West Point to Wall Street – Benefits for Service Members and Veterans
By Alexander Canacci, Alonso Munoz When starting my Army career with Cadet Basic Training at the United States Military Academy at the age of 18 years old, the last thing on my mind was my finances. I was more concerned with surviving the rigors of West Point than I was setting up my retirement […]
What is a Cash Balance Plan?
By Alonso Munoz, Sambhav Bansal, Alexander Canacci When it comes to retirement plans, we usually refer to either Defined Contribution or Defined Benefit Plans. The most common workplace retirement plan is the Defined Contribution plan. This is your basic 401(k)! As the name suggests, the amount you can “contribute” to the Plan in any […]
Bitcoin vs Gold
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Bitcoin ETFs: Should I buy them? Since its ETF approval on January 10th, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have had roughly $25 billion in inflows. Bitcoin (BTC) itself is up 60% year-to-date and has more than tripled in value from a year ago. It’s not just BTC either; Ethereum (ETH) and […]
AI Rally Continues
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Quarter Earnings Wrap Up: This week marks the end of earnings season for fourth quarter of 2023, and what an earnings season it was! Overall, the S&P 500 beat expectations for a 15th consecutive quarter with 377 of the S&P500 companies beating earnings and revenue estimates. The index’s earnings […]
New FinCEN Reporting Requirements
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Back in 2021, congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) as a response to concerns about money laundering and shell companies. As part of the act, and effective this year on January 1, 2024, is a new reporting requirement for Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports to be filed with […]
NVDA: Cathie Wood Missed Out!
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Today, after the bell, we get Nvidia (NYSE: NVDA) earnings. This is it; no other company is going to move markets like NVDA will. The company has risen to the third-largest weighting in the S&P 500, boasting a market cap of more than $1.7 trillion. NVDA is up 40% […]
CRE – Impending Doom
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz The financial spotlight this past week has been on New York Community Bank (NYSE: NYCB) with its rather disappointing earnings for Q4 2023. Since reporting last Thursday, NYCB’s share price has tumbled more than 50% (congratulations to any short sellers out there), and the market is having Déjà vu […]
New Tax Credits For Startup 401(k) Plans
Updated provisions in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 offer small employers affordable options to start a workplace retirement plan. And, a newly-established employer-sponsored retirement plan could bring you some pretty significant savings. Here’s how. Retirement Plan Start-up Credit Eligible employers who adopt a new plan can claim a credit for up to 100% of […]
Rate Cuts Are Coming!
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Are we experiencing a soft landing? Is the most anticipated recession in history about to commence? In a recent panel at the Titan Investors Global Business Connections in Miami, I queried a lineup of leading CIOs about the Goldilocks economic data and the overly optimistic market sentiment. Although the feedback […]
What is Private Credit?
By Kelvin Lee, Alonso Munoz Let’s take a step back for a moment and review how a traditional bank works. In general, a bank receives money through customer deposits and ultimately lends those deposits out to customers for business and household purposes (such as mortgages, auto loans, real estate loans, revolving credit, etc.). The difference […]
