Secure Document Sharing
A wealth of information at your fingertips.
SageBroadview’s Crash Course in College Admissions Part IV: The Drama of a Theatrical Program
Following up on Sheri’s insights from Devon’s search for a musical program, Wendy Vissar reflects on the challenges that she, her husband Michael Slackman and their son Nikolas have encountered in his desire to pursue a career in theatrical arts. As long-time neighbors and good friends, Nik and Devon are both about to make their way into the wider world. We hope they remain close to us and one another...
SageBroadview’s Crash Course in College Admissions Part III: Applying for Performing Arts Programs
Shakespeare may have been right when he penned, “All the world’s a stage.” But as Sheri, her husband Dave and their youngest son Devon have discovered, an aspiring performing arts student will still find the college admissions process even more challenging as a result of extra audition and other specialized requirements. Following is Sheri’s advice for families of students who are interested in entering performing arts programs, like the one Devon...
SageBroadview’s Crash Course in College Admissions Part II: Embarking on “The Admissions Journey”
In our last post, we described how a number of us here at SageBroadview have been on personal quests to send our kids to college … and have lived to tell the tale. Today, we share some of the key insights Lynn Iannetta Baker discovered as she, her husband Scott and their daughter Sarah looked into schools that seemed best suited for Sarah’s educational aspirations. Combining two parts of practical wisdom...
College Admissions Part I: Preparing for the Admissions Journey
Planning for College It never rains but it pours, or so the saying goes. As it applies to sending our beloved adult children to college, many of us here at SageBroadview have been getting deluged lately. As Sheri described, Dominic flew the coop in 2014. This fall Devon, her youngest son, is entering the University of Hartford’s music performance and composition program via The Hartt School. Lynn has also recently completed “the...
Models vs. Reality, Indexes vs. Investing Part II: A Fund Isn’t an Index (and Why That Matters)
A Fund Isn’t an Index (and Why That Matters) In our last post, we covered how not all indexes are created equally, which means that results may vary, even when they are supposedly tracking the same market. In today’s post, let’s look at how and why a fund’s performance may deviate from its closest benchmark index. Indexes vs. Evidence-Based Funds: Similar But Different Take one more step away from the real-life market,...
Models vs. Reality, Indexes vs. Investing Part I: What’s in an Index?
In recent posts (part I and part II), we covered some of the ways people try to determine how their investments have been doing, and how mismatched measures can generate misguided views. Determining your portfolio’s Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWR) is one way to reach a relatively accurate sense of how your portfolio is doing compared to its most appropriate benchmarks during particular periods of time. One good two-part series deserves...
Another Helpful Take on Fiduciary Duty
Well, speaking of the devil. Or, in this case, the devilish ways that some financial representatives make investment recommendations that may or may not be in your best interest. It depends on whether they are in a fiduciary relationship with you … or not. No sooner had we wrapped our own post explaining why the term may be as important as it is unfamiliar, Dimensional Fund Advisors published its own handy...
What is a Fiduciary? Demystifying “Fiduciary” Financial Advice
So, have you heard about the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) new fiduciary rule, now governing the advice you receive for your retirement plan assets? If so, congratulations, you’re in an elite group. Maybe the news would have received wider coverage if the election year weren’t in full swing. Maybe not. As one of my colleagues observed, “Sad to say, ‘fiduciary’ is boring.” The word alone causes eyes to glaze and...