A Simple Truth; Stay Invested.

Hello Loyal Readership!,

Today I want to discuss some cliché but truthful facts about the market and keep it simple.

If we look back and we look forward, history has shown us that market continues to rise over time, but it is not a straight line, it is a wavy line.  I fully expect this trend to continue in the future.  Take a look at the graphic below illustrating various domestic, global, and economic events we have been through, but despite all of these unnerving moments the market continues to rise over time and someone who had invested $1 in the S&P 500 in 1970 would have $80 in 2021 just by staying invested.

A disciplined investor looks beyond the concerns of today to the long-term growth potential of markets.

The problem is most investors get in their own way.  They see the current investment “apocalypse du jour” and react.  This is not to not be sensitive to whatever the event that is going on – these are real events affecting people’s lives, but just not their long-term portfolio.  For example, when oil prices quadrupled in the mid-70’s many investors were tempted to exit the market and “cut their losses”.  But those that don’t get in their own way experience the gains that the market features by just saddling in and riding for the long term.  As you can see in the graphic below, over the last 20 years, the “average investor” only received a 2.9% rate of return while the S%P 500 did 7.5%.

 The final piece I want to share as to why you need to stay invested is because the best days occur without warning, often near the worst days.  So if you ride out the worst days, you will subsequently closely capture the best days.  But if you miss the best days, that has a lasting impact on your growth.  

 Stay invested.  It’s a simple truth.

Taking Advantage of Market Volatility

Hello Loyal Readership!

I hope this message finds you well today. I know that no one enjoys the volatile periods of market, but if looked at through a different perspective, once can actually use this to your possible positive financial planning advantage!

Here are some of the top to tips to consider in a down financial market, AKA – right now!

1. Roth IRA conversion – if you have the opportunity to convert some of your pre-tax accounts into post-tax accounts and pay the tax now, but never pay the tax again, this could be an opportune time to do it. If you do it today, and convert now with lower values in your portfolio, you would pay tax on a lesser dollar amount today in exchange for a future earnings on your portfolio to never be taxed again.

2. Tax loss harvesting – if you have a non-qualified (non-retirement account) you can sell out some of your holdings that may have taxable losses and buy something similar but not the same and put a loss on your tax return. This can help you offset any positive gains in your portfolio that you would otherwise have to pay tax on.

3. Rebalance your portfolio – sell what may be high in your portfolio and buy back into what is low ie. If the designed allocation on your portfolio featured 80% stocks and now stocks represent only 62% of your portfolio, you can rebalance now instead of waiting

4. Contribute and invest more now! – with market values being lower today than they were just weeks ago, this is a buying opportunity to buy securities at a discount and “on sale”. Who doesn’t like to buy things on sale?

5. Appreciate the value of being diversified – over recent years with the S&P 500 and tech stocks being the top performing asset classes, people would say there are no need to own other asset classes. The value of having a broadly diversified portfolio with other aspects to diversification is being demonstrated now.  For example, energy was one of the worst performing asset classes of the last decade, but this year it is the biggest winner.  If you have a diversified portfolio there can be segments that do better than others in different market cycles.

7. Non-market correlated assets – there is value to having some parts of your overall wealth strategy in buckets that are non- market correlated – meaning that they don’t go down when the market goes down. This is especially true of those who are very near to approaching retirement.

7. Front- load, if you can – if you have the opportunity to put more into your 401k at your job or your IRAs or Roth IRAs, now is a great time do it.  Why not put more in now when share prices are more on sale!

8. Speculative investment fads are showing they were just fads! – Crypto, NFTs, SPACs – we have said it here and will say it again most of these will go to zero.  If you got caught up in the hype over the past couple of years, now may be a time to re-think and re-position your strategy now and moving forward.

If you found any of this helpful, or have questions about any of the above strategies, please let us know and we will be glad to help you.

Compounding Magic: Positive or negative?

We all hear a lot about how assets work for you while you sleep.  That’s true.  If you have money growing for you in a positive direction, you are making money on your money without doing anything and compounding can be magical.  

