Emerging Markets & State Owned Enterprises

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Emerging Markets & State Owned Enterprises

About 43% of world’s market capitalization is found outside of the United States. Said another way, if you were to take every stock in the world and multiply its total available shares outstanding by it’s price, you would find that roughly 43% of that value is outside of the US. You may be surprised by this statistic given how much attention is paid to the US economy and markets. It’s understandable given most of our business and financial decisions are focused to events happening within the US. However, when it comes to investing, a global perspective is needed. For the purposes of this paper, we are focusing on one area of international markets: Emerging Markets.

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Social Security Restricted Application:

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Social Security Restricted Application:

Social Security used to have a couple of different avenues for maximizing benefits. Strategies like restricted applications and file suspend used to allow for families to obtain additional income above what each taxpayer was entitled to on an individual basis. However, in 2015 Congress passed the “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” which closed these “enhanced strategies” as a way to preserve the federal government from paying out more than what actuaries had predicted… or so we thought.

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John's Reading List - May 2021

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John's Reading List - May 2021

Our Chief Executive and Chief Investment Strategist has long been a voracious reader. The list of titles he is reading at any given time help clarify the rapidly evolving complexities of the world in which we all live.

As a new feature of our monthly Thought Leadership package, we will be highlighting a book selected by John. He will provide a brief summary of the work and offer his impressions of the book’s message.

The first in our series of John’s Reading List is:

The Future is Faster Than You Think, by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler.

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May Private Client Letter

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May Private Client Letter

The pace of economic recovery, following the painful COVID-19 shutdowns, appears to be accelerating. The initial estimate of real GDP growth shows that the economy surged at an annual rate of 6.4% in the first quarter of 2021. Double-digit personal consumption growth led the way in the first three months of the year due to widely available vaccines and fewer restrictions on business activity.

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10 Considerations When Relocating to a Different State

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10 Considerations When Relocating to a Different State

In December of 2019 in a white paper titled “Are you considering relocating when you retire? Tax issues to consider”, I provided an update on various tax differences between states to consider prior to relocating during retirement.

The popularity of relocating has grown, in particular over the past several months, and you have likely read stories about the rising interest of individuals and families moving to different areas of the United States. The pandemic has caused many to reevaluate where they want to reside, whether that be for cost-of-living (including a lower future tax burden), personal health and well-being, or closer proximity to family and friends.

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Equity Income as Bond Alternative Given Inflation Expectations

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Equity Income as Bond Alternative Given Inflation Expectations

As we make our way through 2021, bond investors continue to face the challenge of finding income/cash flow in a world of low interest rates. While the 10yr US Treasury bond rate has had a meaningful increase to start the year from just under 1% to about 1.6%, this interest rate is still at extremely low levels compared to historical context. Bond investors have seen yields drop for close to 40 years now. The drop in yields over these 40 years has resulted in amazing returns for bond investors because as market rates fall, bond prices rise. This inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates is known as interest rate risk and is defined as the risk a bond’s value could change due to movement in prevailing market rates, shape of the yield curve, and various other interest rate relationships. In addition to interest rate risk, bond investors also face credit default risk, which reflects the borrower’s ability to repay the loan over time. In this piece, we will focus on where to find income and the asymmetric interest rate risk bond investors face today.

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Webinar - Understanding Senator Sanders' Proposed Estate Tax Policy

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Prefer to just listen? Click below

In 2020, Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders teamed up for the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force with Recommendations for Combating the Climate Crisis and pursuing Environmental Justice. This 110-page document outlined many platform considerations, including their like-mindedness on Estate Taxes.

On Thursday, March 25th Senator Bernie Sanders officially released his proposed estate and gift tax reform legislation. This 18 page bill contains major changes to current legislation that would have serious implications for many of the families that work with Clearwater Capital.

The effective date of multiple sections of the proposed legislation is upon enactment; therefore, now is the time to consider how these changes may affect you and future generations.

April Private Client Letter

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April Private Client Letter

It has been just over a year since the equity markets hit their COVID-19 lows. On Monday March 23rd, 2020, the broad indices all hit new lows after nearly a month of indiscriminate selling as the scope of the pandemic became clear. Since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 have both gained just about 80% and the NASDAQ 100 is up about 90%. Many large cap stocks have doubled, tripled or more from their panic-induced 2020 lows.

