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Meet Laura!
Laura Sendldorfer is our Financial Advisor & Insurance Specialist. She loves helping clients achieve peace of mind and financial freedom through money management, investments, and insurance.
Interests
Finance - I enjoy the planning process and helping others achieve their goals.
Real Estate - I enjoy seeing transformations and bringing houses back to life, although it’s not quite like HGTV.
Traveling - to see all this beautiful world has to offer, learning from other cultures, and experiencing their cuisine.
Running - after a year of in-person races being canceled, I look forward to running the delayed cherry blossom 5K this weekend, later this month to the Baltimore running festival and the Bay Bridge run on Halloween.
Favorite Philanthropy
Doctors Without Borders
Favorite Offit Advisors Value
Clear Goals- I think it’s magic to help clients set visions and clear goals for the future.
Favorite Thing About Working with Our Clients
Walking through life with our clients and being able to celebrate their success and growth with them.
What Gets Me Out of Bed in the Morning
A good coffee (I’d call myself a coffee snob), sunshine, family & friends and my endless list of personal goals.
Name One Thing You'd Spend More on to Get the Best Quality
For most things, I choose quality over quantity. Some examples are: Coffee, food, travel (although I have yet to fly first class), and most definitely running shoes.
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The IRS Dirty Dozen and Related Scams to be Aware Of!
Hello Loyal Readership!
Today I want to talk to about some tax related topics and go over an interesting publication that occurs each year from the IRS called the Dirty Dozen. This is a list they put out each year of items to be aware
and things they are looking at. Here are some of them that are interesting and you should definitely be aware of!
1. Pandemic related scams – As we all know there have been various forms of stimulus payments and relief over the past year and half or so and there have been scammers trying to prey on people’s lack on understanding of these stimulus options. These scammers may be contacting clients about their payments or make sure they get it and are asking for financial information.This will be a common theme in this article but the IRS will never initiate contact with you via phone, text, email, social media. If someone contacts you saying they are with the IRS – delete it or don’t open it. They will only initiate contact via a letter from the IRS in the regular snail mail.
2. Unemployment fraud – along with the pandemic, many people have filed for unemployment benefits and scammers have also tried to prey on this. Scammers will try to obtain your personal information and file an unemployment claim using your data in which they will get the
payment for. If you happen to receive a 1099-G form showing income from unemployment benefits – this is a tip off of fraud that someone filed unemployment under your name. If this happens, reach out to state department to get this corrected, and don’t include this income on your actual tax return because it is not real income attributable to you.
3. Unsuspecting victims –With the pandemic, many charities need more support than normal, but
people also getting calls from fake charities claiming that they need support and asking for an immediate donation. To ensure that a charity is real, you can ask any charity for their full name of their organization, their tax id number, and locate them on the IRS to site to verify their status.
4. People imitating the IRS – these people or organizations target seniors or people that don’t have English as their first language saying they need to clarify an issue and need your personal information. Again – the IRS will not contact you directly – it is fraudulent. They will only
contact you via an official letter in the mail. If you do speak another language other than English, you can use Schedule LEP and you can indicate preferred language, they will send a letter in your native language.
5. Backtax consolidators – Be aware of firms saying they can help with your backtaxes. These
firms can charge high up front fees, and don’t guarantee results. If you need assistance with
your backtaxes or IRS payments, the IRS can offer payment plans with a relatively moderate
interest rate and there aren’t fees to get it setup.
6. Ghost preparers – someone who says they will prepare a tax return for you but won’t put their
name on or sign the return is someone to stay away from. This can be someone looking to
initiate stimulus payment fraud, or another scam of some sort.
7. Personal information cons – impersonator calls claiming to be from the IRS about a tax lien or
messaging you on social with a link to gather information about you.
8. Phishing scams – these may not be targeted at individuals but actual companies trying to get
information from companies that may have personally identifiable information on people. Any company needs to be aware and trained of fake links, or emails with malware that may try to
extract data from your computer that could compromise people’s data.
