February 2018 - NorthStar Capital Advisors

The Biggest Threat To Your Portfolio

How do you react to when the stock market is down or it gets bumpy? Do any of these sound familiar?

Fleeing into the arms of a charlatan who purports to having predicted it
Buying into Black Swan funds and protective products that cap all future upside and cost a fortune
Obsessing over hedges after the fact
Selling out with big (permanent) losses and sitting in cash
Freezing 401(k) contributions or having retirement cash allocated to money market funds
Excessive trading
Planting a flag and being unwilling to publicly change our minds in the face of new evidence
Throwing money at bizarre alternatives like coins, bars, bricks and bullion which have no proven ability to fund a retirement
Conflating political views with investment expectations

Every one of these things is extremely detrimental to our financial health.

Nothing kills the long-term returns of a portfolio like throwing away the playbook in the heat of a market crisis.

Source: TRB

What You Control

“If owning stocks is a long-term project for you, following their changes constantly is a very, very bad idea. It’s the worst possible thing you can do, because people are so sensitive to short-term losses. If you count your money every day, you’ll be miserable.” — Dr. Daniel Kahneman (psychologist and Nobel Laureate)

Source: Safalniveshak

6 Core Values a [Good] Financial Planner Provides

A good financial planner is client-centric and focused on improving your “Return on Life”. At NorthStar Capital Advisors, we focus on six key value propositions in this dimension:

Organization. We will help bring order to your financial life, by assisting you in getting your financial house in order (at both the “macro” level of investments, insurance, estate, taxes, etc., and also the “micro” level of household cash flow).

Accountability. We will help you follow through on financial commitments, by working with you to prioritize your goals, show you the steps you need to take, and regularly review your progress towards achieving them.

Objectivity. We bring insight from the outside to help you avoid emotionally driven decisions in important money matters, by being available to consult with you at key moments of decision-making, doing the research necessary to ensure you have all the information, and managing and disclosing any of our own potential conflicts of interest.

Proactivity. We work with you to anticipate your life transitions and to be financially prepared for them, by regularly assessing any potential life transitions that might be coming, and creating the action plan necessary to address and manage them ahead of time.

Education. We will explore what specific knowledge will be needed to succeed in your situation, by first thoroughly understanding your situation, then providing the necessary resources to facilitate your decisions, and explaining the options and risks associated with each choice.

Partnership. We attempt to help you achieve the best life possible but will work in concert with you, not just for you, to make this possible, by taking the time to clearly understand your background, philosophy, needs and objectives, work collaboratively with you and on your behalf (with your permission), and offer transparency around our own costs and compensation.

The real value we want to bring to you is to know what really matters to you and to be a part of that.

Source: Mitch Anthony, “Moving from ROI to ROL”

Medicare 101: “The What’s”

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities and medical conditions. The different parts of Medicare help cover specific services:

Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance)
- Inpatient care in hospitals
- Skilled nursing facility care
- Hospice care
- Home healthcare
Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance)
- Services from doctors and other health care providers
- Outpatient care
- Home health care
- Durable medical equipment
- Many preventative services
Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage)
- Includes all benefits and services covered under Part A and Part B
- Usually includes Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D) as part
  of the plan
- Run by Medicare-approved private insurance companies that follow
  rules set by Medicare
- Plans have a yearly limit on your out-of-pocket costs for medical
  services
- May include extra benefits and services that aren’t covered by Original
  Medicare, sometimes for an extra cost
Medicare Part D (Prescription Drug Coverage)
- Helps cover the cost of prescription drugs
- Run by Medicare-approved drug plans that follow rules set by Medicare
- May help lower your prescription drug costs and help protect against
  higher costs in the future

We’ll cover the when’s and how’s of enrolling in forthcoming articles.

Source: medicare.gov

The Biggest Threat To Your Portfolio

What You Control

6 Core Values a [Good] Financial Planner Provides

Medicare 101: “The What’s”

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