To Inform: An interesting question was posed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week: “Over the course of your career has your husband ever made a stock purchase or sale based on information he received from you?” The answer was, of course, “No, absolutely not.” This isn’t a partisan issue as Congressional Representatives from both […]

To Inform:  Death and taxes; we know the saying. In spite of the certainty, all of us fail to give our estate plan the attention it deserves. It’s easy to avoid and none of us enjoys thinking about our…well, you know. On top of that, you’ve already signed your estate documents so you’re done, right? […]

To Inform:  I was at flagship branch of Huntington Bank the other day and as I admired the ornate ceiling my eye caught an engraving above the entrance hall. The line, attributed to one of the sons of the bank’s founder is as follows: “In prosperity be prudent, in adversity be patient.” This quote is […]

To Inform: Earlier this week The Joseph Group’s Investment Committee (IC) met and discussed market thoughts for the second half of 2022 and how we want to position client portfolios across asset classes. The backdrop for the discussion was the idea markets are likely to be stronger later in 2022 (see last week’s WealthNotes) but acknowledging […]

To Inform: With the S&P 500 mired in a bear market, JP Morgan Chief Market Strategist Marko Kolanovic generated buzz in recent weeks with his call that U.S. stocks would recover recent losses in the 2nd half of 2022 and finish the year largely unchanged. Kolanovic has notoriety in investment strategy circles as the No. […]

To Inform: I recently got the chance to visit a timberland site in southeast Ohio with a group of investment professionals. On this visit were a number of professional foresters. One person asked the foresters about tree growth in regenerating timber stands. The forester gave an answer and connected it to what is going on […]

To Inform:   Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Ohio Institutional Investment Forum – a one day conference for large pension and endowment fund managers across the state. Speakers included the Chief Investment Officer for the Ohio State University endowment, the Executive Director of the Ohio School Employees Retirement System and senior investment […]

To Inform: If you’ve been reading these WealthNotes for a while, you may have gotten a sense that we value contrarian thinking when it comes to investing. This is never easy to do – human nature makes it very hard to zig when the rest of the crowd is zagging. But sometimes that is precisely […]

To Inform:  Over the last two days I had the opportunity to attend an investment conference in Newport, Rhode Island. It was a smaller, more intimate gathering consisting of financial advisors and fund managers from across the country. At dinner last night I talked to a former executive from Lehman Brothers during the 2008 financial […]

To Inform: There’s a scene in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Rings where Frodo and the Gang are deep in the Mines of Moria and under attack from all sides. In the movie, the actor portraying Boromir says in a sardonic tone, “They have a Cave Troll.” No big deal, the hits […]