PHANTOM: Income Tax on TIPS

By Staff Reporters

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“Phantom Tax” or “Phantom Income” for direct owners of Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) TIPS adjust their principal values and interest payments for inflation. As with other directly owned Treasury securities, TIPS principal, including the inflation adjustments, is not paid back to investors until the securities mature.

However, the principal adjustments are taxed by the IRS as income in the year in which they occur, even though no actual payments are made in those years to investors who own TIPS directly. This is why this income is called “phantom income” and the tax on it is known as the “phantom tax.”

Investors can avoid the phantom income/tax issue for TIPS by holding TIPS in tax-deferred retirement accounts. Mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) typically take the “phantom” factor out of TIPS ownership by distributing the principal adjustments as taxable dividends.

As with direct ownership of TIPS, the tax consequences of these distributions by mutual funds and ETFs can be reduced by holding TIPS-owning instruments in tax-deferred retirement accounts

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STOCK MARKET TRAPS: Overbought Bulls and Oversold Bears

By Staff Reporters

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What Is a Bull Trap?

A bull trap, according to James Chen, is a false signal, referring to a declining trend in a stock, index, or other security that reverses after a convincing rally and breaks a prior support level. The move “traps” traders or investors that acted on the buy signal and generates losses on resulting long positions. A bull trap may also refer to a whipsaw pattern. Read: Bull Trap.”

What is a Bear Trap

The opposite of a bull trap is a bear trap, which occurs when sellers fail to press a decline below a breakdown level.

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PCE: Personal Consumption Expenditures

By Staff Reporters

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PCE or the Personal Consumption Expenditures (“PCE”) price deflator—comes from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ quarterly report on U.S. gross domestic product—and is based on a survey of businesses and is intended to capture the price changes in all final goods, no matter the purchaser.

Because of its broader scope and certain differences in the methodology used to calculate the PCE price index, the Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) holds the PCE deflator as its preferred, consistent measure of inflation over time.

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DAILY UPDATE: Medicare Tele-Health Out as DJIA Finishes Up a Tad

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Absent Congressional action, beginning January 1sy, 2025, the statutory limitations that were in place for Medicare telehealth services prior to the COVID-19 PHE will retake effect for most telehealth services.

This means most telehealth visits will not be covered by Medicare in 2025, unless Congress acts by the end of December 2024.

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(Reuters) -The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed fractionally higher on Thursday, stretching its winning streak to five sessions despite light trading volumes and rising U.S. Treasury yields weighing on some of the dominant technology megacaps.

While the NASDAQ Composite and the S&P 500 were broadly unchanged, the indexes both finished slightly in negative territory. This snapped the NASDAQ’s four-session run of higher closes, and ended the S&P 500’s own run at three sessions.

On a day of few catalysts, investors responded to yields on U.S. government bonds inching higher, including the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hitting its highest since early May at 4.64% earlier in the session. And, a strong auction of seven-year notes early in the afternoon though helped yields come off slightly, with the 10-year note at 4.58% in late-afternoon trade.

Higher yields are traditionally seen as negative for growth stocks, as it raises the cost of their borrowing to fund expansion. With markets increasingly dominated by the megacap technology stocks known as the Magnificent Seven, crimping their performance – especially in lieu of other market catalysts – will put downward pressure on benchmark indexes.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

The S&P 500 slipped 2.45 points, or 0.04%, to 6,037.59 points, while the NASDAQ Composite lost 10.77 points, or 0.05%, to 20,020.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28.77 points, or 0.07%, to 43,325.80.

Six of the megacaps fell, with Tesla leading decliners with a 1.8% fall. The outlier was Apple, rising 0.3% and continuing to edge closer to becoming the first company in the world to hit a market value of $4 trillion.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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CORPORATE EARNINGS: Per Share, Yield and EBDITA

DEFINITIONS

By Staff Reporters

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Earnings per share (EPS): The portion of a company’s profits allocated to each outstanding share of its common stock. It is as an indicator of a company’s profitability.

Earnings yield: Earnings per share for the most recent 12 months, divided by the current market price per share; it is the inverse of the price to earnings (P/E) ratio.

EBITDA: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is an approximate measure of a company’s operating cash flow.

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TRUST: Deferred Sales

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters

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A deferred sales trust (DST) is an advanced tax strategy that allows investors to delay capital gains taxes on the sale of assets that have significantly risen in value, such as real estate or businesses. By selling the asset to a trust, the seller can receive payments over time, spreading out tax liabilities and allowing the profits to grow tax-deferred.

For example, a business owner may sell their company to a DST, avoiding a large tax bill upfront and instead receive income over multiple years. However, DSTs can be complex, and there are often fees involved in setting up and maintaining the trust.

Now, let’s point out some of the pros and cons of Deferred Sales Trusts.

One potential positive feature of using an installment sale to defer your capital gains taxes rather than a 1031 exchange is that installment sales don’t come with the same strict guidelines that govern 1031 exchanges. In particular, in light of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, 1031 exchanges are restricted to real property, whereas Deferred Sales Trusts and other installment sale arrangements can be used to defer capital gains for any kind of asset.

Conversely, the IRS has provided little to no guidance on how to defer taxes using an installment sale.

The basic rationale behind why you don’t receive capital gain is that you are not profiting immediately from the sale made with a Deferred Sales Trust. Given this rationale, there are various constraints on how a Deferred Sales Trust must be organized so that no capital gains taxes are in fact realized.

  • The third party to whom you transfer your asset generally cannot be a “related person” to you, such as a family member or a corporation in which you hold an interest. Except in special circumstances, if you attempt to set up a Deferred Sales Trust with a related person it will be viewed as a “sham trust” made just for the purposes of avoiding capital gains taxes, and will not be protected by the provisions in Section 453.
  • As with the 1031 exchange, you, the seller, cannot at any point in the transfer of your asset be in constructive receipt of the proceeds from the third party’s sale of that asset. To successfully defer capital gains taxes, either the third party or the trust of which they are trustee must be the only party which receives cash in the sale of the transferred asset. This includes receipt of a bond which is payable on demand.

