Cash Management In A Declining Interest Rate Environment

Over the last two years, interest rates have risen at a historic clip. As a result, Rockbridge has dedicated moretime helping clients manage cash reserves to take advantage of the current market environment. In previous years, “high yield” savings accounts were (and some still are) paying less than 1%. Now, it is easy to find […]
Market Indifference: How Presidential Elections Impact Your Portfolio

With the 2024 presidential election coming up, many investors wonder how the outcome could affect their investment portfolios. Historically, there has been a perception that Republican presidents are better for the stock market, while Democratic presidents are better for the bond market. However, statistics shows that the market responds indifferently to which party wins the […]
Rockbridge Institutional – December 2023 Market Review

Year in Review After plenty of ups and downs throughout the year, financial markets turned in reasonable results in 2023 – a globally diversified stock portfolio was up 16%, a reasonable proxy for bonds (Barclays Aggregated Bond Index) returned 6%. News on several fronts helps to explain this year’s results: Interest Rates, Inflation and Prospects […]
Qualified Charitable Distributions

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) allow taxpayers age 70 ½ or older with traditional IRAs (not including active SEP or SIMPLE IRAs) to make charitable contributions directly from their IRA to a qualified charity (not a donor advised fund or private foundation) that will be excluded from their taxable income. This is especially beneficial for those […]
Bonus Depreciation Phase Out

When businesses purchase eligible property such as equipment, there are two options available to allow them to accelerate book depreciation, rather than write the asset off over the useful life. Under Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), the business may expense the entire cost of that piece of property in the year of […]
Advisor-Managed vs Outside-Managed Accounts

Most clients have investment accounts in each of the three major tax buckets: tax-deferred (ex. 401(k)), tax-free (ex. Roth IRA), and after-tax (ex. Brokerage account). Due to the different tax statuses, each account type “behaves” differently. When investors save adequately across these accounts, there are a myriad of benefits. From a tax management standpoint, a […]