Basics of estate planning - A carefully prepared estate plan will allow you to achieve many goals. Ensure the financial security of your spouse; determine what should be left to the children and how their inheritances should be handled if they are young; dispose of the family business; minimize the effects of taxes on your estate; empower a reliable executor and trustee to invest and manage the assets in your estate.

Charitable Gift Chart - A table outlining the various techniques and issues related to charitable gifts.  These include outright gift to charity, creating a public charity, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and charitable lead trusts.

Checklist for a Surviving Spouse - Eighteen items a surving spouse must do upon the death of their spouse.

Choosing the Right Trustee to Achieve Specific Tax Objectives - To avoid causing either the grantor or the trustee to be taxed on a trust’s income, the trust must be chosen carefully, and the powers retained by the grantor or given to the trustee must be analyzed thoroughly.  A detailed examination into the tax issues surrounding the nomination of a trustee.

Choosing your executor and trustee - Do not make the mistake of choosing any friend or relative to be your executor and trustee.  The ideal executor has been described as a combination of detective, bill collector, investment analyst, bookkeeper, property manager, business executive, tax specialist, corresponding secretary and financial counselor.  This article provides a highlevel overview of the issues required to chose the executor and trustee of your estate plan.

Client Wealth Management Needs - A table outlining the various issues affecting the wealth management needs of the high-net worth family.  These areas include: Wealth Management, Investment Management, Risk Management, Estate Planning, Philanthropic Management, Income Tax Planning, and Business Planning.

Family Governance: Who, What, and How - This article addresses three questions when dealing with generational wealth transitions:  Who are the families for whom governance is an issue, what does “governance” mean in the family context, and how can a family deliberately establish an internal governance structure to achieve its goals?

Financial Planning in Fantasyland - White Paper -This article by the Nobel prize winning economist William F. Sharpe provides guidance to the importance of knowing where you going in retirement planning.  There is a world-wide trend away from defined benefit pension plans, in which workers make no decisions about saving and investment, to defined contribution plans, in which they make such decisions.  Most participants in defined contribution plans don’t know what they are doing and need help.

How Families Really Manage Their Wealth - This article provides a statistical framework on how families manage their financial choices.   The interesting part of this article relates to the range of families involved from average to ultra-high net worth wealth.   Some basic issues discussed are: How do families really decide in making financial choices?  Have these choices changed over time?  What are the results of making these choices?

IBM Client Advocacy - IBM Global Business Services has written a fact based stratgic insight white paper on the wealth management industry.  The paper cites that 57% of clients are not advocates of their wealth management firms.  This paper explosres the reasons why.

Inheritance Rights and Expectations -As entrepreneurs consider wealth migration strategies are those a range of soft issues needed to be discussed.  This articles raises those issues allowing the wealth migration strategy to reflect of the wealth creators.   Issues to be discussed are: What is the obligation of parents to their children?  How is law involved in setting those obligations?  Why do parents assume that too much wealth can ruin a child?  What is viewed as a “successful” life?  What are a child’s expectations?  What are a child’s rights?  What role do parents play in encouraging or discouraging those expectations?  When should children be entitled to rely on their expectations?  When might the law enforce those expectations?

Integration of a Wealth Management Practice - The characteristics of the integrated wealth management adviser, how an adviser goes about performing integrated wealth management from a practical standpoint and the team needed to implement integrated wealth management successfully over the long term.

IRS Review of Auditing Partnerships - White Paper - This white paper from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is designed to assist IRS examiners in classifying and examining partnership returns.     It is good to know where others are looking and what they are considering.

Reviewing Wills and Trusts What Planners Should Look For - This article describes several issues advisors should consider when reviewing clients’ plans.  Clients should be encouraged to consult regularly with their advisors to ensure that their estate plans reflect changes in the law and in their personal situation.

Wealth Management Process -  A power point presentation of Midland’s comprehensive “diagnostic review” of your personal financial situation:  Identifies and prioritizes your goals and objectives, assesses your current financial situation and determines whether it is aligned your goals and objectives, recommends action steps and strategies, and assists you in formulating an action plan for further exploration of specific areas of concern and/or implementation of any recommended strategies.

Who Chases Returns? -  This articles challenges the often assumed fact that retail investors chase performance versus institutional investors.   Though the article discusses various issues relating to this assumption the truth is often borne by on a case by case basis.

About.com : An independent website from About.com providing various information on what is wealth management to how to choose a wealth manager.

The Philanthropy Roundtable : An organization dealing with those interesting in giving back to society.

Tax Guide for Investors : A starting point for learning about the minimum alternative tax.

