What was once a plain-vanilla way to create steady income is now replete with variety as well as risk. First, the basics. Bonds are a form of debt, a loan to a borrower with the promise of future payback of the loan amount, plus interest. The credit-worthiness of the borrower and the amount of time until the loan...
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Many investors are concerned and perhaps a bit anxious because their portfolio returns weren’t as high as the return of “the market” last year. Don’t panic, otherwise trouble stands ready to pounce. Remember that what we hear from the media most often is the performance of the Dow Jones 30 Industrials and the S&P 500, both narrow slices of the global market. Still, the familiarity of both indices makes it easy...
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Sometimes the needs around us are such that it seems impossible to make a difference. There are spiritual needs, emotional needs, mental health, refugees, homelessness, educational disparity, natural disasters, economic crises, … the list seems endless. How can an individual or family make a difference? One way is to focus. When the Foster Group Charitable Giving Team began six years ago, the first item of business was to identify a target....
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Dollars and cents is what the investment industry often uses to make a case of getting good advice. This usually influences the investor, whether institutional or individual, because he or she thinks it’s all about the numbers. The numbers are critically important. Investment performance, risk and fees are represented using numbers which are the basis for decisions. But what about professionalism? The term ‘advisor’ is used by many different types of individuals, however...
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