For example, if you have $10,000 invested at a 6% growth rate, it can grow to over $18,000 in 10 years, and over $60,000 in 30 years!

To take it a step even further:

If you have $10,000 invested at a 9% growth rate, it can grow to over $24,000 in 10 years, and over $148,000 in 30 years!

But, the opposite is also true.  Debts can work against you while you sleep and you need to pay off and avoid high cost debt as quickly as possible or “reverse compounding” can lead to financial ruin.  In fact, 55% of Americans don’t pay the full amount of their credit card debt each month.  

For example, if you have $10,000 of credit card debt growing at a invested at an 18% interest rate, and you pay the minimum payment of around $175 per month, you ultimately will end up paying $12,872 in interest over 10 years to pay it off, plus the $10,000 you originally owed, so the total is $22,872!

But, that is not the real total cost of credit card debt.  Because, not only are you paying the original loan balance, and the interest, but you are also paying the opportunity cost of not having that money growing for you during that time like in the previous examples above!

So over a 10 year period, you are paying $22,872 with the loan balance and interest on the credit card, but also ultimately paying $24,000 in money could have gained if it was invested and growing at 9%.  So the real cost of the $10,000 in credit card debt can total to $46,872!

Control debt before it controls you!

To expand upon this further, here are some simple tips to live by:

1. Before investing pay down high interest credit card debt. (unless you have the opportunity get a match in a retirement plan like a 401k – at least put in to capture that).

2. Establish an emergency reserve fund

3. Loved ones need money if you die – get some life insurance

4. Insure your ability to earn (disability insurance) and big assets (like your home)

5. Pay yourself first, investing in any plan with a match

6. Focus on your goals, not on keeping up with your friends 

7. Invest part of every check, even if it’s a small amount

8. Diversify investments enough to ensure financial security

Start today!

Top 8 Estate Planning Goals for 2022

Today we are going to talk about the top goals for estate planning in 2022, but really in any year!  And just a warning, I put a bunch of exclamation points below, but I promise I am not shouting, just trying to emphasize!  Also,  I am not an estate planning attorney but know good ones that can vouch for what I am saying below!

1. Put an estate plan in place! – this is important if you haven’t done it yet, get it started and have your wishes documented.

2. Sign your estate plan! – if you have created it but haven’t signed it, you need to do so!  If your documents aren’t signed it’s as if you don’t have a plan at all!  Also, you need to do this in front of a notary and two witnesses.

3. Review existing documents -  make sure there are no changes needed for who you want to receive your assets or any law changes that may necessitate updates needed.  

4. Review all of your accompanying documents – these are documents like your Health Care Power of Attorney, Financial Power of Attorney, Guardians of minor children – make sure they are all the same people you would want today.  If you did your documents 10 years ago you may have elected someone else, but today that may be different, so make sure it’s reviewed and updated!

5. If you have established a Trust, make sure its funded!  - a Trust is like a bucket and if you haven’t pointed things towards it to fund it with, you will be back to probate, and defeats the purpose of having a Trust in the first place.  If you have a Trust and it doesn’t have assets to fund it, it’s like having an expensive piece of paper that won’t do anything for you.  

6. Consider drafting a Letter of Instruction – for the person that you put in charge of your estate plan, you may want to give finer detail on your wishes and instructions.  For example, you may want to list the the types of things you may want them to distribute assets to children for, where you might want your kids to go to school, etc.  It’s not a legally binding document but it gives your agents direction as to what you would have done in that scenario and makes sure your wishes are fulfilled

7. Make sure your Fiduciaries know where you keep your documents! -   They can’t use them if they don’t have a copy of them.  So if the documents are in a safe – make sure they know where the safe is and the code or key to get in! Or if you are comfortable enough, you can send copies of your documents in advance to them now, so if something happens to you they already have a copy and don’t have to go searching for them later.

8. File a Gift Tax Return – in 2021, if you gifted any one person more than $15K as a single person or $30K as a married couple you need to file this.  In 2022, the amount is $16K as a individual or $32K as a couple.  