A Work Of Art - CRSP's Database - This article is an overview of the beginnings and methodology of the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP).  This center based out of the University of Chicago was where Dr. Fama, one of the “father’s” of passive investing, taught economics.

Active vs. Passive - This article explores the two types of investing:  active and passive.  In passive investing, a portfolio manager attempts to simply match—not beat—the performance of an index or group of securities.  Active investors don’t dispute that major stock markets—in particular, the biggest one of all:  America’s—are efficient. But they argue that diligent, sophisticated research into company fundamentals can still uncover the kind of opportunities that can make for above-market returns.

Active vs. Passive Management - Active management is the art of stock picking and market timing. Passive management refers to a buy-and-hold approach to money management.    This article is a transcript of  a debate between two proponents of each side.  Rather interesting.

An Interview With Eugene Fama - Dr. Eugene Fama, founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, is one of the world’s leading economists and is a professor at the University of Chicago.

An Interview With Gene Fama, Jr. - Gene Fama, Jr., Vice President of Dimensional Fund Advisors, explains how the DFA philosophy works in the real world.

An Interview With Merton Miller - Professor Miller, who won a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, discusses his ideas on market efficiency and investing in general.

An Interview With Rex Sinquefield - Rex Sinquefield, chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors talks about passive management among other financial issues.

Asset Location The End Wealth Efficiency - White Paper - This paper addresses the placement of asset classes in a client's taxable or tax-advantaged accounts, commonly referred to as the asset location problem.

Core and Satellite - Non Academic - This article examines the investment and tax considerations relevant to the choice of portfolio structure.

Core and Satellite - White Paper - This paper provides a risk framework for fiduciaries considering using a core-satellite approach to investing. While the article mainly covers the additional risk measurement techniques, which are needed when investing in hedge funds, its recommendations are also relevant for other investments that have default, devaluation, and/or liquidity risks associated with them.

DFA Funds Hard To Buy, Easy To Own - Dimensional Fund Advisors, DFA, are a group of finance professors whose funds are sold only through fee-only financial planners—and then only when DFA agrees to accept their business.  Their principles include the "efficient markets" theory, a phrase coined by DFA's director of research. They embrace "modern portfolio theory." And they know frequent trading can be more costly to investors than a high expense ratio, so they refuse to deal with hyperactive investors.  It makes DFA more economical to run, which boosts the returns of shareholders it is willing to accept.

Dimensional's Passive Course Pays Off - This Los Angeles Times Article highlights the life of Rex Sinquefield-co-chairman of Santa Monica-based Dimensional Fund Advisors and the contributions he made to the world of finance as he retires 33 years after the establishment of DFA.

Diversification, Low Portfolio Turnover Key to Tax-Efficient Investing - In the following interview, Glenn S. Freed, Ph.D., vice president of tax-managed investment services at Dimensional Fund Advisors in Santa Monica, CA, USA, discusses equity strategies to maximize after-tax returns for institutional investors.

Earnings Growth and Stock Returns - This article explores why high earnings growth rates and high rates of return are not synonymous rather differences in earnings growth rates.  They inturn influence the breakdown of expected rates of return into their capital gain and dividend components.

Effect of Bond Transaction Costs - An Example of Transaction Costs-Institutional vs. Retail Pricing.   A good example of how Wall Street makes money quietly.

Explaining Stock Returns - A Literature Survey - This survey provides an overview of the work that has been done in an important area of financial markets research-explaining the behavior of common stock returns.

Improved Study Finds Index Management Usually Outperforms Active Management - This study seeks to improve in several ways upon previous studies examining the relative performance of index management versus active management. It concludes that index management outperforms active management in most asset classes.

Index and Enhanced Index Funds - The purpose of this paper is to develop a case for the use of index funds, which are designed to closely track the returns of an index, and DFA’s enhanced index funds.

Is There Still Value in the Book-to-Market Ratio - The purpose of this article is to examine the claim that the book-to-market ratio no longer contains any information that can be used to identify value stocks.

Our Approach to Bond Investing - It appeared to make sense to describe in writing Midland’s approach advising client’s on their bond portfolio. This article addresses our philosophy and process as well some historical perspective on bonds and their returns.

Our Approach to Stock Investing - Midland Wealth Management believes in the efficiency and belief in our capital markets and looks to add value in providing and controlling the pure exposure to risks and returns while reducing unnecessary costs.  This article shows how we impose our system into our method of stock investing.

Performance of UK Equity Unit Trusts - Nearly all the studies thus far confine themselves to managers' efforts to outperform the US equity markets.  There are few studies of non-US markets. This paper closes that gap slightly by examining the performance of all UK equity unit trusts equity unit trusts that concentrate their investments in the UK. With respect to the UK market, this paper deals with two popular claims by money managers and consultants: (1) money managers can, outperform markets; and (2) this is especially so in the case of small stocks.

