White House Financial & Settlement Solutions, LLC

I recently attended a workshop in Chicago that focused on closely held business transition planning.   I was interested in attending this workshop due to my goal of ensuring an ironclad succession and disaster plan for our firm and to be better able to advise many of our clients who are entrepreneurs and business owners.    As the owner of a closely held business for over eleven years I have tried hard to focus on the following mantra and which is the crux of what this seminar dealt with: Working on your business, rather than just in it! Sometimes a business can be humming along, increasing its net worth and profit margins, while the business owner overlooks potential major issues that can threaten its very existence.   This is rarely done intentionally or out of neglect, it is just that he or she is simply distracted by all of the progress being achieved. Many businesses are devastated when those events we do not like to consider take place such as death, d

On, Monday, May 6 th , during an interview on CNBC, Warren Buffett, the venerated Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and famous investor, called the fixed income or bond asset class a "…terrible investment right now".  Obviously, it is important to listen closely to what Mr. Buffett has to say given his investment track record.  However, it is also important to take several other factors into consideration as well, such as: 1.) Mr. Buffett is in a different financial position than probably 99% of us and, therefore, can afford to take a different amount of risk.  This is also likely true for most of the people who earn a living by making financial predictions. 2.) As  The Wall Street Journal wrote on Sunday , bond bears were making the same calls in the beginning of 2010, 2011, and 2012; those predictions led to lower yields (e.g., higher bond prices and thus higher bond returns) as the year went on.  If the keep predicting this every year I guess eventually they will get it