The GRBJ reached out to Ellie Winter, CFP® in October to discuss how the new 2017 tax law impacts taxpayers’ charitable giving strategies. Ellie, along with Shaun Shira of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, offers ideas on how to continue giving tax-efficiently to your charities of choice.

It’s been approximately a decade since the Great Recession began. By year-end 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) had lowered the target federal funds rate to near-zero and embarked on an aggressive quantitative easing campaign, hoping to resuscitate the economy with a big booster shot of lending, borrowing and spending dollars.

Properly implemented, rebalancing offers a disciplined, cost-effective approach to buying low and selling high and staying on track toward one’s personal financial goals. Learn how we add value by employing rebalancing as part of an evidence-based strategy.

After an extended period of relative calm in the stock market, investors may wonder if we’re due for a correction. Instead of worrying when the next market downturn may or may not occur, we recommend having a portfolio in place today that you can stick with through thick and thin.

In the GRBJ Podcast: Steve Talks Money, senior advisor Steve Starnes discusses traits of financially successful people, how to achieve financial goals in 2017, and recommendations for end of life planning.

For as long as we’ve been in business, we have encouraged investors to adopt a patient, long-term approach to capturing the market’s expected returns. In industry parlance, some have categorized our approach as “passive,” versus active attempts to beat the

In our last installment of Financial Insights, we explored how to engage in year-round tax-wise investing by adopting your own best practices as well as by favoring fund managers who are likewise keeping a tax-efficient eye on their offerings.

While “tax season” may imply that there is an optimal time to think about your income taxes, the best way to minimize your annual “pay-triotic duty” is to engage in year-round tax-wise investing, with ongoing best practices in: Your personal

Investing is not the only factor contributing to your ability to accumulate and/or preserve family wealth, but it is clearly among the most important factors. How you invest can accelerate you toward your goals … or impede your desired progress.

From our favorite sports teams to our favorite foods, it’s human nature to prefer what we find familiar. There’s even a name for our local comfort zone. It’s called home bias. We tend to feel the same way about our investments,