Perpetually Looking Forward

We are thrilled to announce that Simon Quick Advisors has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work for Financial Advisors in 2024 by Investment News. This prestigious accolade is a testament to our unwavering commitment to fostering a positive and collaborative work environment for our team.

At the beginning of each year, Simon Quick announces promotions across the team, and this year is no different. This wave of advancements reflects our commitment to recognizing and fostering exceptional talent within our team.

In 2022 alone, there were over 800,000 cybercrime-related complaints which equaled a loss of over $10 billion for U.S taxpayers. This shattered the 2021 total of almost $7 billion.

In the real estate business, it is said that the three most important factors to consider when valuing a property are “location, location, location.” In the wealth management business, the same bit of wisdom applies. Studies have shown that asset allocation – choosing which asset classes to invest in and in what proportion – is the largest driver of portfolio returns. In other words, selecting the appropriate allocation among equities, fixed income, and alternatives drives performance to a much larger degree than the underlying investments themselves. That being said, many investors fail to also consider the importance of asset location – that is, choosing how their investments are allocated among various types of accounts (IRA, joint, etc). Making the right asset location decisions can meaningfully increase investment returns on an after‐tax basis.

The hardest part of estate planning can sometimes be getting started. It can be difficult to think about the end of your life, but preparing for the unexpected and having a solid estate plan in place can better protect your loved ones from any hassle or delay that may come from transferring your assets.

Despite a difficult investing environment in 2022, 2023 proved to be a strong year of recovery for both stocks and bonds with the S&P 500 and Barclays US Agg Bond Index up 26.2% and 5.5%, respectively. Markets remained volatile throughout the year but finished on a strong note as economic resiliency alongside persistently softening inflation has helped to drive expectations for a soft landing.

Investment property is a key component of many high-net-worth individuals’ portfolios. One potential downside, however, is that you may be faced with significant tax implications when you decide to sell property.

In a final sprint to the end of the year, the S&P 500 climbed out of its 2022 hole, returning about 26% to close out 2023. This was an impressive return, in the face of an additional 100 basis point rise in interest rates to 5.5% this past year, and a plethora of other events that could have taken the market in a more negative direction: regional bank failures that required a Fed bail-out, a potential government default, further escalation of international conflicts, and generally weaker economies in Europe and China. It has been another demonstration of American exceptionalism this year.