Wealth Management
Most all Americans rely on medicare during their retirement as a means of subsidizing or paying for their healthcare. This year is more critical than ever as changes hit medicare payments because the U.S. is seeing a spike in inflation that eats at retirement funds and might put many in a bind. Medicare costs are split into two main categories: Part A, hospital coverage and Part B, outpatient care. Most don’t pay for a Part A premium and for those that don’t meet the work requirements costs aren’t changing much about $28 for the year, but Part B is a different story. For the lowest income category, the payment is up to $21 a month, and that only increases as tax returns increases. Individuals should appeal their part B premium if their income had a significant change.
FINSUM: These healthcare cost changes are huge, and retirees need to address them in their portfolio given spiking prolonged inflation.
Brokers better look out, the SEC has started the new year with a bang. The Commission has mostly been quiet about its potential Reg BI changes since the rule went into effect about 18 months ago. However, a big new warning has come out from Quinn Emanuel’s SEC enforcement practice. There are “strong indications” of much more robust enforcement coming. According to Kurt Wolfe of the SEC Enforcement Practice, “SEC Chair Gary Gensler is under pressure from broad constituencies to show results in the space. For example, at a recent hearing of the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) encouraged Chair Gensler to ‘take further action to strengthen this rulemaking,”. Further, “the SEC has signaled that regulated firms may not be getting Reg BI right, and senior SEC officials have made it clear that they intend to take an expansive, perhaps aggressive, approach to Reg BI.”
FINSUM: Since Biden took office it has really only been a matter of time until enforcement scaled up. It is now clear that it is coming.
BlackRock shook up the investment world when he declared global capitalism would make it easier to find a green-way forward. However, it is black rocks model portfolios that really piloted the ESG plane. BlackRock inserted ESG right in the middle of the model portfolios which give many investors easier access to sustainability, and some became ESG investors without even trying to. This vision is what made ESG become the fastest growing investment trend by giving it to clients in a pre-packaged easy to invest format. However, ratings are suggesting some green-washing as 154 of the 155 companies in the S&P 500 don’t actually site emissions reductions as a factor, so BlackRock has crept in on owning lots of fossil-fuel guzzlers like Chevron and Exxon.
FINSUM: Biden admin might want to step up the regulation if it wants to hamstring the greenwashing on Wallstreet.
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Direct indexing, along with ESG and active funds, has been the dominant narrative in 2021, but that could be the case going forward. Morgan Stanley published a report predicting direct indexing to grow by over 300% to a $1.5 trillion industry. Companies like BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Vanguard (among many others) are racing to bring a previously exclusive opportunity to more investors. The biggest advantage is taking advantage of the individual stock ownership by realizing losses for tax purposes, which studies have shown can increase portfolio returns by about 1%. Realize this comes at a cost because this has a more active tilt to it which comes with higher fees and costs. This could be a net benefit as direct indexing costs are about 0.17-0.27 percentage points higher on average and clearing the tax returns.
FINSUM: To the layperson direct indexing is the active wolf in sheep’s clothing, but they take more advantage of tax-loss harvesting than traditional active investing, benefiting their clients.
Biden was expected to come into the presidency with a tough regulation on Wallstreet. However, the snail’s pace with which Biden replaced key financial regulatory figures, hindered the quick change many expected, but now many officials are in place and change is coming. One of the biggest areas of the crackdown will be on stable coins and other digital currency as the federal government views them as systematically risky. Additionally the Biden admin will begin constricting new fintech lenders, who many in the admin see as pseudo-banks without any of the stringent regulation that affects the real banking industry. This is all part of larger changes that will take a more restrictive stance on Wallstreet undoing a lot of friendlier policies from the Trump administration and will include other central topics like climate change.
FINSUM: With many regulators now in place real change could be coming to the street, the tech-related products which are viewed as unregulated to this new administration.
Millions of Americans are reliant on the social security payments as they shift into retirement, and while SSA boosted the amount in checks by 5.9% it pales in comparison to the record CPI numbers. The CPI climbed at a jaw-dropping 6.8% in November, which skims a healthy amount from the bottom line. Another large factor eating at people’s retirement social security is Medicare Part B premiums and are cost-of-living reducer. Medicare Part B premiums will subtract 29% percentage points from the Social security Take home over the next 30-years. Finally, retirees should be wary that their prescriptions are covered by Medicare because otherwise, they will be a hefty retirement expense.
FINSUM: It’s outrageous that social security and other retirement accounts aren’t keeping pace with the actual costs of retirees, and needs to factor into investment decisions.