Market Trends and Concepts So Far in 2022

Hello Loyal Readership!

So far this year in January of 2022, we have seen share prices retreat and the S&P 500 has fallen for a few weeks before stabilizing, but we have seen speculative investments like Cryptocurrency, NFT’s and Meme stocks fall even further.  Here are some thoughts about the current state of where things are today and may be moving forward.

Intrinsic Value vs. Non-Intrinsic Value

Intrinsic value?  What the heck does that mean?

An important thing to remember here as part of this is that things like stocks, bonds, and real estate have real intrinsic value based on future earnings, while the speculative investments like crypto, NFTs, and meme stocks do not.

Intrinsic value means that you are investing something that is expected to have real future earnings.  For example, if you are buying a stock, you are essentially buying ownership in a company that is expected to produce real revenues and profits for years to come based on the underlying business or service.  For the speculative investments, they simply don’t have that.  This would be the same if you are buying a business.  You are buying a business that you feel has real value because it is expected that the business will have revenues and profits for years to come.

For investments without real intrinsic value, it is harder to manage volatility because their underlying value is not based on real or expected future earnings.  

Rising Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve has scheduled some interest rate hikes in 2022 because when the economy is doing too well, they want to prevent inflation from running away to prevent things like housing or car prices from becoming unaffordable.  When they do this, this can create some volatility in the market.

If interest rates rise, this can change the expected future earnings outcome for a business, or for a stock.  For example, if a business had a loan at 3%, and now business moving forward will have a loan at 5% due to rising rates, this makes the cost of that loan higher and more expensive, and thus profits for the company lower.  This can decrease expected future earnings, and thus create some more short-term volatility, but nonetheless, the market historically posts positive returns before and after these periods.

Market pullbacks

In 2021, the largest pull back in the market was only a 5% decline, and this can create complacency and overconfidence as people may feel that they can invest money in anything in the markets and it will work out.  The market is actually in a normal state when it goes down frequently and often throughout the year, but people have been freaking out so far this year because we haven’t had pull backs in so long.

According to JP Morgan, the market averages a pull back of -14% on average each year, but despite that, 32 of the past 42 years in the market have ended up with positive returns. So, with the negative returns so far in 2022, it is ok and normal and doesn’t mean necessarily that this year won’t end up positively too.  Market pull backs can actually be a good thing to allow for rebalancing one’s portfolio, tax-loss harvesting, and buying more shares at lesser prices – and for a disciplined investor a volatile market is where one can truly shine.

We hope this has been insightful and helpful for you.  Looking forward to a great 2022!

Another Year, Another Market Prediction

Another year in the books – stocks are up, bonds are down, and cryptocurrencies pretty much did everything imaginable and we added to our vocabulary included meme stocks, SPACs, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), so what does 2022 hold?

At Offit Advisors we are not in the prediction business, but instead we are in the business of managing risk and expectations.

In 2021, the big theme was inflation which ended at around 6.8% according to the Consumer Price Index.  This means things that costed $1 in 2020 ended up costing $1.068 by the end of 2021.  

How did this happen?  When the pandemic hit and there was risk to the economy that businesses could go under and thus have ripple effects throughout the economy, the Federal Reserve (Fed) stepped in.  The point of the Fed is to interfere to help sustain and regulate the economy.  They have targeted benchmarks of 2% inflation and full employment (96% of people working).  To achieve this, they added a range of stimulus packages to businesses and individuals and families and created a low cost of borrowing environment with low interest rates.  

They accomplished their goal, but perhaps we still have too much money flooding the system and interest rates are perhaps still too low and this creates inflation.  Think of the real estate market – when interest rates are low, it inflates asset values because you can pay more for a house.  Also, when more money is chasing the same thing, prices also go up.  So, in essence what the Fed has done is inflationary.

If you believe that the “market is efficient” what it is telling us so far is that with prices going up, and businesses are passing on these price increases to consumers, so far it is working because the market is going up with this notion.  

