Leonesmoneymonitormonthly's Blog

By Edward Leone Jr. CFP RFC DMD MBA   Contact Information: edleonedds@gmail.com 303-478-6793   A growing issue in estate planning function has to do with digital assets. What are digital assets? A digital asset is an electronic record as defined in the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act of 2014. This legislation gives power to those charged with settling the estate of a decedent regarding the disposition of emails, texts, digital photos, online financial account information, passwords, blogs, websites etc. Do you have a plan for these assets? As technology becomes an even greater factor in our lives, these issues may become quite important. Another estate planning issue which is surfacing recently has to do with the disposition of an HSA account upon the passing of the account owner. Name a beneficiary. If that beneficiary is a spouse, the account remains an HSA. Under other circumstances the account may be terminated with the assets going to a non spouse beneficiary while being taxed as income to that individual.   A very interesting compilation of information contained in a recent AAII journal lists the top five mutual fund performers during the five year period from 2008 to 2013. They are as follows: Fidelity Sel Automotive, Buffalo Emerging Opp, Aegis Value, Matthew 25 and Fidelity Sel Multimedia (Sel stands for select). It will be interesting once the performance of these funds is reported for 2014, to see who remains on the list and which are removed. I’ll be reporting to you on this issue.   The Dow Theory News Letter lists five reasons explaining their prediction for market strength. These are as follows; Economic Growth (predicting GDP growth between 3 to 4 % for 2015), Interest Rates to remain low into 2015, Inflation to remain low (at or bellow 2%), Labor (although the unemployment rate is decreasing, it is still high by Federal Reserve standards) and consumer sentiment which is upbeat. Regarding interest rates, many investors have moved into REITs and MLPs to generate dividend and interest income. These investments have rich valuations as measured on the Dow Theory Alternative Income Watch List. Will we see a bubble here in the future?   Saving 15% of income on an annual basis to fund retirement is a popular rule of thumb. Individuals and families need to examine their personal factors such as: current income and required retirement income, projected longevity, age at retirement, expected investment rate of return and the inflation factor. Seek the help of a Certified Financial Planner in examining these issues and quantifying their meaning in your circumstance moving into your 2015 saving strategies. Will the Santa Clause rally in equity markets for 2014 sustain? This phenomenon is due to actively managed funds’ attempts to enhance annual performance at the last minute in part with the expectation that investors will follow the pattern. It has worked historically and is so far showing progress in December of 2014 even with the relatively soft global economic conditions and the significant drop in oil prices!! Good Luck!! For The Record: DJIA 17,804.80 NASDAQ 4,765.38 S&P 500 2,070.65 Suggested Reading: “FYI For Your Improvement” By Lombardo and Eichinger

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