This has been a general, informal introduction to Deferred Sales Trusts. As always, before attempting to carry out any important financial decision, investors should consult with a qualified tax or legal advisor regarding the specifics of their situation.

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HFR INVESTMENTS: Two Credit Indices

By Staff Reporters

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HFRI Fund of Funds Composite Index invests with multiple managers through funds or managed accounts. The strategy designs a diversified portfolio of managers with the objective of significantly lowering the risk (volatility) of investing with an individual manager. The Fund of Funds manager may allocate funds to numerous managers within a single strategy, or with numerous managers in multiple strategies. The investor has the advantage of diversification among managers and styles with significantly less capital than investing with separate managers. The HFRI Fund of Funds Index is not included in the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index.

HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index is a global, equal-weighted index of over 2,000 single-manager funds that report to HFR Database. Constituent funds report monthly net of all fees performance in U.S. Dollar and have a minimum of $50 Million under management or a twelve (12) month track record of active performance. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index does not include Funds of Hedge Funds.

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SECTOR ALLOCATION: Mutual Funds

By Staff Reporters

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Sector allocation in an equity or fixed-income context refers to a portfolio managers’ decision to invest in a particular broad market sector or industry.

A sector allocation or breakdown can help an investor observe the investment allocations of a mutual or other fund. Fund companies regularly provide sector reporting in their marketing materials. Sector investing can influence investments in the fund. A fund may target a specific sector such as technology, or seek to diversify among many sectors.

Some funds may have restraints on sector investments. This may occur with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) focused funds. These funds seek to exclude industries or companies that their investors consider undesirable for various reasons such as tobacco producers or oil exploration companies.

The ultimate sector allocation decision is likely to combine macroeconomic views with judgments about inter-sector and intra-sector relative values, among other reasons.

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NOMINAL YIELD: Calculation

DEFINED

By Staff Reporters

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Nominal yield, for most bonds and other fixed-income securities, is simply the yield you see listed online or in newspapers. Most nominal fixed-income yields include some extra yield, an “inflation premium,” that is typically priced/added into the yields to help offset the effects of inflation.

Real yields, such as those for TIPS, don’t have the inflation premium. As a result, nominal yields are typically higher than TIPS yields and other real yields.

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MAASTRICHT Treaty

By Staff Reporters

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The Maastricht Treaty, signed February 7th, 1992, in Maastricht, the Netherlands, created the European Union (EU) and led to the creation of the euro(€); the single currency adopted by most EU member states.

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CHRISTMAS EVE GIFTS: Keeping Up with the Jones

Feeling the Pressure to “Give”

By Rick Kahler MS CFP®

Are you feeling any pressure this Christmas season to give, give, give? Keeping up with the Joneses all year is hard enough. It gets even worse during the holidays, when we feel pressured to keep up, not just with the Joneses, but also with the expectations others, and ourselves, put on Santa Claus.

Some Christmas shoppers overspend on gifts and end up paying off credit card bills for months. Others drive themselves crazy trying to find exactly the right gifts for the right people. Others hate the whole idea of shopping so much that they find it hard to enjoy the season.

If you fit into any of these categories, the cause may be your money scripts. The unconscious beliefs about money that we all hold are especially likely to kick in this time of year. We are surrounded by expectations and pressures about “ideal” holiday celebrations with the perfect gifts, the perfect decorations, and the perfect foods. As a result, we are especially vulnerable to making money decisions blindly in response to beliefs we don’t even realize we hold.

You may be one of those who regularly end up spending significantly more on gifts than you intended to. You may impulsively buy additional, unbudgeted gifts for people you’ve already bought presents for. You may not even try to set holiday spending limits. You may overspend on things for yourself while you’re Christmas shopping.

  • If any of these are true for you, you may have some unconscious beliefs about money that drive you to overspend. See whether any of the following money scripts might fit for you:
  • “The more you spend, the more love you show.”
  • “It takes the joy out of giving if you pinch pennies.”
  • “It’s the season for giving lavishly, not for being a Scrooge.”
  • “If I don’t buy just the right gifts, people won’t like or respect me.”
  • “I need to give my kids more than I got when I was a child.”
  • “More gifts and more spending will make the holidays okay (and make my guilt go away).”
  • “It’s tradition. Everyone expects (whatever) from me.”
  • “I do so much for everyone else; I deserve something for myself, too.”

It’s also possible you may go to the opposite extreme and be a Grinch when it comes to the holidays. If you hate Christmas shopping, grumble about the holiday being so commercialized, and look forward to January, it’s possible you may hold some money scripts that drive you to underspend. Your beliefs may be similar to the following:

  • “It’s wrong to spend money except on necessities.”
  • “You aren’t a spiritual or religious person if you spend too much money.”
  • “Christmas shouldn’t be about money.”
  • “It’s wrong to spend money on luxuries when poor people are suffering.”
  • “It isn’t good for kids to get too much.”
  • “My kids shouldn’t have more than I had when I was a child.”

Christmas Wreath

If you’d like to change some aspects of what you do and how you feel about holiday spending, you may find it useful to take a closer look at your own beliefs about the season. One way to begin this is to quickly write answers (short statements are best) to the following questions: What do I believe about money and each of the following? Christmas? Family celebrations? Presents? Giving? Spending? Receiving?

Assessment

You may uncover some money scripts similar to the ones listed above. Learning why you tend to overspend or under spend this time of year won’t instantly change what you do. Yet understanding what is behind your pattern of holiday spending is an important way to start becoming a more conscious Christmas shopper.