9. Abusive arrangements – this is about being aware of tax promoters who are promising very
large tax deductions from alternative tax strategies. They could be promoting ideas lie conservation easements (investing in a piece of land that is subsequently donated), foreign country tax treaties with gray area (ie. Malta), claiming benefits you are not entitled to (R&D and green energy) even though you haven’t done them, and the IRS is aware of taxpayers getting involved in these ideas. You are legally required to include how found out about these
ideas, and they won’t fly under the radar with the IRS. If it seems like you are saving too much on taxes, ad it is too good to be true, it probably is.
So in the end, this article is not meant to scare you, but rather is intended to raise your awareness of some things that could be scams in the tax world!
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- The last time the S&P had a pullback of 5% or more was October 2020. Since 1929, the S&P has experienced only 12 other streaks of nine months long like this one. Seeking Alpha, August 16, 2021
- Last month, three out of four cargo containers leaving the port of Los Angeles were empty. The Port of Los Angeles head, Gene Seroka said, “Our largest export commodity continues to be air.” The Loadstar, August 23, 2021
- New research shows that U.S. alcohol consumption rose 39% during the pandemic and 323% among mothers with young children. Fox News, August 16, 2021
- Roughly 75% of all foods and beverages in America contain added sugar. According to the American Heart Association, the average adult swallows the equivalent of six bowling balls of the stuff each year. Meanwhile, the average child downs enough added sugar to fill a bathtub. Medium, August 18, 2021
- Americans are on average 7.8 points more confident than Brits that they could beat various animals in a one-on-one fight, including a medium-size dog, a chimpanzee, a kangaroo, and a goose. YouGov, May 21, 2021
- “If A is success in life, then A = X + Y + Z. Work is X, play is Y, and Z is keeping your mouth shut.” Albert Einstein
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Stocks Advance Further in August as Bonds Pause
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Highlights
- In what has become a bit of a broken record, the S&P 500 Index, NASDAQ Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average each posted new all-time highs in August. Small-caps enjoyed gains, but generally lagged large-caps for the month and the Russell 2000 Index has still not surpassed its high from March.
- With large-caps and growth continuing their recent strength, market leadership has shifted. Value is still handily outperforming growth in small and mid-caps year to date, but a slight advantage goes to growth for large-caps. Small-caps overall have forfeited leadership to large-caps year to date.
- The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield moved modestly higher in August. After drifting down to its lowest level since February early in the month to 1.19%, the yield moved higher closing August at 1.30%. It had ended July at 1.24%. Outside of high yield, most bond sectors were down for the month.
- The U.S. economy is recovering solidly, and recent job gains have been the highlight. Inflation numbers remain elevated and garner a lot of attention. The Fed has reiterated its belief that inflation is transitory at this point.
- The delta variant continues to spread more widely across the U.S. It is yet to be seen whether this might have an impact on the economic reopening.
- We expect ongoing economic improvements and continued above trend growth in the second half of 2021 and into 2022. Volatility, however, could increase in the months ahead with markets near all-time highs and pandemic issues ongoing.
Equity Markets
In the large-cap space, growth continued its recent trend of outperformance compared to value in August. Small-caps, which started the year strongly, have lagged in recent months as growth and large-caps have rallied. Outside of a mid-month spike above 21, the VIX Index remained subdued in August. The VIX Index closed July at 18.24 and ended August at 16.48. Despite the trend lower in the VIX Index, we believe investors should be prepared for ongoing periods of volatility over the next several months with stocks near all-time highs and some uncertainly surrounding the Delta variant.
Size and style mattered once again in August with the largest-cap growth companies outpacing smaller and more value-oriented companies. Although there will be times when growth rallies, we still believe that the value/growth disparity that reached a peak last year will likely continue to shift in 2021 with value improving on a relative basis. We continue to use our disciplined approach of seeking out what we believe to be high-quality companies with improving business conditions at what we believe are good prices. These types of companies can be found in both the value and growth universe, but the market’s shift to value stocks since the latter part of 2020 has benefited our focus on quality companies.
