We have some exciting news to share with you!

As you may know, Lauterbach Financial Advisors is part of an active community of more than 130 independent wealth management firms throughout the United States. Each and every firm works to deliver on the promise of true wealth management for investors and their families. A few weeks ago, all the member firms came together to launch the BAM ALLIANCE — a new destination of ideas, insights and intelligence that enables our clients to make even better decisions about their financial futures.

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Author Carl Richards, director of investor education for the BAM ALLIANCE, shares his views on New Year’s resolutions.

The New Year’s holiday is a great time to reflect on what’s really important to us. Spending time with family and friends can help us get focused on where we’re at right now and where we want to be in a year. We have the time to ask questions and make sure things like our investment strategy still match our goals. It’s also a natural time to think about making changes. (more…)

In the past few years, some investors have asked us whether they should replace a portion of their high-quality bonds or bond mutual fund holdings with strategies ranging from high-dividend stocks to oil and gas master limited partnerships because “rates are low.” We have generally counseled investors that every one of these strategies involves substantially more risk than high-quality bonds and that a much better way to increase the level of risk that you are taking is to increase your allocation to a diversified, low-cost stock fund portfolio.

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Everyday appears to bring a new development on the situation surrounding the turmoil in Greece and the Eurozone. With that in mind, below you’ll find a link to a special posting by our strategic partner Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). 

Inasmuch as we utilize DFA Funds to a great extent in our client portfolios and in our own 401(K) Profit-Sharing Plan, the sentiments expressed in the report greatly reflect how we view this situation and what we are telling our clients on our conversations with them.

Download Report (pdf, 452kb)

Vanguard recently announced that it would be closing its high-yield corporate fund “effective immediately” and that the fund had received “approximately $2 billion” of flows over the past six months. While growth of Vanguard’s assets under management is almost always a good thing, a fund shuttering its doors to new flows makes one wonder just how frothy credit markets have become. Let’s take a step back, though, and look at high-yield bonds as an asset class. Many investors simply don’t understand the returns that high-yield bonds have historically generated or just how closely correlated they are with the equity markets.

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The Eurozone debt crisis is now in its third year, and we want to share our perspective on recent developments. It now appears more likely than ever that Greece may exit the Euro currency, and you may be wondering how such a development would affect the markets and our approach to investing. (more…)

More investment options can mean more peril

Investing is complicated for everyone, but as you amass more wealth and have more investment choices, it only gets more complex. As it turns out, having more choices isn’t always better; it often means more twists, tricks, and traps. Here are six potential pitfalls to carefully avoid:

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Taxes are often considered a necessary evil. The topic evokes strong emotions. How we perceive taxes and how we feel about paying them are complex issues.

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Wealth counselor and psychotherapist Marilyn Wechter shares insights into how parents can better communicate with their children about the topics of money and wealth. Marilyn also offers practical tips on establishing effective allowances and budgets. (more…)

It can be hard to hear the best course of action during tough market times may be to do nothing. It can be even harder to repeatedly hear the message as things seem to get worse. But it is a message we would not repeat if we did not truly believe it was in your best interests. The following discusses why our message is not wavering despite market conditions.

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