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If Q1 2017 had a theme song, it might be, “There’s a Kind of Hush All Over the World.”

There was the usual stream of global news. To name a few highlights:

In days of yore, navigational maps were often illustrated with dragons and sea monsters, indicating that danger was afoot on the high seas. The imagery may have been mythical, but the risks were real enough, especially for travelers who failed to equip themselves for the journey. To this day, risk and reward remain tightly connected for those venturing into our global markets.

In Part I of our series on Tax-Wise Investing, “You and Your Investments,” we explored how to engage in year-round tax-wise investing by adopting your own best practices as well as by favoring fund managers who are likewise keeping a tax-efficient eye on their offerings.

While “tax season” may imply that there is an optimal time to think about your income taxes, the best way to minimize your annual “pay-triotic duty” is to engage in year-round tax-wise investing, with ongoing best practices in:

Legend has it, a pharmacist named John Pemberton was searching for a headache cure when he tried blending Coca leaves with Cola nuts. Who knew his recipe was destined to become such a smashing success, even if Coca-Cola® never did become the medicine Pemberton had in mind?

Market indexes - you read about them all the time, such as when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the Dow) topped 20,000 points in early 2017… and then broke 21,000 just over a month later. In our last piece, we explored what those points actually measure, which isn’t always what you might guess.

As we covered in our last piece, indexes have their uses. They can roughly gauge the mood of a market and its participants. If you’ve got an investment strategy that’s designed to capture that market, you can see how your strategy is doing in comparison… again, roughly. You can also invest in an index fund that tracks an index that tracks that market.

Since nearly every media outlet on the planet reported the news, you probably already know that the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 20,000 for the first time on January 25, 2017. However, when a popular index like the Dow is on a tear, up or down, what does it really mean to you and your investments?

By Ben Carlson

Every day since President Donald Trump took office seems to bring a new political shock, so you might be surprised to learn that the stock market is just shy of all-time highs.

When it comes to buying or selling your home, most of us already know that the price depends on three things: location, location, location. Asset location is a similar, if less familiar rule that applies to your investments. By managing asset location within your portfolio, we help you keep as much of your wealth as possible – even after the tax man takes his cut.