How will this affect the markets in 2022?  Well, we don’t know exactly how this will play out in the markets, because there are variables, so instead of focusing on what the market will do, one needs to focus on their own financial plan.

Many “experts” predict where the stock market will wind up by the end of the year, but they are usually wrong!   The prediction game is futile, because we don’t know perfectly how technology or inflation will unfold, the pandemic proves no one can prove with certainty how will it play out or how the recovery or how the Fed, Congress, or what Presidents will do.  There are risks in the background – war, terrorism, cyberthreats, etc.

The other thing is that people have become accustomed to 15%+ returns over the past couple of years with almost no volatility, which usually is not the norm.  We may see a market pull back of negative returns for a longer period at some point soon or have returns under 10% for a more sustained period, and that is ok and normal.  That doesn’t mean we are having a bad year; it just means the market is having less acceleration than it has the past couple of years, which is okay!

Investors should always be investing based on their needs because the market is unpredictable on a day-to-day basis– instead of saying what will do well this year, say what do I need to do for my plan to be successful for years to come?  How much income do I need and when do I need it? And match up your portfolio allocation to your personal needs.

On It with Offit - December 2021

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DEC | 2021 A Holiday Message from the Team at Offit Advisors The team at Offit Advisors shares a message for you and your loved ones this holiday season. Ben Offit interviewed Ned Atwater, Founder and Owner of Atwater’s during Leadership Baltimore County’s Economic Development day in early December. What To Know Before Doing Any Year-End Portfolio Balancing Check out this article from CNBC featuring Principal Ben Offit. Read More - Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla, between them, have gained $6.5 trillion of value since their March 2020 lows. Apple alone has risen in value by an astonishing $1.85 trillion in just 433 trading sessions. Axios Markets, December 9, 2021 - On Monday of last week, 90% of the total bitcoin supply of 21 million has been mined. Yahoo! December 14, 2021 - The average NFL team sends more clothes to the laundry in one week than the average family does in two years. An average team can clean more than 5,500 pounds a week, compared to the average household which does 41.5 pounds. Consumer Reports, April 26, 2012   - “In trading, you have to be defensive and aggressive at the same time. If you are not aggressive, you are not going to make any money, and if you are not defensive, you are not going to keep it.” Ray Dalio - The wait for micro-chips from order to delivery is now at a record 21.7 weeks. Bloomberg, October 6, 2021 - For years conventional wisdom held that millennials would become the generation that largely spurned homeownership. Instead, since 2019, when they surpassed the baby boomers to become the largest living adult generation in the U.S., they reached a milestone, accounting for more than half of all home-purchase loan applications. The Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2021 - Before the pandemic changed the working world, Americans ranked flexibility to set their own work schedules as the 74th most important out of 76 attributes associated with a successful and happy life. Now it sits at No. 2, second only to compensation. Axios November 16, 2021 A Holiday Note from Ben to Close Out 2021 Hello loyal readership, I hope as you read this you are enjoying your favorite holiday beverage, kicking your feet up by the fire, and ready to enjoy this great article below. Today I’d like to discuss some lessons we have learned from 2021:   1. Inflation is not extinct - this has been the core economic issue of 2021 and most likely as well into 2022. This has been driven by supply chain issues and stimulus money flooding into the economy.  With the supply chain issues, that may not go away for a while as many countries outside the US dont have Covid under control as much as the US and this can cause delays as our products are from global sources.  Eventually inflation will come back to more normal levels as technology and innovation will drive inflation under control by creating various efficiencies.    2. Inflation has hurt your cash and bonds - if inflation has been a tad over 6% this year and your cash is earning near 0% and your bonds are earning less than 1-2%, then effectively you are losing money!  Meanwhile, if stocks/equities have been up over 20% this year than you are making money.  We have said it many times in this publication, that the best hedge against inflation is stocks/equities.  The only reason to have bonds is to have them in a time of crisis or when the markets go down because when that happens,  the bond portion of you portfolio usually goes up slightly, or maintains its value, or only goes down slightly And certainly less than equities.     3.  Higher taxes haven’t happened…yet! - People were bracing themselves for higher taxes and it hasn’t happened yet.  