Insights

As Cybersecurity month wraps up and the holiday shopping season gets into full swing, everyone should remember that there are professional phishers working hard to trick you into giving out your personal information.

A deeper dive into inflation data.

Typically, year-end tax planning consists of accelerating deductions, delaying income, and maximizing contributions to tax-deferred accounts. While these ideas still may be beneficial for many people, the tax increases included in proposed legislation may cause some taxpayers to go a different direction this year.

Inflation, temporarily higher for longer. What that means for investors.

Since our last Market Insights update, the S&P 500 made several new highs and even made it to thirteen straight weeks with a new high. The Nasdaq crossed 15,000 for the first time and the largest companies have recently outperformed the S&P 500, including Microsoft, Alphabet (aka Google), Amazon, and Facebook.

Summer is ending, kids are going back to school, football season is around the corner, and we can almost smell the pumpkin spice. For small business owners, this is a great time to ponder some mid-year tax and accounting considerations.

Typically, the month of August has not been friendly to equity investors. Even though we have seen eight new all-time closing highs for the S&P 500 during August alone, the daily give and take has left the index flat month-to-date. Still, the number of record closing highs have been quite impressive this year. Last Monday’s closing high was the 49th year-to-date. With no significant pullbacks, this leaves the index up 18.4% on a total return basis as of yesterday’s close.

Were you one of the tens of millions of American families to receive the first monthly installment of the 2021 Enhanced Child Tax Credit? Are you just as confused as the rest of the country as to what it is or what to do? Don’t worry; you are not alone. The questions and uncertainty have left many taxpayers feeling confused.

The S&P 500 continues to make new highs, with the market up over 17% this year (including dividends) and up about 38% over the past 12 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is around 35,000, while it touched 30,000 for the first time this past November.

Let’s start with the FBI definition of ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malicious software, or malware, that encrypts data on a computer making it unusable. A malicious cybercriminal holds the data hostage until the ransom is paid. If the ransom is not paid, the victim’s data remains unavailable. Cybercriminals may also pressure the victims to pay the ransom by threatening to destroy the victim’s data or to release it to the public.