Gary Duell

ESG Funds Are Having a Moment – What It Means for the Modern Investor

Leave a Comment / ESG, impact investing, socially responsible investing, SRI

CNBC recently published an article articulating the rise of investing in companies that rank highly on environmental, social and and governance (ESG) factors during the COVID-19 outbreak. Here is the link to the article. Interestingly enough, these funds were already experiencing big growth before the COVID-19 outbreak, with assets having doubled over the last two […]

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MYTH : Trump’s Social Security Tax Holiday Will Help Employers and Their Employees

5 Comments / coronavirus, COVID-19, financial fraud, financial myths, greed, politics, scam, social security, taxpayer, Trump

Well, this is a solid myth, that’s for sure.  Smart and ethical CPAs are recommending that their clients not just walk, but sprint away from the Memorandum Deferring Payroll Tax Obligation.  Let me preface this by declaring that I’m not an attorney and that all of this is my opinion.  But I can read and

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Karl Marx, Jay-Z & SGI Funds have a lot in common

Leave a Comment / Capitalism, Duell, Duell Wealth Preservation, DWP, Gary Duell, The Commons, wealth

Usually the title of these posts IS a myth.  But believe this one is true.  Where did I come up with these seemingly completely unrelated topics?  Oddly, they were in the top 10 financial search words last month. Karl Marx Karl Marx Monument in Chemnitz First, what he was not.  Marx was neither Russan nor

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The Power of Peace

2 Comments / anger, Chenowith, Christian, civilized, Duell, Duell Wealth Preservation, Gary Duell, nonviolence

There is a surplus of anger, desperation, futility, depression, fury and isolation in our country right now.  It’s the worst I remember, even during the Vietnam debacle.I’ve advocated- rather unpopularly -that peaceful resistance is the most powerful and effective response to the sources of these intense emotions.  Steeped in affluenza, racism, fascism, nationalism and all

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6 Financial Steps You Should Consider NOW

Leave a Comment / bubble, budget act, coronavirus, COVID-19, Duell Wealth Preservation, DWP, fiduciary financial adviser, investing, market correction, recession tips, retirement planning, risk management, Stimulus Package

Would you like to know why I’ve gotten zerofreaked-out calls or emails from my clients because of the coronavirus, political upheaval or [insert your own freak-out factor]?  It’s because we’ve already tested even worse scenarios (like the 2001-2003 recession) in their written retirement financial plans and they know they will be OK.  However, that doesn’t

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MYTH: The Markets are Crashing due to Coronavirus

Leave a Comment / bear market, coronavirus, market crash, recession

I don’t believe this post heading at all.  Although I’m firmly in the camp that says we should do all we can to isolate and stop the spread of this  deadly virus, correlation is not causation.  Eugene Fama’s efficient market theory went out the window with the Reagan presidency, that is, the belief that full

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MYTH: Ken Fisher’s Lewd Remarks Don’t Matter

Leave a Comment / billionaires, boiler room, corruption, Ken Fisher, sexism, Wall Street, wealth disparity

 In case you’re new to this tempest, Ken Fisher is the prolific author, WSJ writer & CEO of financial behemoth Fisher Investments.  At a recent Tiburon CEO Summit in October Fisher, a featured speaker, made several sexist, lewd remarks in portrayal of how the investment business operates in general*.  Contrary to most of the media,

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MYTH: I Hate Annuities

Leave a Comment / annuities, annuity, best annuities, guaranteed income, hate annuities, holistic, investment bias, investments, lifetime income, long term care, retirement planning

This is a myth.  I don’t use some of them, the expensive ridiculously high commissioned restrictive poorly performing ones.  But I agree with the authors of the article below:  I neither like nor dislike “annuities” as a class because they are a widely divergent collection of financial tools.  Some are indespensible and some are useless. 

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You Can’t Get Decent Returns Without Risk

Leave a Comment / Asset Allocation, hedging, private wealth portfolios, PWPs, risk, risk management

This could, or could not, be a myth depending on how we define “decent” and “risk”. My definition of “decent” is a rate of return that exceeds the “risk-free” rate plus inflation.   The risk-free rate is typically the T-bill rate or long-term government bond yield.  The current long-term composite (>10yrs) is 2.12, down from

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