We were talking about getting rid of the step up in basis, capital gains being taxed at ordinary income tax rates, estate tax thresholds being way lower, and this hasn’t happened at all.  Thank goodness for this because it would have caused some serious rushed planning towards the end of the year.   4. Speculative investments have become increasingly popular - Crypto, NFTs, SPACs, you name them.  Many investors have grown increasingly attracted to these opportunities even though they have no real earnings, have no real underlying value, but people are buying into the notion of the future adaptation of these types of investments.   I am not disputing the value of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, or any of these innovations, but from an investing perspective it is impossible to know which of the 6,000 crypto current ices will be the winner and thus it is hard investment to make successfully.  The challenge with this is that are ARE going to be people who make a fortune on these investments, but unfortunately it will only be around 1% of the lucky people and 99% of people are going to be investing in something that ends up being worthless.  This is the essence of speculation.  An analogy to this was in the early 2000’s there was a race to be the top internet search engine - and if you had invested in early leaders like Lykos, Ask Jeeves, etc you would have lost your money when Google finally arrived won.  I believe this is a similar phenomenon going on with these types of assets    5. Market predictions for 2022? - Not so fast!  As i have said many times i don’t pretend to know where the market will be and anyone who tells you that is not telling you the truth.  It is ok to accept the fundamental truth that we never know where the market will be tomorrow, but we know that in the future it will be much higher than where it is today.  In 2021, the market did terrific stemming from the stimulus money and people getting more and more vaccinated and going back to a more normalized life and business cycle.  Also  the rapid advancement and adaptation in technology has contributed to the market’s increase.  So back to where the market will be in 2022?  We don’t know but the market cares about where earnings of companies will be in 12 months from now for example.  So if the market feels positive about the future then the market could continue to rise, if the sentiment is not positive it could go down.  A lot of this will depend on what direction the various Covid variants may go.     Lastly, one final point for 2021.  This is a time of year when people are thinking of tax strategies and being more gift and charitably oriented.  91% of charitable gifts are in cash even though most people don’t have 91% of their assets in cash.  If you have stocks that grown and appreciated in value it would be a better strategy to gift that to a charity because you get the same income tax deduction but you ALSO get out of paying the capital gains tax on the sale of that stock and so does the charity.  So be gift-smart and strategic everyone!   I hope you found this helpful and I will see you in 2022.   Stocks Decline in Late November as New COVID Variant Emerges HIGHLIGHTS News of a new COVID variant, Omicron, sent markets to their worst daily drop of 2021 the day after Thanksgiving. Volatility, as measured by the VIX Index, rose by more than 10 points that same day, one of the largest daily advances for the VIX Index in its history.   Equities took another leg down on the final trading day of November amid continued Omicron concerns. That decline was exacerbated by testimony from Fed Chair Powell who said the Fed would discuss ramping up their tapering at the December FOMC meeting.   As would be expected during heightened equity market volatility, a flight to quality ensued into U.S. Treasuries late in the month. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield closed 11/23 at 1.67%, but Treasuries rallied to end the month with the 10-year yield ending November at 1.43%.   The U.S. economy picked up some momentum during the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. However, continued high inflation readings and new concerns on the impact of Omicron overshadowed other economic data.   Volatility returned with a vengeance in late November. Much is yet to be learned about Omicron and its potential impact, but as more details on this variant emerge, in the near term, markets will likely react accordingly – good or bad. EQUITY MARKETS The wind came out of the sails of equities late in the month as news of the new Omicron variant emerged. With this backdrop, large-cap growth outperformed other areas of the market for the month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite put in new all-time highs during November, but only the NASDAQ was able to hold onto gains for the month. The year-to-date numbers now show a clear advantage for growth stocks in the large-cap space, but value still rules in the mid and small-cap universe.   