The numbers for August were as follows: The S&P 500 gained 3.04%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.50%, the Russell 3000 improved by 2.85%, the NASDAQ Composite led indices higher rising 4.08%, and the Russell 2000 Index, a measure of small-cap stocks, increased by 2.24%. For the year to date, returns in the same order were as follows: 21.58%, 17.04%, 20.39%, 18.92%, and 15.83%, respectively.
We will continue to monitor how trends shift in the coming months and whether the recent gains in large-cap growth stocks develop more footing or whether small and mid-cap stocks, along with value, return to their recent leadership roles.
Looking closer at style, the headline Russell 1000 Index gained 2.89% in August. The Russell 1000 Growth Index drove results as it had in the prior two months, up 3.74%, while the Russell 1000 Value Index gained only 1.98%. For the year to date, the returns were 21.08% and 20.32%, respectively. While growth has caught up to value in the large-cap space, value is still easily outpacing growth in the mid and small cap universe. For example, the Russell 2000 Value Index is up 25.43% year-to-date, while the Russell 2000 Growth Index has gained a mere 6.92% during the same timeframe.
International markets bounced back in August after a difficult July following China’s ramp up of regulatory restrictions. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 2.62% in August, which accounts for most of the year-to-date gain of 2.84% for this index. The MSCI ACWI ex USA Index, a broad measure of international equities, advanced 1.90%, which contributed to the 9.40% gain for this index so far this year. Following the trend of recent years, U.S. stocks have continued to outperform their international counterparts.
Fixed Income
After surging higher during the first quarter of 2021, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury dropped over the next four months. That streak ended in August as yields moved higher once again. The yield closed the month of July at 1.24% before ending August at 1.30%. Most bond sectors struggled in the first quarter, particularly the most interest-rate sensitive bonds, but they had enjoyed a period of recovery over the following four months. In August, most bond sectors declined with the notable exception of high-yield bonds, which have been the clear leader in fixed income so far in 2021.
Fixed income returns were as follows for August: the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index slipped -0.19%, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Credit Index declined -0.24%, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index rose 0.51%, and the Bloomberg Barclays Municipal Index dropped -0.37%. Year to date, those index returns in the same order were as follows: -0.69%, -0.23%, 4.55%, and 1.53%, respectively.
Treasury Inflated Protected Securities (TIPS), which had rallied strongly in recent months with increased worries about inflation, gave up some ground in August declining by -0.18%, but its year-to-date gain still stands at 4.26%. Shorter-dated U.S. Treasuries enjoyed gains in August (the 5-year U.S. Treasury Index rose 1.02%), but longer-dated Treasuries declined. The general U.S. Treasury Index fell by -0.17% in August and is down -1.43% year-to-date. We continue to maintain our long-standing position favoring credit versus pure rate exposure in this interest rate environment.
Source: Clark Capital Benchmark Review, August 2021
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S&P 500 Index is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. You cannot directly invest in the index.
Dow Jones Industrial Average - The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a popular indicator of the stock market based on the average closing prices of 30 active U.S. stocks representative of the overall economy.
NASDAQ Composite Index measures all NASDAQ domestic and international based common type stocks listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market. Today the NASDAQ Composite includes approximately 5,000 stocks, more than most other stock market indices. Because it is so broad-based, the Composite is one of the most widely followed and quoted major market indices.
Russell 2000® Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which represents approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index which includes the 3,000 largest companies in the U.S., based on market capitalization. As of the latest reconstitution, the average market capitalization was approximately $762.8 million; the median market capitalization was approximately $613.5 million. The largest company in the index had an approximate market capitalization of $2.0 billion and a smallest of 218.4 million.
Russell 1000® Growth Index measures the performance of those Russell 1000 companies with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth values.
Russell 1000® Value Index measures the performance of those Russell 1000 companies with lower price-to-book ratios and lower forecasted growth values.
Government bonds are guaranteed by the U. S. Government and, if held to maturity, offer a fixed rate of return and fixed principal value.
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Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisory Services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. Offit Advisors is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS. Offit Advisory Services, LLC is a tax firm but neither Kestra IS nor Kestra AS provide legal or tax advice and are not Certified Public Accounting firms.For more information on the Five Star Wealth Manager and the research/selection methodology go to: www.fivestarprofessional.com. Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures
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