2021 Equity Target Achieved

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2021 Equity Target Achieved

Over the years, Clearwater Capital Partners has maintained the discipline of establishing specific targets for a variety of economic indicators and capital markets. These forecasts are intended to bring practical application and transparency to our economic thesis. Our predictions revolve around highly recognized measurements and indexes; and this tradition provides our readers with a straightforward means by which to monitor the efficacy of our outlook.

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Year to Date Returns

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Two thirds of calendar year 2021 is now behind us with only four months remaining in the year.  Equity returns have been generally robust while fixed income performance has lagged.  This relative performance is consistent with Clearwater Capital’s Outlook and we expect this pattern will persist through the balance of the year.  Click here for a more detailed look at major market index performance data, along with sector and style summaries.  

What is Investment Portfolio Management?

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What is Investment Portfolio Management?

Investment Portfolio Management is the first service addressed in John Sleeting’s Thought Leadership article titled, “What are Multi-Family Offices Services?” As a fiduciary, our responsibilities include being prudent stewards of client assets in achieving their long-term objectives. Objectives vary from client to client requiring differentiated solutions and services; thus, a client-centric approach toward investment management is required to tailor solutions for each family.

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Emerging Investment Themes for the Next Decade - Fintech

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Emerging Investment Themes for the Next Decade - Fintech

Fintech is the abbreviation of “financial technology” and likely plays a bigger part in your current day-to-day life than you may even know. A company is said to be involved in fintech if it dedicates a significant portion of its operations to developing or offering products that are particularly innovative in the way our current financial system works. As such, these companies have the distinct opportunity to massively disrupt current financial operations and completely change the way these functions are conducted through their technology.

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Investing in Stocks in an Escalating Market Environment – A Few Considerations for Every Investor

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Investing in Stocks in an Escalating Market Environment – A Few Considerations for Every Investor

In December 2018, our team wrote a piece called “Losing Money” as a Long-Term Investor. In that article, the primary message was for investors to stay the course with a personal long-term investment plan and to prevent making irrational decisions due to stock market volatility that occurs along the way.

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August Private Client Letter

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August Private Client Letter

Economists and analysts began the year with relatively muted expectations for the U.S. economy. Emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines were just being issued and there was much uncertainty surrounding their availability and efficacy. Understandably, most forecasts for the reopening of the economy were cautious, if not grim. At the beginning of the year our country was still very much in lockdown mode and while hopeful, true optimism was hard to come by.

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NCAA Rules Change

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NCAA Rules Change

On June 30th, 2021 groundbreaking news broke from NCAA board of Directors. The NCAA announced they would be lifting restrictions on athletes receiving payments based on their name, image, and likeness (NIL). For decades we have seen athletes suspended for this behavior, notably Reggie Bush, Todd Gurley, and Johnny Manziel. Now, the NCAA has flipped the script and has effectively turned these amateur athletes into professionals.

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The Value and Complexity of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

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The Value and Complexity of Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

For close to ten years, tax law rulings surrounding the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from an Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) to a charitable entity have flip-flopped as the tax code has grown and been modified over the years. But in 2015, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act finally made the rules surrounding the QCD permanent, allowing individuals to give charitably while also minimizing income taxes from the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).

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Outlook 2021 - Mid Year Update

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Outlook 2021 - Mid Year Update

Hard to believe it, but we have reached the midpoint of 2021 already and have finished one of the best first-half starts in years. In fact, with a gain of 14.4% it was the S&P's second best first-half performance since 1998. For the record, the Dow ended the first-half with a 12.7% gain, the Nasdaq with a 12.5% gain, and the small-cap Russell 2000 with a 17.0% gain!

The S&P has now advanced more than 5% in five consecutive quarters - for only the second time in history (1953-1954). Back then, stocks added another 26.4% over the next four quarters, so perhaps we should be open to the possibility for continued strength in the second half of the year and into 2022.

Everything about the past year-and-a-half has been unique and it is as important as ever to maintain an intelligent framework for decision making. To this end, we are pleased to present our Outlook 2021 Mid-Year Update. Here you will find our latest forecasts for what may be coming our way.

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Clearwater Capital Completes Cybersecurity Program Review

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Clearwater Capital Completes Cybersecurity Program Review

As with many aspects of our lives, Clearwater Capital relies on sophisticated technology to meet the needs of our clients while also keeping the sensitive information gathered in that process safe and secure. Protecting client information is one of our firm’s top priorities, to which we have dedicated a large amount of time and resources.

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What are Multi-Family Office Services?

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What are Multi-Family Office Services?

In 2017 we shared with readers An Intro to Family Offices in which we outlined the regulatory evolution and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) definition of a Family Office. Further, we referenced Dr. Kirby Rosplock’s book The Complete Family Office Handbook as she noted Family Offices are “designed to prepare family members to collectively manage, sustain, and grow their wealth across multiple generations”. We closed with a reminder that a families’ Human, Intellectual and Social Capital reflect the hopes, aspirations, and purpose of a Family while the Office helps to organize and manage the tools, financial and legal, to sustain the family and achieve their objectives.

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June Private Client Letter

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June Private Client Letter

U.S. equities continue to grind higher as we move into the summer months. Following a minor pullback of about 4% for the S&P 500 (and nearly 7% for the NASDAQ) early in May, stocks have been broadly rebounding. As June begins, the U.S. equity markets stand within striking distance of reaching new all-time highs.

Optimism over much better COVID-19 data, the reopening of our economy and the anticipated wave of activity in the second half of the year, continues to support stock prices. While recent economic readings have been mixed, consumer sentiment remains strong and both industrial production and manufacturing activity are now up substantially from a year ago.

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Considerations When Contemplating Divorce

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Considerations When Contemplating Divorce

Life is full of milestones. While many are joyous occasions, such as getting married or the birth of a child, others are less so. Sadly, divorce touches just under 750,000 American couples per year, equal to roughly 2.7% of the US population. (SOURCE: CDC.gov, data as of 2019) While this figure has been steadily dropping over the past 20 years, divorce is a factor in many lives. Such a life-changing decision has many aspects that need to be considered, many of which require specialized knowledge that many do not have. This lack of understanding can often be a barrier for people, preventing an unhappy couple from pursuing the course they would both otherwise prefer. Where will I live? How will I pay the bills? What will this do to my retirement plan? To help demystify the divorce process, here are a few things to consider as you begin the process.

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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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