Conclusion

Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Risk Management, Liability Insurance, and Asset Protection Strategies for Doctors and Advisors: Best Practices from Leading Consultants and Certified Medical Planners™8Comprehensive Financial Planning Strategies for Doctors and Advisors: Best Practices from Leading Consultants and Certified Medical Planners™

EUROPEAN UNION Paradox

By Staff Reporters

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The European Union Paradox is the perceived failure of European countries to translate scientific advances into marketable innovations.

The root of this issue remains debated: is it due to the scientific output being distant from the cutting-edge, or is it because the European innovation system lacks the capacity to harness the potential of groundbreaking research?

And so, this study reveals that, compared to similar European research, the European Research Council has a similar probability of being cited in patents, although it garners a larger number of patent citations. Moreover, patents that do draw upon ERC research are often of superior quality, measured by forward citations.

Compared to similar European research, inventive activities arising from ERC science are predominantly housed within universities and public research organizations. In absolute terms, however, US organizations, especially US companies, still lead in deriving the greatest benefit from ERC science.

Cite: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4635463

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PRIMARY MARKETS: Exchange Traded Funds

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Primary Market: The primary market is also part of the stock market but differs from the secondary market because it only sells newly issued stocks.

Primary Market for Exchange Traded Funds: The primary market is where ETF shares are created and redeemed amongst ETF issuers and authorized participants. This is where the underlying basket of securities that make up an ETF is created. Shares of ETFs are made in large batches called Creation Units—usually 25,000 to 600,000 ETF shares are created at a time through this process.

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STOCK INDEX: Hang Seng

By Staff Reporters

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The Hang Seng Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization-weighted stock market index and the main indicator of overall market performance in Hong Kong. It launched in 1969.

The Hang Seng Index (HSI) tracks and records daily changes in the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and serves as the primary indicator of overall market performance in Hong Kong. Its’ 82 constituent companies represent about 58% of the capitalization of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

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FREDDIE MAC: (FHLMC-Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation)

By Staff Reporters

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Freddie Mac (FHLMC-Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation)

Freddie Mac is a GSE [government-sponsored enterprise] established by Congress. It’s similar to Fannie Mae with a publicly owned corporate structure. (Freddie Mac’s stock (FRE) trades on the New York Stock Exchange.) These two giant GSEs increase liquidity in the U.S. mortgage market by purchasing mortgages from lenders, then typically repackaging (securitizing) the debt and reselling it to investors, helping to create a “secondary” market for mortgages.

The GSEs’ main purpose is to assure that mortgage money is available for borrowers. But they don’t lend money directly. Instead, they purchase mortgages from “primary” lenders like mortgage companies, banks, and credit unions. That allows the primary lenders to replenish their funds and lend more money to home buyers. The GSEs finance their mortgage purchases by issuing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and other debt instruments (often referred to as agency debt, even though, technically, the GSEs aren’t government agencies). GSE debt is considered to have relatively high credit quality based on its implicit government backing, reinforced by what happened during the Financial Crisis in 2008.

Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into government conservatorship in September 2008, the government has pledged to support any shortfall in the balance sheets of the two GSEs. The U.S. Treasury has said it will ensure that both GSEs can maintain a positive net worth and fulfill all of their financial obligations. This statement of support lends credence to the very high credit ratings of MBS and other debt issued by Fannie and Freddie.

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BONDS: Revenue

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters

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Revenue bonds are one of the biggest sectors in the municipal debt market.

Unlike a general obligation (GO) bond, revenue bonds are not backed by a municipal issuer’s taxing authority. Instead, interest and principal are secured by the net revenues (tolls, fees, or other charges tied to usage) from the project or facility being financed.

Revenue bonds are issued to finance a variety of capital projects, including construction or refurbishment of utility and waste disposal systems, highways, bridges, tunnels, air and seaport facilities, schools and hospitals.

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AUSTERITY: Financial Measures

By Staff Reporters

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Austerity Financial Measures describe official actions (typically taken under duress) by financially challenged governments (those that are under the threat of otherwise not being able to meet all of their obligations to debt holders and other creditors) to reduce the amount of money they spend, freeing more of it for paying off liabilities.

Austerity measures commonly involve deficit cutting, reduced spending, and cuts in government benefits and services provided. They are considered a “necessary evil,” along with revenue-raising measures, for bringing government budgets back into financial balance.

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FOMC: Cuts Interest Rates

BREAKING NEWS!

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By Staff Reporters

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The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point just now, delivering relief for borrowers at the central bank’s last meeting before President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month. The central bank predicted fewer rate cuts next year than it had previously indicated, however, suggesting concern that inflation may prove more difficult to bring under control than policymakers thought just a few months ago.

The move marked the third consecutive interest rate cut since the Fed opted to start dialing back its fight against inflation in the fall. The FOMC has lowered interest rates by a percentage point in recent months.

However, the Fed’s forecast said it anticipates only a half a percentage point of rate cuts next year and another half-percent cut in 2026.

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DAILY UPDATE: PBMs and Healthcare A.I. as All Major Market Indexes Drop

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Stat: 97%. That’s how many healthcare leaders think A.I. will become important in healthcare over the next five years.

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Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are once again under pressure from federal leaders. A group of Democratic and Republican congresspeople proposed legislation that would attempt to prevent pharmacies from also owning PBMs. The three largest PBMs—CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx—currently operate pharmacies and administer more than 80% of the prescriptions in the US, and officials have linked this practice to drug price increases.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

US stocks fell across the board on Tuesday, with the Dow logging its biggest losing streak in 46 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) finished the session down roughly 0.6%, registering its ninth straight day of losses. The last 9-day losing streak for the Dow was Feb. 1978. Prior to that, the index suffered an 11-day losing streak in 1974 and another in 1971.

The other major indexes dropped in tandem on Tuesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) falling around 0.4% and the NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) losing about 0.3% after the tech-heavy index closed at a record high on Monday.

