By Mark Wendell

Wealth is not necessarily only a matter of money. Sometimes it’s about freedom, love, the attainment of long-held aspirations, sentimental asset ownership, or simply continuity, the sense of security that a change or a loss, inevitable and natural events along the long road of life, won’t set off an out-of-control cascade of sometimes avoidable disruptions and losses.

By Mark Wendell

President Harry Truman once said that he wanted to find a one-armed economist, because the other always answered his questions with, “on one hand… but on the other hand.” “If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion,” said George Bernard Shaw. President Ronald Reagan joked that if the game Trivial Pursuit were designed for economists, it would have 100 questions and 3,000 answers.

By Mark Wendell

Life is finite and infinitely precious.  Eleanor Roosevelt nailed it:  “Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is a mystery.  Today is a gift.  That’s why we call it ‘the present.’ ”

By Mark Wendell

Everyone should take time to go through a periodic estate plan review with a qualified professional financial advisor.  This process may be simple or very complex, depending upon the nature and size of an estate.  Many potentially perilous tax and/or penalty situations for the inheritor of Individual Retirement Account (IRA) assets can result from a lack of vigilance either when the IRA owner sets up the account or in the way the beneficiary accepts the assets.

By Mark Wendell

All of us want to educate our children, save on taxes, get a competitive return on our portfolios, have a successful career, plan a comfortable retirement, and have fulfilling relationships and good health. But beyond these familiar personal aspirations, most clients of financial professionals seldom discuss their deepest wishes, fears, desires, and feelings.

By Mark Wendell

(Source: All definitions extracted from www.investopedia.com)

Wall Street is replete with vocabulary that seems to be a mysterious foreign language. With an education objective, listed below are some important concepts frequently used by Advisors.

By Mark Wendell

James B. Stockdale stated in a speech in 1981 that from his horrific eight-year experience as a prisoner of war — extreme conditions of internment, torture, and endless, intense interrogations he and his fellow prisoners endured — he distilled one all-purpose, unoriginal idea. “It’s a simple idea, an idea as old as the scriptures, an idea that is the epitome of high-mindedness, an idea that naturally and spontaneously comes to men under pressure. If the pressure is intense enough or of long enough duration, this idea spreads without even the need for its enunciation…That idea is You are your brother’s keeper.” He added one of his favorite quotes by Francis Bacon: “Adversity doth best induce virtue, while luxury doth best induce vice.”