We have received several questions recently from clients asking for our opinion on precious metals. Prior to Friday’s drop in price, gold had risen about 92% in the past year. Silver was up over 265% in the same period. Both metals experienced large corrections on Friday the 30th with gold falling 10.3% and silver falling 28.5%. So, what’s going on with these metals?

Let’s be honest, estate planning isn’t fun. It’s kind of like cleaning out the garage. It needs to be done, but easy to avoid. Most people don’t wake up excited to think about wills, probate, or what happens to their stuff when they’re gone. Not every part of estate planning is complicated, expensive, or emotionally heavy. There are a few simple, practical steps you can take that make a real difference. One of the easiest ways is to add a Transfer on Death (TOD) designation to your vehicles. Small administrative decisions like this can save families time, money, and unnecessary stress.

New year, new tax law, and 2026 is no exception. I have tried to simplify the changes I believe will have the greatest impact for most people. This is not an exhaustive list, but it's a good start for things to keep in mind this year.

After being retired for a bit, you realize that you may not want to play golf 5 days a week, you miss your co-workers, and you are not traveling as much as you thought you would. We see more people these days deciding to return to work after retirement. Whether you plan to go back to work full-time, part-time, start your own business, or work for someone else, there are a few factors to consider before you step back into the workforce.

In speaking with clients recently, many are asking if we think the stock market is in a bubble. While this is a very difficult question to answer, it’s easy to understand why this question is coming up so frequently - the S&P 500 is amid its third consecutive calendar year of stellar returns (though anything could happen between now and year-end).

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was passed in July and introduced several changes to the tax treatment of charitable donations. Some of these changes affect taxpayers who itemize deductions, while others are specifically beneficial for those who do not.

Since the passing of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) on July 4th, a popular talking point has been about Social Security no longer being taxed. Indeed, some taxpayers may no longer pay federal income tax on their Social Security benefits; but it is not the case that Social Security benefits are no longer taxable. Some seniors will be paying less income tax because of OBBBA, but not everyone.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) drastically altered the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT) on federal tax returns. SALT includes amounts paid to certain state and local governments such as state and local income, general sales, real property and personal property taxes. Pre-TCJA, there was no limit to SALT deductions. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act limited the deductibility of these taxes to $10,000 for all filers except Married Filing Separately (MFS), which was limited to $5000.

Schwab has alerted us to a new and more sophisticated fraud threat. This version begins when the client receives a text message prompting them to "verify a transaction"—clicking the link leads the unwary investor to a fraudulent website that mimics Schwab's login page, where they are prompted to enter their credentials. Once the credentials have been entered, the fraudsters use them to access Schwaballiance.com. The fraudulent website may also prompt the client to enter a two-factor verification code that they would automatically receive from Schwab, which, once submitted, allows the fraudster to complete the login process.

Clients with larger accounts often notice a difference in daily performance in each of their accounts, and depending on market conditions, the difference can be quite large. When we assess clients’ portfolios, we consider all their accounts aggregated together, but our custom portfolios are constructed differently depending on the tax treatment of each account to help optimize after-tax returns for clients. Because particular styles of stocks and bonds fall in and out of favor over time, you may notice a variance in the performance of each account. Below are the three main account types we deal with and how we try to steer the portfolios in each account.