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Internet of Things - An Overview

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Internet of Things - An Overview

In 1997, the world had its own pandemic scare with the first human cases of the Avian Flu, The Titanic and The Lost World: Jurassic Park were both released, and the first Harry Potter book was published.I(1) Yet, the most meaningful event of the year may have come when a man named Vic Hayes created the standards for what we know today as wireless internet, or Wi-Fi.(2)

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The Beginning of the End

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The Beginning of the End

Oh what a difference a year makes. For a moment, and I know it’s scary, transport yourself back to where you were 365 days ago. The S&P 500 was down about 20% in the month of March, 2020. We had witnessed the Dow Jones fall almost 3000 points in a single day, panic and uncertainty was pretty much the only thing we had to hold on to. It was just a bit before this time when our firm released our first COVID - 19 related commentary.

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An Intro to Bitcoin

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An Intro to Bitcoin

Over the past year we have seen a pandemic, social unrest, all-time market highs, and a meteoric rise in the price of Bitcoin. In the early days of Bitcoin, few people knew about it and even fewer people discussed it. In January 2017, Bitcoin was trading under $1,000. By October of that year, the price had jumped to over $5,000 and by the end of December it was trading over $19,000. Needless to say, Bitcoin quickly grabbed the attention of retail investors and Wall Street. However, Bitcoin would soon fade away as the price dropped to $4,000 in 2018. Bitcoin had lost traction and wall street stopped talking about it.

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Outlook 2021 - The Great Acceleration

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Outlook 2021 - The Great Acceleration

We have frequently thought the word “unprecedented” has been used far too casually to describe relatively ordinary events. This said, 2020 was in the very literal sense of the word, a truly unprecedented year.

Never have governments locked down entire economies to fight a global pandemic. Never have we seen such a rapid bear market – followed by the fastest recovery on record. Never has an effective vaccine been developed in less than a year, and never has one been produced using mRNA technology. The list of astonishing “Nevers” and “Firsts” could go on.

We enter 2021 anticipating successful vaccination programs and the reopening of our economy. Accordingly, we are pleased to share with you Outlook 2021, our core economic thesis for the coming year. Here you will find our expectations, as well as an in-depth discussion of how we arrive at various conclusions.

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Robin Who? - By James Chapman

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Robin Who? - By James Chapman

With 2 days left in the first month of 2021, it seems there is no plan in sight to slow down the insane headline trend from 2020. So far this year has brought us a run on the capital, another attempt at impeachment, an inauguration, and that brings us to this week. In what some have coined “The Reddit Revolt” we have witnessed a never before seen intersection of social media and the financial markets. Seemingly every time you open your phone to look at Twitter, Instagram, even Tik Tok at this point, you cannot avoid headlines about Gamestop, AMC, and a few other individual stock names. Millions watched their screens as we saw these positions absolutely soar to levels that had even the most astute financial professionals scratching their heads. Given the inquiries we have already fielded regarding these happenings this article will seek to lay out what happened, how it happened, and what lessons it may have produced.

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What is Fintech? The trend towards mobile payments and a cashless economy.

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What is Fintech? The trend towards mobile payments and a cashless economy.

Recently, my wife and I stopped by our local Costco, which was rare for me because I had not stepped foot in a retail store in a while, particularly since the COVID-19 period began. I was surprised at what I saw.

Rather than the social distancing and other COVID-related protocols that the store had implemented, it was the check-out process that intrigued me.

Behind a protective plexiglass shield there was an attendant who used a scanning device for all steps in the checkout process - including scanning through the plexiglass our credit card which was displayed on my wife’s mobile phone.

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College Planning for High Net Worth Families

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College Planning for High Net Worth Families

College planning and high net worth families typically aren’t two topics combined in the same writing. Most families in this category plan to either pay tuition costs from current assets they have already accumulated or to simply pay it out of current cash flow. However, there may be situations where families are paying more than they need to and may be ill advised to forgo the college planning process all together. There are various strategies that all families should take for college planning regardless of the size of their balance sheet. This post will focus on 5 considerations for college planning for HNW families:

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October 2nd Special Market Update

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October 2nd Special Market Update

Just when we thought this crazy year could not possibly become more chaotic, we receive the news that the President, the First Lady, and a senior aide tested positive for COVID-19. Of course we wish the President, and the others, a speedy recovery. With the elections on 32 days off, it is nearly impossible to predict how the President's diagnosis will impact the election and the markets.

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