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Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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BBD: The Buy-Borrow-Die Tax Strategy for Physicians

DR. DAVID EDWARD MARCINKO MBA MEd

By Staff Reporters

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Here’s how the Buy, Borrow, Die strategy works step-by-step:

Step 1. Buy Assets

This step, broadly known as the accumulation phase, is about acquiring or creating valuable assets. It’s the most critical step taken by wealthy individuals to secure their wealth. Billionaires, for instance, often created startups that eventually turned into massive corporations. The asset here is the company they’ve established.

However, this isn’t the only way to accumulate assets. For professionals like doctors and lawyers, this phase involves securing a high-paying job and buying assets that have the potential to appreciate over time—like stocks, real estate, and private capital. Once an individual reaches a substantial level of wealth, they can leverage these assets in interesting ways using the next step of this strategy. 

Step 2. Borrow Against Your Assets

This where the assets you’ve acquired are used as collateral to borrow money—all without triggering a taxable event.

Suppose you’ve got a robust stock portfolio. You can then take out a Securities Backed Line of Credit (SBLOC). This kind of loan lets you tap into the value of your portfolio without having to sell off any assets and subsequently paying capital gains taxes. What makes SBLOCs attractive to lenders is the relative ease with which the securities can be seized and sold, making them a low-risk lending option.

The ceiling for such a loan is usually around 50% of your portfolio’s value. However, we often caution against borrowing more than 25% of your account balance, especially for long-term loans. This will provide a cushion against stock market volatility, much like what we experienced in 2022 and 2023.

Borrowing against assets isn’t limited to stock portfolios either. Let’s say you own a home and have built up a certain amount of equity in it. You could opt for a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), using your home as collateral. Banks tend to favor real estate-backed loans due to their stability compared to the fluctuating value of stocks.

Step 3. Die and Pass Your Wealth On

The final step in the strategy is where the proverbial tax baton is handed off to the next generation.

Under the existing tax code, when you pass away, your heirs receive a “stepped-up basis” on the assets they inherit from you. This means that their cost basis—the original amount paid for an asset—is stepped up to the market value of the asset at the time of your death. Meaning once you have passed away, your heirs would be able to sell the assets without having to pay taxes on the capital gain. Imagine you had purchased a building 20 years ago for $1 million and over the years, the value of that building increased to $2.5 million. If you were to pass away at this point, your heirs would inherit the building with the stepped-up cost basis of $2.5 million. This implies that if they decide to sell the property at this valuation, they wouldn’t owe any capital gains tax. This is because for tax purposes, their gain is calculated from the $2.5 million, not the original $1 million.

By utilizing this loophole, families can pass on their wealth without incurring a hefty tax bill. This is why many wealthy families set up trusts – it’s a way to manage and pass on their wealth at a stepped-up cost basis.

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ACTIVE: Transparent Exchange Traded Funds

DEFINITION

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By Staff Reporters

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Active transparent ETFs: Daily disclosure of portfolio holdings is an attribute of traditional index-based Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Active transparent exchange traded funds are actively managed by a portfolio manager or team of managers. As with index-based ETFs, their portfolio holdings are disclosed daily.

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EXPECTED: Breakeven Inflation Rate

Measure of Expected Inflation

By Staff Reporters

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The breakeven inflation rate is the difference between the nominal yield (usually the market yield, which includes an inflation premium) on a fixed-income investment and the real yield (with no inflation premium) on an inflation-linked investment of similar maturity and credit quality.

So, if inflation averages more than the breakeven rate, the inflation-linked investment will outperform the investment with the nominal yield.

Conversely, if inflation averages below the breakeven rate, the investment with the nominal yield will outperform the inflation-linked investment.

Breakeven inflation rates are also considered useful measures of inflation expectations—higher breakeven rates represent higher inflation expectations (and higher relative prices for inflation-linked investments), while lower breakeven rates represent lower inflation expectations (and lower relative prices for inflation-linked investments).

Therefore, ideally, investors want to purchase inflation-linked investments when breakeven rates are relatively low because that’s typically when prices are also relatively low.

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COMMODITIES: Futures and Intensity Types

By Staff Reporters

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DEFINITIONS

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Commodities: Commodities are raw materials or primary agricultural products that can be bought or sold on an exchange or market. Examples include grains such as corn, foods such as coffee, and metals such as copper.

Commodity Futures: Agreements to buy or sell a specific amount of a commodity or financial instrument at a particular price on a stipulated future date related to basic raw materials such as precious metals and natural resources.

Commodity Intensity: Commodity intensity refers to commodity usage per unit of economic growth. An emerging, more manufacturing-based economy will usually be more commodity intensive in terms of its growth than will a more developed, service-oriented economy.

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FINANCIAL: Rule of 20 Defined

A Dimensionless Number

By Staff Reporters

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What is the Rule of 20?

The Rule of 20 is a dimensionless number that adds the current 12-month trailing Price to Earnings Ratio to the annual change in an index of the annual consumer inflation rate. A reading below 20, while a market is trending lower, means that we could be near a bottom.

In the United States, the most common index used is the broad-based S&P 500, and CPI-U is used as a proxy for inflation.

The Rule of 20 is purportedly a rule from Peter Lynch. In chapter 39 of Graham and Dodd’s seminal Security Analysis, they mention: “We would suggest that about 20 times average earnings is as high a price as can be paid in an investment purchase of a common stock” … with no mention of inflation.

Lynch’s formulation attempts to factor the ‘gravity’ of interest rates into the fair value of a stock. And, as you can see, the measure has fluctuated quite a bit. However, it has returned to roughly the 20 level repeatedly.

MORE: https://dqydj.com/sp-500-rule-of-20-calculator/

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LEGAL: Pro Hac Vice Defined

By Staff Reporters

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Pro hac vice is Law Latin that means “for this time [only]” (literally, “for this turn”). When a lawyer is admitted to a case pro hac vice, a court has granted them a limited license to practice in a jurisdiction where they otherwise would not be licensed to do so.

For example, a lawyer licensed only to practice in California may nonetheless practice in a New York case once a court has granted them admission pro hac vice, so long as the lawyer practices only within the limited scope of their pro hac vice admission. In almost all U.S. jurisdictions, lawyers who practice pro hac vice must do so in conjunction with a local lawyer acting as local counsel. Local counsel typically acts as an anchor to the bar of a foreign jurisdiction, exposing local counsel to liability for the acts or omissions of the lawyer admitted pro hac vice. Local counsel therefore usually assumes, at a minimum, a role of monitoring the lawyer admitted pro hac vice.

READ: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/pro_hac_vice

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MERCHANT: Cash Advance Loans

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters

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A Merchant Cash Advance is a specific type of convoluted financial agreement that lets the issuer bypass laws that limit interest rates on business loans. They are almost always targeted toward companies in dire financial straits that have nowhere else to turn to in order to get loans.

These loans have most often been compared to the business equivalent of a payday lender. 

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SEC: 30 Day Yield and 52 Week Stock Drawdown Price

By Staff Reporters

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The 30-Day SEC Yield represents net investment income earned by a fund over a 30-day period, expressed as an annual percentage rate based on the fund’s share price at the end of the 30-day period. The SEC Yield should be regarded as an estimate of the fund’s rate of investment income, and it may not equal the fund’s actual income distribution rate, the income paid to a shareholder’s account, or the income reported in the fund’s financial statements.

The 52-Week Drawdown is the lowest price at which a security, such as a stock, has traded during the previous 52 weeks

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INFORMATION RATIO: Formula of Active Investment Managers

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters

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The Information Ratio (IR) is a risk-adjusted rate of return measure for comparing the performance of active investment managers over time. Its purpose is to help determine how much return an active portfolio manager has added per unit of active management risk.

Think of IR as a Sharpe Ratio for active investment management; the IR is more focused than the Sharpe Ratio. Starting with the Sharpe Ratio’s formula, if we replace the excess return in the numerator with a portfolio’s active return (the average annualized return of an actively managed portfolio minus the average annualized return of the portfolio’s benchmark over a given period, adjusted for the portfolio’s market risk exposure), and you replace the Sharpe Ratio’s standard deviation of excess returns in the denominator with the standard deviation of a portfolio’s active returns over the period, you have the IR.

While the Sharpe Ratio expresses the amount of excess return per unit of overall risk, the IR computes only the active management-driven (alpha) returns per unit of alpha-driven risk. And while the Sharpe Ratio’s excess returns are calculated with regard to what is considered to be a relatively risk-free asset, such as a U.S. Treasury bill, the IR’s active returns are calculated with regard to each portfolio’s specific market benchmark.

The higher the IR, the better. The IR should be measured over a meaningful period of time, typically at least three to five years. The IR is not perfect–it can be influenced by external factors such as changes in market volatility. The standard deviation of active returns in the IR’s denominator is called tracking error. Tracking error will tend to increase in volatile markets for even the best active managers.

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CMO: Collateralized Mortgage Obligations

By Staff Reporters

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Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) are a form of securitized debt derived from mortgage-backed securities. It’s a form of derivative security. Like most MBS pass-through securities, CMOs are typically backed by pools of residential mortgages and their payments. But not all investors want to receive the monthly payments of principal and interest that “plain vanilla” MBS pass-throughs offer–some prefer just the principal, some prefer just the interest, or some want payments with other particular/special characteristics.

For them, the cash flows from MBS can be pooled and structured into many classes of CMOs with different maturities and payment schedules, creating securities with very specific characteristics and behaviors. These characteristics and behaviors can vary widely. Some CMOs can offer less risk than “plain-vanilla” MBS, or can help offset other forms of risk in a diversified portfolio, but others can be much more volatile.

CMOs typically have two or more bond classes, called tranches. Each tranche has its own expected maturity and cash flow pattern. The unique cash flow patterns of each CMO tranche allow investors to tailor their mortgage exposure to meet a range of investment objectives, since different classes can have different risk/return characteristics.

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DEFINED: Public Benefit Corporations

By Staff Reporters

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What Is a Public Benefit Corporation?

A benefit corporation—also known as a B Corporation—has shareholders who own the company, unlike a non-profit. So making money is the point, just not the whole point.

While non-profits (or not-for-profits) serve a public benefit and don’t make any profits, benefit corporations want to make money while still serving a greater purpose than itself “and a desire for the corporation to help make the world a better place,” according to Rick Bell of Harvard Business Services.

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DAILY UPDATE: Stock Markets Slide

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

FRIDAY 13th = Triskaidekaphobia

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

Serving Almost One Million Doctors, Financial Advisors and Medical Management Consultants Daily

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) were both about 0.5%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) fell roughly 0.6% while shares of Apple (AAPL) rallied less than 1% to close at a record high.

In bonds, the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) added 5 basis points to hit 4.32%, its highest closing level since November 22nd.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

On a day where President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street failed to build on a furious rally that has picked up steam after his election win. In focus was fresh inflation data, which helped cast doubt on investor confidence for the path of interest rates ahead.

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Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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PHYSICIAN CREDIT: Ratings, Scoring, Errors and Repair Services

ALMOST ALL ABOUT CREDIT

By Staff Reporters

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Credit Rating and Scoring

The category in which a credit agency classifies you is based upon payment history.  Recently, credit reporting agencies have shifted away from ratings to a system known as credit scoring. Your score is determined by proprietary formulas that are based on your credit history, the higher the better. The practical benefits of this scoring system are numerous.

First, medical professionals do not need to be experts at deciphering credit reports since the same scoring system is used by many different companies.

Correcting Credit Report Errors

A credit bureau is not the place to get an item to be fixed on your credit report. Rather, you must take it up directly with the credit issuer. In any case, a late payment noted on a credit report by a durable medical equipment vendor, for example, has to be addressed directly with that merchant. The DME merchant then has 30 days to acknowledge your complaint and respond to you. In the meantime, you do not have to pay for the disputed items.  Most credit errors cannot be reported or kept on your credit report for more than seven years.

For legitimate late payments you should contact the credit grantor and negotiate to take one of the following steps. Be tenacious, and either remove the late payment or write a letter explaining that the problem has been resolved and you now are a good credit risk again. This letter is a powerful tool and should be saved with other permanent financial records. The industry term for it is a letter of correction.

Credit Repair Services

Credit repair services are oversold and their claims tend to be exaggerated. They do not have an inside track to the consumer reporting agencies.  Good credit repair services are experienced in communicating with creditors and can help with legitimate repairs.  They cannot restore your credit rating or your good name. 

However, realize that with some time and effort you can accomplish the same results yourself.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

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MYOPIA: Prime Financial Earning Years

COGNITIVE BIAS

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By Staff Reporters

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Myopia makes it hard for us to imagine what our lives might be like in the future.

For example, because we are young, healthy, and in our prime earning years now, it may be hard for us to picture what life will be like when our health depletes and we know longer have the earnings necessary to support our standard of living.

According to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, this short sighted cognitivebias makes it hard to save adequately when we are young, when saving does the most good.

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DAILY UPDATE: Bitcoin and Big Technology Stocks Soar as DJIA Slips

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

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In crypto, bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices soared to trade above $101,300 a token in afternoon trade.

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Big Tech stocks led the market higher on Wednesday, as investors digested another month of sticky inflation data that met economists’ expectations and likely pointed to a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) jumped about 1.7% amid a feverish rally in the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks. Google parent Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) shares extended gains to hit a record high, rising more than 5%.

Meanwhile Tesla (TSLA), Meta (META) and Amazon (AMZN) all also surged to record highs, with Tesla notching its first record close in more than three years. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose around 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped about 0.2%.

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Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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MEDIA HEADLINES: Financial Security Risk Management

By Staff Reporters

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Headline risk refers to the risk that a negative news media headline about one security issuer, incident or sector could affect the demand for and pricing of a much wider swath of securities, including those that have no direct relation to the securities headlined and whose fundamentals (defined above) remain intact.

Financial analyst Meredith Whitney’s appearance on “Sixty Minutes” in December 2010 was a classic example of the potential impact of headline risk, when her prediction of “a spate of municipal bond defaults” helped trigger a massive municipal bond market selloff, even though most municipal bonds actually faced no immediate default threat at that time, and the number of municipal defaults actually declined in the subsequent 12 months.

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MARCINKO ASSOCIATES: Physician Wealth Advisors and Practice Management Consultants

FIDUCIARY MEDICAL COLLEAGUES – FEE ONLY – NO PRODUCT OR SALES COMMISSIONS

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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DEAR MEDICAL COLLEAGUES

Achieving your financial, wealth and medical practice management goals is important, but handling everything on your own can be overwhelming. That’s where we come in. At D. E. Marcinko & Associates, our team of dual degree experienced physician advisors and medical consultants is here to guide you every step of the way. We believe in providing unbiased, high-quality financial and business advice.

For example, we offer a one-time written financial plan with oral evaluation for a flat fee with no ongoing sales or assets under management fees or commissions. Together, we can create a personalized financial plan tailored to your unique goals, empowering you to make confident, informed decisions as you navigate your financial future.

Other Services Include:

  • Estate Planning We have a network of qualified legal professionals that we can refer you to for state specific estate planning needs.
  • Tax Strategy We can work alongside your CPA for tax planning purposes. If needed, we can refer you to a qualified tax professional.
  • Investment Analysis If you have investments, we review your accounts to make sure they are aligned with your long-term goals.
  • 401-k Allocations We evaluate your 401(k) allocations and provide recommendations that align with your goals.
  • Education Savings We help you explore the various ways to plan and save for education expenses.
  • Insurance & Risk Management We assess your insurance coverage to ensure it adequately protects you against potential risks; as well as evaluate and provide expert litigation witnesses, as needed.
  • Medical Practice Management We evaluate your current or potential medical practice to determine value and/or private equity offers or physician practice management formats [PPMC] for new, mid-career or retiring physicians, nurses and dentists.   

D. E. Marcinko & Associates is unique and fully committed to all phases of a medical professionals personal and business life cycle. We are at your service 24/7: Email MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com

ANN MILLER RN MHA CMP

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DAILY UPDATE: Walgreens to PE as CPI Upticks and Markets Blast Off this Morning

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

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According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, the pharmacy chain Walgreen’s is discussing selling to private equity (PE) firm Sycamore Partners, a deal that could close early next year. This comes following a tumultuous year for the company, which announced it would close 1,200 stores in October and laid off more than 250 employees in November. The PE firm is allegedly considering selling off pieces of the business or working with partners, sources told the Journal. Following the news, Walgreens’s stock jumped 28%, its biggest single-day increase since 1980, according to Yahoo Finance.

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Inflation rose 2.7% on an annual basis in November, according to the latest government report on the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. Last month’s CPI was forecast to come in at 2.7%, according to economists surveyed by financial data firm FactSet. The Consumer Price Index, a basket of goods and services typically bought by consumers, tracks the change in those prices over time. 

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US stocks opened higher on Wednesday as investors digested another month of sticky inflation data that met economists’ expectations and likely pointed to a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) increased about 0.2%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) jumped nearly 0.5%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) also added to across-the-board gains, rising roughly 0.8%.

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Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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What is Mutual Fund WINDOW DRESSING?

DEFINITION

By Staff Reporters

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To most people the holiday season means decorations at home and at work, but it also can mean “window dressing” in your mutual fund.

This somewhat disparaging term is used to describe the practice of a mutual fund making cosmetic changes to its portfolio just before the end of each calendar quarter. It’s done because funds publish their exact holdings of securities four times a year based on what they own at the end of each quarter.

“The basic concept is that managers are either hiding their mistakes or adding winners to make themselves look a little smarter,” says Russ Kinnel, director of manager research at fund researcher Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. “Of course, it doesn’t necessarily help performance,” he adds.

Santa Rally: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2021/12/16/what-is-the-santa-claus-stock-market-rally/

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RICHARD EASTERLIN: Happiness Paradox

By Staff Reporters

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Richard Easterlin PhD, Paradox: For countries with income sufficient to meet basic needs, the reported level of happiness does not correlate with national income per person.

According to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, one explanation is that my happiness depends on a comparison between my income and my perceptions of the average standard of living. If everyone’s income increases, my increased income gives a short boost to my happiness, since I do not realize that the average standard of living has gone up. Some time later, I realize that the average standard of living has also gone up, so the happiness boost produced by my increased income disappears. It is the contradiction between the point-of-time and time series findings that is the root of the paradox: while there is a correlation at a fixed point, there is no trend over multiple points.

That is, in the short run, everyone perceives increases in income to be correlated with happiness and tries to increase their incomes. However, in the long run, this proves to be an illusion, since everyone’s efforts to raise standards of living lead to increasing averages, leaving everyone in the same place in terms of relative income.

Various theories have been advanced to explain the paradox, but the paradox itself is solely an empirical generalization. The existence of the paradox has been strongly disputed by other researchers.

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RENT: Owner’s Equivalent Price

By Staff Reporters

DEFINITION

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CPI does not measure changes in shelter costs by looking at home prices, but by measuring the amount of rent that could be paid to substitute a currently owned house for an equivalent rental property.

Owners’ equivalent rent (OER) is a dollar amount that is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to measure the change in implicit rent, which is the amount a homeowner would pay to rent or would earn from renting his or her home in a competitive market.

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MEMORY: Fallible & Impressionable

By Staff Reporters

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Memory is Fallible/Memory is Impressionable: This concept refers to the inherent unreliability of human memory and its susceptibility to distortion and manipulation. Memory is not a perfect recording of events; instead, it is reconstructive, meaning that when we recall information, our brains can inadvertently alter or fill in gaps based on existing beliefs, emotions, or narratives. This can lead to the incorporation of false details that align with what we already know or expect to be true, resulting in vivid but inaccurate recollections.

Consequently, according to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, our memories can be influenced by suggestion, context, and social pressures, making them susceptible to biases and inaccuracies, much like a “con man” leading us to believe things that may not reflect reality.

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SWAP AGREEMENTS: Transactions, Credit Default and Rates

By Staff Reporters

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DEFINITION

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Swaps (a.k.a. swap agreements) are two-party contracts entered into primarily by institutional investors for periods ranging from a few weeks to more than one year.

In a standard “swap” transaction, two parties agree to exchange the returns (or differentials in rates of return) earned or realized on particular predetermined investments or instruments. The gross returns to be exchanged or “swapped” between the parties are generally calculated with respect to a “notional amount,” i.e., the return on or increase in value of a particular dollar amount invested at a particular interest rate, in a particular foreign currency, or in a “basket” of securities representing a particular index.

Forms of swap agreements include interest rate swaps (under which fixed- or floating-rate interest payments on a specific principal amount are exchanged) and total return swaps (under which one party agrees to pay the other the total return of a defined underlying asset in exchange for fee payments).

In addition, credit default swaps enable an investor to buy/sell protection against a credit event of a specific issuer. The seller of credit protection against a security or basket of securities receives an up-front or periodic payment to compensate against potential default(s).

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ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS: Criteria and Integration

DEFINITIONS

By Staff Reporters

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Entitlement programs: From an economic overview or government budgeting perspective, entitlement programs are types of government programs that provide individuals with personal financial benefits (or sometimes special government-provided goods or services) to which an indefinite (but usually large) number of potential beneficiaries have a legal right when they meet specified eligibility requirements. The beneficiaries are normally individuals, but can also be organizations. The most important examples at the federal level in the U.S. include Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Criteria: The risk and/or opportunity to a company’s market valuation resulting from environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Depending on the sector, environmental and social factors include, but are not limited to, 1) climate change, 2) water stress, 3) product safety and quality (supply chain and manufacturing), 4) cybersecurity and data privacy, and 5) human capital management. Regardless of the sector, governance factors include: 1) business (mis)conduct, 2) board composition, independence and entrenchment, 3) accounting practices, 4) ownership structure, and 5) executive pay-for-sustainability performance alignment.

Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Integration: The structural incorporation of financially-relevant information on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors into the investment decision-making process.

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SYNTHETIC EQUITY: Deferred Compensation for Financial Advisors

DEFINED FOR FINANCIAL ADVISORS

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd

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Think of synthetic equity as a communal garden. You don’t own the plot, and you don’t necessarily have a say in what’s planted, but you’re guaranteed a share of the crops that are harvested. 

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

Synthetic equity is a form of deferred compensation that mirrors some of the benefits of real stock ownership without granting actual shares. It’s a contractual agreement between you and your employer that entitles you to a payout upon certain events—such as an IPO, acquisition, or surpassing earnings milestones.  

Companies use synthetic equity plans to motivate their personnel through growth-related incentives. In other words, it grants employees a sense of ownership without issuing shares or altering the business’s ownership structure. As the company succeeds and appreciates in value, so does your potential payout. Although you don’t own actual shares of company stock, you are compensated as if you did. 

READ: https://tinyurl.com/mr3upbn6

According to Carla McCabe, synthetic equity programs also have a significant tax advantage to both business owners and the key employees.

