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Dear Reader,
May 1, 2012 - Vol 6 No 18
Economic Blogger Mike "Mish" Shedlock's wife has ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Mish is not asking for anything for his family, but has sponsored a raffle for ALS research. Please consider buying one or more tickets or making a small donation to the
Les Turner ALS Foundation.
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 Making the Right Wager on Client Longevity
By Manish Malhotra
Using annuities to fund retirement is anathema to most advisors, who view the loss of control over one's capital and impossibility of a bequest as nonstarters for their clients. But as clients reach the later stages of their retirement, those arguments no longer apply. A single-premium immediate annuity is superior to a TIPS ladder or a systematic-withdrawal portfolio for funding the last phase of retirement.
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Why MLPs Belong in Your Portfolio
By Geoff Considine
One would think that an asset class yielding 7% and carrying less volatility than do equities would be popular with investors. Yet, despite those attributes, master limited partnerships (MLPs) remain unknown or ignored by large number of investors. The case for MLPs is compelling, so it's time for a deep examination of the special properties of this asset class.
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A Proven Route to Business Breakthroughs
By Dan Richards
Having ambitious goals is one thing - translating them into reality is another. And that's where most advisors stumble. Two recent articles provide insight on how to achieve progress towards lofty goals.
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Career Opportunities
As a service to our clients, we are posting career opportunities for firms that seek to add financial advisors and planners to their staff. Five new opportunities added since last week.
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The Future of the Automobile
By Robert Huebscher
If you hailed a cab in New York at the turn of the last century - say, around 1900 - it's likely that it would have been an electric car, built by the Electric Wagon Company of Philadelphia. The technology behind those taxis, which became the first electrified fleet in 1897, is likely to power the next generation of cars - sometime in this century.
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How to Respond to the Bachus-McCarthy Bill
I recommend that everybody contact your elected representatives and tell them that the proposed Bachus-McCarthy legislation would be detrimental to the small businesses in their district or state. Below is a sample letter for you to send to your elected representatives, and a press release for you to send to your local paper and press contacts.
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The Asymmetric Value of Delaying Social Security Benefits
Despite a compelling body of research arguing that most retirees would benefit by delaying the onset of Social Security payments, the majority who are eligible still elect to begin receiving them as early as possible. But delaying Social Security benefits is one of the best triple-hedges available to any retiree - simultaneously protecting against poor returns, high inflation, and longevity.
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Another Story of Too Much Debt
US-based investors cannot ignore the macro environment, and therefore must consider the consequences of our increasing indebtedness and its impact on capital markets. We can gain valuable insights into our fiscal problems from the housing bubble and the European sovereign debt crisis - lessons which every value investor should heed.
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Congress Needs to Stop a Dividend Tax Hike
Bad news is lurking right around the corner for investors, businesses and the nation's economy. Unless Congress acts before the end of the year, dividend income will be taxed at individual tax rates instead of at the same rate as long-term capital gains.
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Highlights from Market Commentaries
Here are the top three commentaries from last week.
 Run, Don't Walk
One way to gauge your speculative exposure is to ask the simple question - what portion of your portfolio do you expect (or even hope) to sell before the next major market downturn ensues? Almost by definition, that portion of your portfolio is speculative in the sense that you do not intend to carry it through the full market cycle, and instead expect to sell it to someone else at a better price before the cycle completes. With respect to those speculative holdings, and when to part with them, my own view is straightforward. Run, don't walk.
Tags: Equities Bearish US
Run, Don't Walk by John P. Hussman of Hussman Funds
 Real Career Risk
Real career risk is too many people doing what you do for a living. Granthams problem is that every day three million brilliant people get up and spend most of their waking hours trying to practice wide asset allocation. Most of those three million brilliant people have strong backgrounds in economics and lean on their ability to make macroeconomic predictions. Too many people are doing the same thing at the same time for a living. Therefore, they need to either move to another town or wait patiently for most of the other bright people to take up another profession.
Tags: US Investment Themes
Real Career Risk by Bill Smead of Smead Capital Management
Dividends: A Timeless Component of Equity Return - Loomis Sayles - April 18, 2012"
Real career risk is too many people doing what you do for a living. Granthams problem is that every day three million brilliant people get up and spend most of their waking hours trying to practice wide asset allocation. Most of those three million brilliant people have strong backgrounds in economics and lean on their ability to make macroeconomic predictions. Too many people are doing the same thing at the same time for a living. Therefore, they need to either move to another town or wait patiently for most of the other bright people to take up another profession.
Tags: US Investment Themes
Dividends: A Timeless Component of Equity Return - Loomis Sayles - April 18, 2012" by Bill Smead of Smead Capital Management
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