Wealth Management News & Insights – December 16, 2022

Wealth Management News & Insights

Powell’s Grim Inflation Outlook, Tax Breaks for 2022, Why Aren’t Americans Ditching Big Banks

 

 

Financial Markets

  • Jerome Powell’s Grim Inflation Outlook Is at Odds With Markets: Fed brushes aside recent good news on prices, revising interest-rate path up and economic growth down. [WSJ]
  • What’s Going On With the Housing Market: Home buyers and sellers are trying to make sense of a downturn that’s full of contradictions: Demand has seized up but supply is still low; prices are sliding but not plummeting; and no one can agree on what comes next. [WSJ]
  • The Economy Just Doesn’t Make Sense Anymore: How’s the economy doing? Depends where you look. Seriously. [Vox]
  • SEC Vs. Samuel Bankman-Fried: From at least May 2019 through November 2022, Bankman-Fried engaged in a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), the crypto asset trading platform of which he was CEO and co-founder, at the same time that he was also defrauding the platform’s customers. [SEC]

 

 

Financial Planning

  • The $42 Billion Question: Why Aren’t Americans Ditching Big Banks: Big banks still pay next to nothing on savings, but their customers aren’t yet moving much money to higher-yielding alternatives. [WSJ]
  • Is It Better to Rent or Buy: The old fashioned rule of thumb suggests you need to stay in your home for 5 years to break even but there are many complex factors which need to be weighed when contemplating whether to buy or rent. [NYT]

 

Tax Planning

  • Get Big Tax Breaks for 2022 by Acting Now: From the timing of charitable donations to the unloading of money-losing investments, there’s still plenty you can do to reduce your taxes for this year. Here are key factors to consider before it’s too late. [WSJ]
  • Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts: One of the primary uses of a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) is to move asset appreciation from the grantor to remainder beneficiaries, reducing the value of the grantor’s assets that will ultimately be subject to estate tax. [JPM]

 

Retirement Planning

  • The 4% Rule for Retirement Spending Makes a Comeback: Your 401(k) probably took a beating in 2022, but it is now safer for new retirees to take higher initial withdrawals, Morningstar researchers say. [WSJ]

 

Source: Zonda

 

Business Strategy

  • Google, Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft Awarded Pentagon Cloud Deal of Up to $9 Billion Combined: The Pentagon said Wednesday that Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle received a cloud-computing contract that can reach as high as $9 billion total through 2028. [CNBC]
  • Microsoft Tops the Best-Managed Companies of 2022: The company is No. 1—again—in the Drucker Institute’s annual Management Top 250 ranking. But below No. 1, there were a lot of changes, especially among technology companies. [WSJ]
  • Who Is—and Isn’t—Getting a Holiday Bonus This Year: Fewer companies will spread Christmas cheer with cash and big bonuses seen last year are being downsized in some sectors. [WSJ]
  • TikTok National-Security Deal Faces More Delays as Worry Grows Over Risks: U.S. officials say popular social-media platform poses a range of security concerns. [WSJ]

 

Life & Work

  • The Surprising Health Benefits of Bird-Watching: Spending time outdoors with a pair of binoculars is good for your body and soul. The upcoming Audubon Christmas Bird Count is the perfect excuse to start. [NYT]

 

Source: Zillow