News & INSIGHTS

Pat’s Planning Post

2024 Tax Changes 

We are approaching year-end and as customary, the IRS has released their key changes and adjustments for the 2024 tax year. Similar to the last couple of years, higher inflation has produced higher savings limits and additional bandwidth within Federal tax brackets, which is one silver lining. Each tax bracket, along with the standard deduction (meaningfully higher since 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act), has received an increase of 5.4%.

What does that mean for you? Well, in summary, more of your income will be taxed at lower rates in 2024. Click here to read an article from the Wall Street Journal that provides additional details.

Liebmans’ Library

For this month, we chose a Wall Street Journal article about the recent struggles of the “60-40” investing strategy. The strategy discussed in the article assumes a portfolio allocation of 60% stocks and 40% bonds. This allocation, or those similar, has been used in moderate risk portfolios for individuals and institutions alike for decades. Recently, the strategy has gotten a fair amount of attention as the performance has significantly lagged its historic averages, especially since the four-decade bond bull market ended and bonds performed poorly over the past few years. Many pundits, advisors, and media members have suggested that the 60-40 portfolio is a relic of the past and is no longer useful.

In fact, this month, Matt hosted a panel on the 60-40 portfolio topic at the annual Dynasty Financial Partners Investor’s forum in Nashville. From our point of view, the calls for the abandonment of the 60-40 portfolio are not wise. The strategy has worked quite well for decades. We advocate for customizing one’s asset allocation for their financial goals, cash flow needs, time horizon, and temperament. While that customized asset allocation may or may not be similar to 60% stocks, 40% bonds, depending on the family, the idea of abandoning one’s time-tested strategy after a period of weak performance is generally a poor decision. In other words, “stay the course” is not always the correct advice, but it’s generally right more often than it’s wrong if you have a prudent strategy and plan.

Read the full article on the Wall Street Journal 

Operations Corner

Charitable Giving 

It’s that time of the year to reflect and be thankful for so many things and maybe even give back!

If you’re interested in making a charitable donation to a charity of your choice, please feel free to reach out to us for assistance! As we approach the end of the year, Fidelity does receive an abundance of requests to process, so the sooner, the better.

A charitable donation can be processed as a check donation from your Fidelity account directly to a charity/non-profit of your choice or a partial security gift transfer to the charity/non-profit’s account at another financial institution.

In addition, Fidelity offers Charitable Giving Account options in which you can contribute securities to be invested in your own Giving Account and those funds can be used to make grants to charities of your choice. If you are interested in hearing more about Fidelity’s Charitable Giving Account options, please feel free to reach out to the Amplius team for more information.

On behalf of your Client Service Team, we want you to know that we are very thankful for YOU this holiday season, and we wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving