Canary in a Coal Mine: Managing Risk-A Major Challenge of Our Time

The Investment Advisor, (Pittsburgh, PA)

In an era of uncertainty, when industries, companies and occupations are born and die in the blink of an eye.????

Manage risk to grow your company, increase you’re income, protect, and grow your investments and your net worth.???

Uncertainty. It’s a sign of the times we live in. If you are concerned about: growing your company, the value of your savings and investments, securng the gains in your retirement plan, the value of your children’s college education, savings and investment accounts, the value of your trust, the safety of your job, the income you receive from your dividend and interest payments and the value of your personal and joint accounts. Then it may be worth your while to think through your investment philosophy, strategy and tactics relative to the amount of risk you may be taking.

Tariffs may accelerate an Inflation yet to be tamed. When markets start to swing up and?down wildly it’s natural to worry. The truth is no one really knows when things will return to normal.?

Risk takes many forms. We have seen systemic risk as we have watched financial institutions fail. We have seen declines in the value of the underlying assets upon which their investment and income streams were based. We have witnessed political risk threaten the credit worthiness of the United States as a sovereign nation. Even now, the United States Treasury is taking extraordinary measures to keep the finances of the country afloat until a budget can be created and the debt cap raised.

The scarcity of resources threatens to undermine the major tenets upon which our economy and the markets have been built. These Include: predictability, a safe and secure financial infrastructure, a stable currency, stable prices for goods and services, an equitable system of taxation, reasonably priced energy to heat our homes and drive our cars, a well maintained physical infrastructure and transportation system.?

Ultimately, the risks to the value of your company, your job, your income, and your savings and investments in your portfolio spans the spectrum including: systemic risk, market risk, political risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk, regulation risk, valuation risk, purchasing power risk and health risk.

This type of environment requires careful planning for companies and investors to be successful. If you are looking for ways to mitigate tax consequences? Grow and protect the value of your 401k or 403b Retirement Plan? Investing for the education of your children? Saving for a home? Using your savings and investments to create income during your retirement? Creating or managing your retirement plan for your company, non-profit or yourself? Figuring out how to preserve the value of your investments? Intend to transfer them to your loved ones? Protect your assets from potential creditors who may seek to lay claim to them? Then you may want to consider developing a set of action steps to address these concerns.?

Below, are a number of questions you may want to ask yourself and know the answers to. These questions may help you solidify, and crystallize the process of putting in place your income, growth, tax, savings and investment philosophy. Help you Identify your strategies, and tactics to protect and grow your net worth. They represent a starting point for such planning. Not an endpoint. The process is ongoing. They are also not a substitute for legal, accounting and investment counsel.????

1.?How Much Cash Do You Need to Have on Hand to Meet Immediate and Short-Term?Expenses?

2.?Do You Understand How Your Savings and Investments are Protected in the Event of?a Default by Your Financial Institution?????

3.?Do You Understand the Length of Time it Will Take to Receive Funds From: FDIC, (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), SIPC, (Securities Investor Protection Corporation), or the NCUA, (National Credit Union Administration), for Credit Unions. How Insurance Policies and Annuities are Protected In the Event Your Financial Institution Defaults??

4.?Have You Considered How Events Like a Government Shutdown May?Affect This?Insurance???

5. Are You Holding Savings and Investments in Accounts Above the Thresholds Set and Covered?by FDIC and SIPC? Does Your Financial?Institution Carry Private Insurance That?Protects You for Amounts Above These Thresholds??Have You Organized Your Accounts to Conform to These Thresholds? ????

6.?How are Your Savings and Investments Positioned to Protect Against: A Credit?Downgrade, Fallout From?Quantitative Tightening, a Rise or Fall in the Value of the Dollar, an Increase or Decrease in Interest Rates and Possible Inflation, Deflation or Staglation???What is Your Plan to Manage Your Assets in the Wake of Tariffs?

7.?Have You Clearly Defined the Purposes for Which You Are Saving and Investing? Have You Separated Your Assets Into the Types of Accounts Which Allow You to?Manage These Assets for Their Respective Purposes??

8.?Do you Understand the Level of Risk You are Taking with Your Portfolio and are You Comfortable With it??

9.?Do You Understand the Relationships Between Growth, Risk, Compounding and Rate of Return? Over What Time Frame are You Attempting to Achieve Your Goals??

10. What is Your Plan to Protect Your Investments in Your Retirement Plan Against Loss Due to Market Fluctuation??

11.?Are You Properly Diversified Across Asset Classes? Do You Understand the Range?of Risk Management Strategies to Help You Mitigate Your Risk in Your Portfolio??

12.?Have You Done a Risk/Reward Cost Benefit Analyses Between the Yields Your Dividend Producing and Fixed?Income Investments Pay You and the?Corresponding Risk to Your Principal Investment???

13.?Have You Reviewed How and Where to Position Some of Your Savings and?Investments in Foreign and Non-Dollar Denominated Assets??

14.?Have You Considered the Value of Hedging Your Investments as Insurance Against?Having to Sell at Possible Fire Sale Prices??

15.?Do You Understand the Role Hard Assets Such as Precious Metals, Agricultural, and Other Commodities and Real Estate Play in Your Portfolio??

16.?Have You Examined How Different Classes of Investments May Perform in?Different Parts of the Economic Cycle??

17.?Have You Created a Plan to Protect Your Assets if Someone Attempts to Lay Claim?to Them? Such as: a Creditor, Court Judgment, Divorce, Automobile Accident, Business Liability, Hospital or Health Care Institution. Have You Secured an Attorney to Create the Entities to Help You Accomplish This??

18. Have You Evaluated How Taxes, Fees and Expenses Associated With Your Investments Affect Your Return? Have You Secured the Professionals to Help You do so?????

19. Have You Spoken With Your Attorney and CPA About How to Use the Tax Code to Create Tax Advantaged Investments Held in Your Company.?

20. What Steps Have You Taken to Protect Your Information Technology, Computer Equipment and Data From Cyber Threats? ???

21. Have You Put a Plan in Place That Will Allow Your Business to Continue in the Event of a Natural Disaster, Interruption of Essential Services or a Problem With Your Health?

22. Have You Planned How to Cash Out and Exit Your Business Due to an Increase in Value, Retirement or Health Reasons.

23. Do You Understand How Fiduciary Responsibility May Help to Protect Your Retirement Plan?

25. Have Your Considered How ERISA Protects Pension Plans and Health Care Benefits.

The Investment Advisor is a Publisher and Curator of Financial and Investment Information Designed to Educate About Investment Management, Wealth Management, Trusts, Estates, Retirement Plans, Asset Protection and Health Care.

If you are an investment firm, an RIA, a bank, a hedge fund, a private equity firm a brokerage firm or a law firm, and you are looking to outsource the creation of qualilty information for your clients and prospects. Call The Investment Advisor for a No Cost Consultation about how you can can put this kind of information in front of your clients.

Call The Investment Advisor at 412-660-2829 or email [email protected]

This article should not be considered a recommendation for any security, financial planning, legal or accounting decision. Recommendations are only made in individual consultation with each client after the individual and unique circumstances of each client has been disclosed by the client to their Financial or Investment Advisor, Attorney, Accountant or Tax Advisor.

#investment #investmentfirm #ria #hedgefund #privateequity #brokeragefirm #accountingfirm #lawfirm #publish #curate