Mountain Views News          Saturday, November 15, 2014

B4

 

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, November 15, 2014 

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett


DOLLARS VS. DAYS 

After you’ve taken step one to decide to sell your 
home, step two is usually setting your asking 
price, striving for a balance between generating 
offers and receiving top dollar. 

 Your chosen representative will perform a 
Competitive Market Analysis (CMA) to produce 
an estimate of your home’s ”fair market value,” 
or that price that educated buyers will pay based 
on listings and sales of homes similar to yours. 
The agent will not establish the price, but only 
provide the information you need to make that 
decision yourself. 

 In a hot market, you have the advantage, but 
would still want to avoid overpricing, which 
is always unproductive. However, in a neutral 
or buyers market, you’ll have to be particularly 
cautious in your approach to setting a price. 

 In soft markets, price reductions become more 
common, as well as fewer offers and longer listing 
periods. You have to first establish your priority: 
is it more important for you to sell quickly or to 
get the most money possible? Like it or not, one 
option simply must be more critical than the 
other. 

 Have a third party, like your agent, help you 
see your home as a commodity, with positive 
and negative selling points. Price your home 
objectively and competitively, be prepared to 
negotiate to reach an agreement with buyers, and 
exercise patience as you prepare your move.

5 REASONS WHY YOU NEED TO 

REVIEW YOUR ESTATE PLAN

Lots of people bring me their existing estate plans 
to review for them. Sometimes I get to deliver the 
good news that their documents were drafted 
correctly, their assets are protected properly, and 
their plans are up to date with the current laws 
and their present family situation. Unfortunately, 
more often than not, I have to tell them one or 
more of those essential plan elements is lacking 
or even missing. Of course the silver lining is that 
they caught it before it was too late to do anything 
about it.

 I recommend every estate plan be reviewed at 
a minimum of every three years (and I do that 
for my clients as an added value benefit – at no 
additional charge). If you haven’t had your plan 
reviewed within the last three years, you should. 
And here are 5 triggers that mean it’s time to 
review your existing estate plan now, no matter 
how long it’s been:

 Family changes. Marriage, divorce, birth and 
death are four family changes that should prompt 
an immediate estate plan review. If one of your 
beneficiaries dies, you will need to remove them 
from your estate plan. A new child or grandchild 
means adding beneficiaries. If your daughter gets 
a divorce, you will likely want to remove her ex 
from your estate plan but keep their children in. 
These circumstances can also trigger changes to 
those people designated as guardians, executors 
or health care agents.

 Health changes. The state of your own health 
may dictate changes to your estate plan, especially 
when it comes to long-term care. You may want to 
help a family member who has no other resources 
for long-term care, or if you yourself suddenly 
need long-term care, you may need to provide a 
trustee with new instructions on the kind of care 
you want - i.e., staying at home with in-home help 
or paying to live in a senior living facility.

 Work changes. You may suddenly want - 
or need - to retire, which could necessitate 
withdrawing from your IRA funds to support 
yourself instead of contributing more. If you 
have a family business, you may want to sell it 
or convert a sole proprietorship into an LLC or 
corporation, which could mean a significant 
change for your estate plan.

 Market changes. If the total value of your estate 
has fluctuated by more or less than 20 percent, 
this should prompt an estate plan review. A 
significant gain could provide you with assets you 
may want to gift to children or grandchildren to 
reduce or remove estate taxes.

 Law changes. Tax and estate laws change all 
the time, so reviewing your plan to ensure you 
are taking advantage of any new changes that 
could benefit you, or revising your plan so those 
changes do not adversely impact your estate, is 
critical.

 To review an existing estate plan or create 
one, call our office today. Be one of the first five 
readers to mention this article and we’ll waive 
our normal planning/review fee (a $750/$1,000 
value). As the holiday season approaches, there 
really is no better gift you can give yourself and 
your family.

 

 To you family’s health, wealth, and happiness,

 

 A local attorney, father, and CASA volunteer 
(Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children), 
Marc Garlett is on a mission to help parents protect 
what they love most. His office is located at 49 S. 
Baldwin Ave., Ste. G, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. 
Call 626.355.4000 to schedule an appointment to 
sit down and talk about ensuring a legacy of love 
and financial security for your family or visit www.
GarlettLaw.com for more information.

INVEST IN GOLD OR 

HUMAN INGENUITY?

by Greg Welborn 


The “buy gold now” commercials are back and 
with them the old question of whether it is better 
to invest in this precious metal or in human 
ingenuity. That after all is the essence of whether 
you decide to invest in gold or in stocks. To me, as 
an unbiased investment professional, the answer 
is a no-brainer: go with human ingenuity every 
time. Forget the gold.

 Gold is considered by many to be a safe “store 
of value”, while to others it is an investment 
whose price increases have been stratospheric. 
While we can find short periods of time when 
both statements have been true, over the long 
term neither one pans out.

 If we compare the price of gold on Jan 1, 2000 
with its price on Nov 13, 2014, we see a pretty 
dramatic rise: from $288 to $1,162. But that’s 
only part of a much longer history. Go back to 
gold’s last high water mark - $875 in January of 
1980. In this context, gold’s rise from $875 to 
$1,162 is much less impressive.

 Over the time period from 1980 to today, 
gold has increased 33%. Over that same period 
of time, inflation has increased prices by 200%, 
so gold didn’t even keep up. More significant is 
the fact that the S&P 500 increased by a factor 
of roughly 15. Had you invested your money in 
the broad U.S. stock market over that time, you 
would be so far ahead as to make the question of 
owning gold a silly one.

 What drives this disparity is the fact that the 
broad stock market is a measure of the broad 
benefits of human ingenuity. People are forever 
trying to come up with better ways to produce 
something or to create something entirely new to 
solve an existing problem. That ingenuity starts 
companies or invigorates existing companies. 
Those efforts across the board are largely 
successful and are responsible for our improved 
living standard, the technology revolution we 
enjoy today and for the profits that owners of 
stock in these companies have enjoyed over the 
years.

 If given a choice between investing in gold 
out of pessimism about the future vs investing 
in stocks out of optimism about the future of 
human ingenuity and accomplishments, I’ll take 
the humans every time.

 So, the next time you see or hear an ad telling 
you to “buy gold”, please don’t. Make a wiser 
decision and invest in the markets where real 
wealth is generated.

 About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is the 
Managing Partner of First Financial Consulting, 
a fee-only advisory firm. He has worked with 
The Today Show, Kiplinger’s Magazine, and USA 
Today to provide objective financial advice to their 
readers and listeners. He has 3 grown children and 
is honored to be married to his wife of 25 years. He 
can be reached at gwelborn@ffconsult.net


SUNDAY OPEN HOUSESVisit PODLEY.COM for additional open houses, 
news and events!
PODLEY PROPERTIES30 N. Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre | 626.355.23843007 MILLICENT WAY, PASADENAOPEN SUNDAY > 1-4PM3007MillicentWay.com | $825,0001042 SCRIPPS DRIVE, CLAREMONTOPEN SUNDAY > 1-4PM3BR/2BA | $549,500
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com