The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX Index, spiked higher late in the month as the Omicron news hit the market. The VIX Index ended October at 16.26, but rose to 27.19 by the end of November. Our expectation of a more volatile second half of 2021 has materialized. Not only is the emerging news on the Omicron variant increasing volatility, but uncertainty surrounding the future course of the Fed’s actions and whether it might speed up the tapering in the months ahead (meaning a more hawkish Fed) has also unsettled the markets.   Size and style mattered once again in November. We still believe that the value/growth disparity that reached a peak last year will likely continue to shift as we move into 2022 with value improving on a relative basis. We continue to use our disciplined approach of seeking out what we believe are high-quality companies with improving business conditions at good prices. These types of companies can be found in both the value and growth universe, but with value stocks improving over the last year or so, that has benefitted our approach.   The numbers for November were as follows: The S&P 500 declined -0.69%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -3.50%, the Russell 3000 dropped by -1.52%, the NASDAQ Composite eked out a 0.33% gain, and the Russell 2000 Index, a measure of small-cap stocks, was hardest hit, down -4.17%. Through eleven months of 2021, returns in the same order were as follows: 23.18%, 14.61%, 20.90%, 21.28%, and 12.31%, 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 leadership roles that started late last summer. Large-cap growth stocks have been the clear leader over the last couple of months.   Looking closer at style, the headline Russell 1000 Index declined -1.34% for the month with a year-to-date gain of 21.53%. The Russell 1000 Growth Index showed some of the best gains in November by increasing 0.61% and this index is up 24.95% year to date. The Russell 1000 Value Index relinquished its leadership role recently and that trend continued in November. For the month, it declined -3.52%, which put the year-to-date gain at 17.73%. For small-caps, value continued to outperform growth on a relative basis. The value/growth disparity is much more pronounced in small-caps for the year to date with the Russell 2000 Value Index up 23.24%, while the Russell 2000 Growth Index has gained a mere 2.38% during the same timeframe.   International markets once again lagged U.S. stocks in November. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined -4.08% in November, which keeps this index in negative territory (down -4.34%) for the year to date. The MSCI ACWI ex USA Index, a broad measure of international equities, fell -4.50% in November, which lowered the year-to-date gain to only 3.54%. Following the trend of recent years, U.S. stocks have continued to outperform their international counterparts. Within international markets, developed countries have done better than emerging markets so far in 2021. 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 and that move higher continued in September and October. Although that trend was continuing for most of November, the late month news on the new Omicron variant spurred a flight to quality and as a result, yields dropped sharply. Overall, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield closed October at 1.55% and it ended November at 1.43%. Bond sector results were mixed for the month with this backdrop.   Fixed income returns were as follows for November: the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index gained 0.30%, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Credit Index rose a modest 0.08%, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index was off by -0.97% and the Bloomberg Barclays Municipal Index gained 0.85%. For the year to date, those index returns in the same order were as follows: -1.29%, -1.00%, 3.34%, and 1.35%, respectively. With only one month to go in the year, the Agg is close to posting only its fourth annual drop since its inception in 1976. This has been clearly a challenging year for bonds and, in particular, for U.S. Treasuries. High yield bonds remained the clear leader year to date and municipals have also enjoyed gains as concerns about higher taxes mount.   The 30-year U.S. Treasury Index gained 3.36% for the month, as the 30-year yield dropped, but it is still off by -2.61% year to date. The general U.S. Treasury Index gained 0.77% in November and is down -1.82% 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, November 2021 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. 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 9030 RED BRANCH ROAD COLUMBIA, MD 21045, US Phone + Fax:  410 600 PLAN (7526) E – Office@OffitAdvisors.com W- www.OffitAdvisors.com   To schedule an appointment with us, click here! The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra IS or Kestra AS. The material is for informational purposes only. It represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results. It is not guaranteed by Kestra IS or Kestra AS for accuracy, does not purport to be complete and is not intended to be used as a primary basis for investment decisions. It should also not be construed as advice meeting the particular investment needs of any investor. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.