For example, when a key employee receives shares under the firm’s synthetic equity program, the IRS does not recognize that receipt as taxable income to the employee until he or she actually receives the money. This usually occurs when the firm is sold or when the employee retires and is cashed out (assuming the employee’s synthetic shares are vested). This is very attractive considering that regular shares are taxed as ordinary income and the employee basically has to pay the associated tax even though he or she didn’t receive any cash.

Of course, all this begs the question: Why would a company offer synthetic equity instead of actual equity?  

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STOCK MARKET: Capitalization, Depth, Maker, Neutral and Order

By Staff Reporters

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Market Capitalization: Market capitalization is the market value of all the equity of a company’s common and preferred shares. It is usually estimated by multiplying the stock price by the number of shares for each share class and summing the results.

Market Depth: The degree to which a market can execute large market orders without impacting the price of a security. For example, a “deep” market for a stock will have a sufficient number of both bid and ask orders to keep a big order from significantly moving the security’s price.

Market Maker: A market maker exists to “create a market” for specific company securities by being willing to buy and sell those securities at a specified displayed price and quantity to broker-dealer firms that are members of the exchange. These firms help keep financial markets liquid by making it easier for investors to buy and sell securities–they ensure that there is always someone to buy and sell to at the time of trade.

Market Neutral: Equity market neutral strategies seek to eliminate the risks of the equity market by holding up to 100% of net assets in long equity positions and up to 100% of net assets in short equity positions. These strategies attempt to exploit differences in stock prices by being long and short in stocks within the same sector, industry, market capitalization, etc. If successful, these strategies should generate returns independent of the equity market. Equity market neutral portfolios have two key sources of return:

  • the Treasury Bill return (the interest on proceeds from short sales held in cash as collateral)
  • the difference (the “spread”) between the return on the long positions and the return on the short positions. Stock picking, rather than broad market moves, should drive most of a market-neutral strategy’s total return (save for any return from the 100% cash position).

It’s important to point out that here is the risk of theoretical unlimited amount of loss with short selling, (i.e. the price of the short-sold stocks increases; the long position can only go down to $0).

Market Order: An order placed with a bank or brokerage firm to immediately buy or sell a security at the best available current price. May also be referred to as an “unrestricted order.”

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VALUATION OF HOSPITALS: Reimbursement Environment

By Health Capital Consultants, LLC

The U.S. government is the largest payor of medical costs, through Medicare and Medicaid, and has a strong influence on reimbursement to hospitals. In 2022, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for an estimated $944.3 billion and $805.7 billion in healthcare spending, respectively. The prevalence of these public payors in the healthcare marketplace often results in their acting as a price setter, and being used as a benchmark for private reimbursement rates.

This third installment of the series discusses the reimbursement environment in which hospitals operate. (Read more…) 

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PRIVATE Equity

DEFINITIONS

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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Private equity consists of investments made directly into private companies that are not quoted on a public exchange. The majority of private equity consists of institutional investors and accredited investors who can commit large sums of money for long periods of time.

Accredited Investors: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp

Private equity investments often demand long holding periods to allow for a turnaround of a distressed company or a liquidity event such as an initial public offering or sale to a public company.

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2025 MEDICARE: Agent & Broker Pay Day Changes

How insurance agents will be compensated for helping seniors?

By Staff Reporters

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Health insurance agents offering support to seniors signing up for healthcare coverage will be compensated differently starting in 2025. For example:

The government will pay $100 more per enrollment to agents who sign seniors up for Medicare Advantage Plans or Medicare Part D for the first time — a significant increase from the proposed $31 pay increase for agents.

And, Medicare is ending sales incentives for agents who currently receive bonuses, including volume-based bonuses, for signing people up for Medicare Advantage Plans, Medigap Supplement Plans or Part D. Medicare is also putting a stop to agents and brokers collecting “administrative fees” above the fixed compensation cap the government has put in place.

The hope is that providing agents with fair initial compensation will no longer incentivize them to steer seniors towards plans that may not be a good fit.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

PS: Medicare open enrollment ended December 7th, 2024. New plans commence January 1st, 2025

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MUNICIPALS: Securities, Yield Curve and Yield Ratio

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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Municipal Securities (munis): Debt securities typically issued by or on behalf of U.S. state and local governments, their agencies or authorities to raise money for a variety of public purposes, including financing for state and local governments as well as financing for specific projects and public facilities. In addition to their specific set of issuers, the defining characteristic of munis is their tax status. The interest income earned on most munis is exempt from federal income taxes. Interest payments are also generally exempt from state taxes if the bond owner resides within the state that issued the security. The same rule applies to local taxes.

Another interesting characteristic of munis: Individuals, rather than institutions, make up the largest investor base. In part because of these characteristics, munis tend to have certain performance attributes, including higher after-tax returns than other fixed income securities of comparable maturity and credit quality and low volatility relative to other fixed-income sectors.

The two main types of munis are general obligation bonds (GOs) and revenue bonds. GOs are munis secured by the full faith and credit of the issuer and usually supported by the issuer’s taxing power. Revenue bonds are secured by the charges tied to the use of the facilities financed by the bonds.

Municipal Yield Curve: The yield curve that illustrates the yields of a certain type of municipal security at its various maturities.

Municipal Yield Ratio: A yield ratio most often used to determine the relative value of municipal securities compared with U.S. Treasury securities. The ratio consists of the yield of a municipal security of a certain maturity divided by the yield of a U.S. Treasury security of the same maturity.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

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OPPS: Final Rule Issued by CMS

By Health Capital Consultants, LLC

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On November 1, 2024, CMS released its Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Final Rule for calendar year 2025. The rule finalizes payment updates, revises current programs, and establishes new standards to address the ongoing maternal health crisis.

This Health Capital Topics article discusses the key OPPS changes and updates included in the Final Rule. (Read more…)

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