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A study by Morningstar for the decade beginning in 2000 suggests that average investors underperformed the mutual funds they invested in by 1.5 percent per year due to investing near highs and exiting near lows. The fear of making a mistake is especially heightened in those who retire or sell a business. They are faced with investing the majority of their wealth for the first time—and in a very turbulent market.

Can you lose a charitable deduction for failing to obtain a correct acknowledgement? A recent Tax Court case says yes. As we approach year-end giving season, know the rules, whether you are giving $500 or $50 million.

Ultra-short-duration bond funds seek to improve on the strategy underlying money market funds. By holding a variety of fixed income instruments with very short average durations in a fund structure, investors may be able to achieve higher yields from the current market environment than they typically could in a money market fund, albeit with little additional volatility and limited sacrifice of liquidity.

One of the potential benefi ts of wealth planning is the opportunity for families to have meaningful conversations about their hopes, dreams, legacy wishes, and more. These types of planning discussions can help to create family intimacy, and help build relationship capital for the future. In this white paper, Fidelity advisor Dr. Timothy G. Habbershon outlines what he considers the three outcomes optimal for having effective family communication — and how these goals can help lay the foundation for sensitive and complex estate planning decisions.

For well over a year now, investors have dreaded the US’s looming “fiscal cliff”—the combination of federal budget cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013. Should America’s gridlocked Congress not agree on a work around, some economists, credit ratings agencies and government forecasters believe the US economy could slow significantly or even enter recession. This paper looks at the likelihood the United States falls off the fiscal cliff.

President Obama will head into his second term in January facing a divided Congress that looks a lot like the Congress of the last two years of his first term – with the Democrats controlling the Senate and conservative Republicans solidly controlling the House of Representatives.

While political pundits work overtime to draw profound conclusions from Tuesday’s election results, the implications for the financial markets seem less than momentous. Election night was clearly much better for Democrats than Republicans, but this was a status quo outcome. Until the 2014 mid-term elections, the players will be President Obama, a GOP House of Representatives and a Democratic Senate—the same mix as the last two years. This begs the question, “Will anything be different?”

The world’s largest developed economies continue to experience modest and volatile growth as they work off excess debt accumulated over the previous decades. Global growth is unlikely to come in a straight line, due to the instability caused by excess debt and the inconsistency and cyclicality of governmental policy response. In fact, in the near-term, global economic growth appears to again be waning, creating the third annual growth scare since 2009. This has prompted further monetary action from central banks. Will it be effective?

Incentives, credits, and deductions within the U.S. tax system are currently in the spotlight, and most advisors are aware that unprecedented exemptions for gift and estate taxes are set to expire on December 31, 2012. Less clear, however, is how families can manage their assets to capitalize on the credits before the window closes. This article looks at some of the reasons families have not taken advantage of expiring gifting opportunities.

Advisors should protect their clients who own fine art and other collectibles from financial loss with properly executed tax and estate planning. This article highlights two recent examples of how oversights, such as defective title, create marketability challenges that may result in substantial financial consequences for collectors.