Now that the Trump Administration has declared its intention to delay and potentially roll-back the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which would force financial professionals and their firms’ overseeing the nearly $3 trillion in retirement savings, to work in their clients’ best interest, it may be a good time to review your relationship with your current advisor, stock broker or insurance salesperson. Here is an updated list of my “Ten Questions to Ask a Financial Pro”:
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The Department of Labor's fiduciary rule faces two hurdles: a lawsuit and now, the Trump Administration's efforts to delay or perhaps kill it off. On Friday, President Trump signed an order directing the Treasury secretary to review the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law. You remember Dodd-Frank, the big legislation meant to reign in the excesses of Wall Street after the financial crisis, right?
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Shame Definition, according to Merriam-Webster:
- a : a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety b : the susceptibility to such emotion <have you no shame?>
- 2: a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute : ignominy <the shame of being arrested>
- 3a : something that brings censure or reproach; also : something to be regretted : pity <it's a shame you can't go>b : a cause of feeling shame
20,000 may just be a number, but it's a big, round one. It took 42 days for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to move from 19,000 to 20,000, the second fastest thousand-point rise in the history of the index. (The quickest occurred in 1999, when it took just 24 trading days for the Dow to rise from 10,000 to 11,000.) The most recent leg up in the market has been referred to as “Trump Bump,” because the index has jumped by about 9 percent increase since Election Day.
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Tax preparation season opened on January 23 and once again, due to a Washington DC holiday, the tax -filing deadline is April 18th, rather than April 15th, so procrastinators will have an extra three days to dawdle. For early bird filers, there is also good news: under provisions of the 2015 Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act, employers are now required to file their copies of Form W-2 and certain 1099-MISC for independent contractors to the Social Security Administration, by January 31.
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