Presidential Elections and Market Returns - This article explores the effect of a presidential election on stock and bond returns.  It does so by using the Fama/French factor and its five, time series of returns as proxies for risk dimensions of stock and bond returns:  market factor, size factor, price factor, term premium and credit premium.

Putting Theory Into Practice - This article highlights the careers of Rex Sinquefield and David Booth, CIO and CEO of Dimensional Fund Advisors.

Random Drift and Asset Allocation - This article discusses the three factors Fama and French believe explain the differences in average stock returns:  the market factor, the premium return of small cap stocks over large cap stocks, and the premiums return of value stocks over growth stocks.

Reading The Index To Beat The Index - This article from the New York Times, talks about Dimensional Fund Advisors and how they have been able to beat the market for extended periods.

Stock Price Best Value Guide, War or Not - Kenneth French, director of investment strategy at Dimensional Fund Advisors, talks about how markets work and the effects of the war in Iraq.

Tax Efficient Bond Management - This article discusses how a bond manager paying attention to the details of tax efficiency such as gains, losses, book yield and replacement yield can  produce more tangible after-tax results for clients.    A big yawn article but critical to highlighting issues to be raised when choosing an active bond manager.

Tax Efficient Investing - This presentation answers the question fact or fantasy by illustrating three main points:  problems with today’s approach, a way to add up to 250 basis points of return to your clients’ portfolios, and decisions that really make a difference to your clients.

The Cocktail Party Fallacy - In this article, Eugene Fama, Jr. talks about the illusion that, "Since healthy companies are better places to invest our work effort, they feel like better places to invest our money. But buying stock is not analogous to working for, partnering with, or even owning, a company. It's more like lending money to a company."

The Alpha Myth Investable Hedge Fund Indices Uncovered - "With many investors looking for an easy way to jump on the bandwagon and start investing in hedge funds, investable indices have gained in popularity and new versions are being launched all the time. However, while the index funds are enjoying stealth growth, their added value is still highly debated."

The Informational Efficiency of Stock Prices - A Review - This paper attempts to pull together some of the pertinent evidence on the issue of one of the most enduring question in finance:  whether securities prices are set in an informationally efficient manner.

The New Indexing - This article by Eugene Fama, Jr. talks about the “old-school” thinking that the market portfolio is the only legitimate stock investment.

Tools of the Trade - Defining Your Role - This article explore the question:  as an advisor, if you can’t beat the market, what real value are you providing to your clients?

Tools of the Trade - Don't Believe the Hype - This article discusses how clients must learn to decipher good investment advice from bad in a world where investment advice is everywhere.

Tools of the Trade - How To Be a Wealth Manager - This article discusses the topic:  To deliver true wealth management, get to the core of your clients.

Tools of the Trade - Problem Solvers - In this article, Daniel M. Wheeler, examines some of the most important stages in the evolution of mutual funds, and the implications those stages have had for advisors and their clients.

Why Hedge Fund of Funds are Fatally Flawed - This article discusses how funds of funds are no longer the most popular way for individual investors to invest in hedge funds.

Asset Allocation : A media website providing information, financial calculators, and white papers on the uses of passive investing and the uses of asset allocation within the context of an overall financial plan.

CFA Institute : A global membership organization that awards the CFA designation, CFA Institute leads the investment industry by setting the highest standards of ethics and professional excellence and vigorously advocating fair and transparent capital markets.

Dimensional Fund Advisors : The website to the money manager who is a main component to every client investment portfolio. The mission of Dimensional Fund Advisors is to deliver the performance of capital markets and increase returns through state-of-the-art portfolio design and trading.

http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data/ie_data.htm : A neat summary of stock market history. S&P500 returns since 1871, with dividends, returns, P/E, CPI, and long bond interest rates.

Investing in Bonds : Information on all types of bonds from the Bond Market Association plus a feature to ensure bond traders are not overcharging you on your bond purchases.

Investment Help : Independent information about investing.

Equity Risk Management - This presentation discusses the issue of how a variable forward, which is designed so you can protect against a decline in the stock at a predetermined price and participate if the stock increases up to a certain price, works within equity risk management strategies.

Living Dying with Derivatives and Yield Enhancement -- An Estate Planner's Perspective - This article discusses equity derivative products, organized by the risk each product manages, as well as tax and estate planning issues.

Range of Stock Option & Monetization Strategies - This article ranks Monetization/Hedging Strategies, Income Generation Techniques, and Listed CBOE Strategies from very negative to very positive.