Author Archives: David John Marotta

We find the practices of much of the financial services industry repulsive.

We believe that the basic principles of financial planning are the same no matter how many zeros you add.

The bonus in returns of countries with freedom over and above the MSCI EAFE foreign index ranges from 1.28% to 1.91%.

In recognition of its efforts to reduce its debt and deficit and Ireland’s return to the “free” category of the economic freedom index, I think the letter I for Ireland should be removed from PIIGS and it should return once more to just PIGS.

If this is the approach you want for your financial planning, give us a call to get started today!

U.S. Large Cap is currently valued at the historical average again after taking into account the expected increase in corporate earnings.

If you run a retirement plan at your company, you are responsible for performing periodic reviews to ensure that the plan is the best it can be for participants.

Given how few financial advisors have been through the education, certification, and experience require to obtain the CFP® mark, it is no wonder that so few so-called financial planners are actually providing comprehensive financial planning advice.

A blended portfolio has had a higher mean return than either fund by itself.

We offer comprehensive wealth management services.

Wise decisions cannot be made in isolation from their impact on other areas of your financial life.

A gone-fishing portfolio using the no-transaction fee funds currently available at Fidelity.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at Fidelity.

We require each Investment Committee member to have, at a minimum, the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) or Chartered Financial Analyst ® (CFA) designation.

Truly diversified portfolios don’t move in sync with the Dow.

Marotta Wealth Management (originally Marotta Asset Management) was founded in 2000 by David John Marotta.

Failure to perform such periodic reviews is a litigatable fiduciary breach.

You should work with a personalized financial planner, not an impersonal investment manager.

The capital gains tax is economically senseless. This 2014 post has fourteen of the loopholes the government’s gain tax unintentionally incentivizes.

It was our article which first suggested this six year ago.

On June 5, 2018, David John Marotta and Megan Russell appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show to remember June 5, 2013 and discuss our modern surveillance state.

Bonds are like the iron rods put in the bottom of sailing ships. They don’t make the ship go faster, but they do keep the ship from capsizing in stormy weather.

An investment manager who is “at times a soft socialist” like Voss will be more likely to engage in active management, market timing, and gambling on individual stocks.

If these had been the original intentions of the legislation, we should have known that Obamacare would not be worth it.

This 2006 article shares the personal story of David Marotta’s maternal grandmother who lived to age 99 1/2.

Another free pass for the agents of brokers-dealers to dissembling under the guise of “Regulation Best Interest.”

We were surprised by our survey of the registered firms in the Charlottesville area.

It is important to remaining disciplined during volatile markets.

“Better is having a financial advisor who gets to know you personally and manages your finances according to your specific values.”

This letter came with a large bold “YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW” notice along with a 5 week deadline for compliance.

It is commonplace for special interest groups to use lobbyists to gain control of their own industry’s regulation. This failure where interests group seizes control of a governmental power is called “regulatory capture.”

You should not trust a point in time fiduciary for even a single heart beat.

There is no such thing as saving money buying something. You can go broke “saving money” this way.

“Think of a stock as a machine that generates cash every few months.” Smaller companies that you have never heard of usually have a better return than the better known larger companies.

This Bear market has one of the largest single day losses.

The burden of mandatory government data collection should be opposed whenever possible.

Our firm has become known for our method of computing maximum safe withdrawal rates in retirement. Our safe withdrawal rates are based on having what we believe to be optimum asset allocation targets.

Even though we recommend Vanguard as a custodian for our readers who are just starting out with investing, they are not our first choice when it comes to Donor Advised Funds.

The SEC released an embarrassingly poor 1,000 page document.

On April 10, 2018, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show to discuss the question: What is worth using the government’s threat of violence?

In 2007 the Financial Planning Association won a lawsuit that it filed against the SEC to force them to enforce the registration provisions of the 1940 Investment Advisors Act. The law still isn’t enforced.

Although volatility is often unwelcome by investors, it can provide profitable returns.

“One principal purpose of the accredited investor concept is to identify persons who can bear the economic risk of investing in these unregistered securities.”

Determining what constituted a safe withdrawal rate was one of the first questions I tackled. After a year and a half of study on the question, I had realized the inadequacy of the 4% rule and found a methodology which provides more useful when advising clients.

This post explains the methodology for building a portfolio limited to the commission-free exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the eTrade platform.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at eTrade.

In general, the statements should match, but matched accounting down the penny cannot easily be achieved.

Unfortunately, no amount of rules-based compliance can force a company to follow the principles-based fiduciary standard.

“A conventional wisdom withdrawal strategy will almost always leave a lot of money on the table.”

This 2002 post reminds us, “If you rely on a commission-based financial product salesperson, you will probably be sold the wrong kind of funds.” It was also the first article of ours to be featured in the “Charlottesville Business Journal.”