Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Apr. 28, 2017 11:14 am ET Investors believe the darndest things. In one recent survey, wealthy individuals said they expect their portfolios to earn a long-run average of 8.5% annually after inflation. With bonds yielding roughly 2.5%, a typical stock-and-bond portfolio would need stocks to grow at 12.5%...
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Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Apr. 21, 2017 7:56 am ET The lucky participants in one of the best retirement plans around are coming after yours with a meat cleaver. In the early stages of negotiating tax reform, Congress is already considering whether to reduce the benefits of contributing to a 401(k) and similar retirement plans —...
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Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Apr. 14, 2017 1:37 pm ET The costs of trading are one of the worst destroyers of investment returns. That’s a fact of life in the markets, although it’s easy to overlook in exchange-traded funds, where commissions and management fees have shrunk almost to zero. And during placid markets like today’s, when...
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By Jason Zweig | Apr. 11, 2017 11:32 am ET Image credit: Gerard David, “The Annunciation” (1506), The Metropolitan Museum of Art LPL Financial Holdings, the Boston-based independent brokerage, is moving to prevent its affiliated financial advisers from claiming they are “conflict free.” On Monday LPL removed those words...
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By Jason Zweig | Apr. 13, 2017 8:59 pm ET Image credit: “Investor Slaying the Dragon of High Cost” “St. Michael and the Dragon,” from The Hours of Frederic of Aragon (ca. 1500-1505), Bibliotheque Nationale de France This week, S&P Dow Jones Indices produced new data showing that actively managed funds have...
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