Mutual Funds are investment vehicles that are made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.
Mutual Funds are operated by money managers who invest the fund's capital and attempt to produce capital gains and income for the fund's investors.
Annuities are a contract between you and your life insurance company. It provides death benefits and may also include other guarantees.
Annuities do have limitations, and guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.
Annuities were designed to be a reliable means of securing a steady cash flow for an individual during their retirement years and to alleviate fears of outliving one's assets.
Defined benefit pensions and Social Security are two examples of lifetime guaranteed annuities that pay retirees a steady cash flow until they pass.
With Tax - Deferred Investments, you pay federal income taxes when you withdraw money from your investment, instead of paying taxes up front. Any earnings your contributions produce while invested are also tax-deferred.
Some investments also allow you to invest pre-tax dollars, so neither your contribution nor its potential earnings are taxed until they are withdrawn.
Tax-free refers to financial products (such as municipal bonds) that are not taxed and with earnings that are not taxed.
The tax-free status of these funds may incentivize individuals and business entities to increase spending or investing, resulting in economic stimulus.
Governments will often provide a tax break to investors purchasing government bonds to ensure that enough funding will be available for expenditure projects.
403(b) Plan is a U.S. tax-advantaged retirement savings plan available for public education organizations, some non-profit employers.
Employee salary deferrals into a 403(b) plan are made before income tax is paid and allowed to grow tax-deferred until the money is taxed as income when withdrawn from the plan.
403(b) Plans are also referred to as a tax-sheltered annuity although since 1974 they no longer are restricted to an annuity form and participants can also invest in mutual funds.
ndividual Retirement Plans (IRA) Traditional and Roth.
Traditional IRAs may allow you to contribute on a pre-tax basis, depending on your income level and some other factors.
With a Roth IRA, you can’t make pre-tax contributions, but earnings could potentially be tax-free if certain conditions are met.
Profit Sharing Plans refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular salary and bonuses. In publicly traded companies these plans typically amount to the allocation of shares to employees.
A Profit Sharing Plan can be set up where all or some of the employee's profit sharing amount can be contributed to a retirement plan.
SEP IRAs are a variation of the Individual Retirement Account.
SEP IRAs are adopted by business owners to provide retirement benefits for themselves and their employees. There are no significant administration costs for the self-employed person with no employees. If the self-employed person does have employees, all employees must receive the same benefits under a SEP plan. Since SEP IRAs are a type of IRA, funds can be invested the same way as most other IRAs.
Coverdell ESA or just an ESA, and formerly known as an education individual retirement account, is a tax-advantaged investment account in the United States designed to encourage savings to cover future education expenses (elementary, secondary, or college), such as tuition, books, and uniforms (for the same year as the distribution).
Individual Family Planning
HOW IMPORTANT ARE BOOK VALUES IN YOUR METHODOLOGY?
Book values can be very misleading as a measure of value. They are the result of generally accepted accounting principles that can be inconsistent with the true value of a business, dependant on industry and nature of the business. As a result, our team of research professionals may make adjustments to book values to more accurately assess different companies. For example, an obsolete steel plant may be worth far less than the stated value on the balance sheet. Conversely, a well known a dominant brand name may have accumulated tremendous value that is not reflected on the balance sheet. We tend to purchase a stock if it is trading at a significant discount from its intrinsic value, as calculated by our fundamental research and analysis. Ultimately, we are business buyers. We approach investing as would any rational, private businessperson who was about to purchase a company.