We are grateful for the trust you have placed in us and thankful that you have survived what was a very difficult year.
In our first 2021 communication to all clients, we want to share our thoughts and update you about three topics: the financial markets, the planning environment, and the investments we have made to further enhance our services.
1. THE FINANCIAL MARKETS
Despite the challenging economic environment that was hampered by the coronavirus last year, the investment markets demonstrated resiliency. For different reasons, almost every asset class in which we invest delivered positive returns for the year. The support for the investment markets, provided by both the Federal Reserve and Congress, set a floor under the investment markets from which prices have been rising since March of 2020.
Given that the investment markets are forward-looking and reflect future expected earnings, 2021 may deliver more surprising results. In 2020, the economy was poor and investment results were relatively strong. Expectations are that the global economy should experience a nice recovery in 2021. However, the investment markets may have already priced in much of the recovery. Modest results in 2021 for the investment markets would be reasonable to expect.
2. THE PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
The Biden Administration takes office this week. With Democratic control of both houses of Congress and the White House, new legislation is expected to be enacted more rapidly than in recent years when there was more gridlock on Capital Hill. Expectations include higher income taxes for families earning over $400,000 per year, changes to the taxation of capital gains, changes to itemized deductions, more generous charitable contribution limits, and significantly lower estate tax exemptions. While we will not know the details of all the legislation for months, the first quarter of 2021 provides an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming changes so that adjustments to your planning can be made efficiently, if necessary.
3. THE FUTURE OF OAK WEALTH ADVISORS
After a dozen years of successful growth and high levels of client satisfaction, we have invested to make the next decade even better for our clients. We have implemented new software that will enhance our ability to share account information and planning details with you. We have invested in a secure platform for managing your retirement accounts while you are still employed. Most ambitiously, we have plans to open a second Oak Wealth Advisors office. Details about the new office will be shared in the coming months, but the client deliverables and support software are being implemented now. Your fourth quarter, 2020, reports will be available in a secure portal and we can email them to those of you who do not want to utilize the portal. The secure portal will also house all future reports and will be your gateway for viewing all the accounts we are managing for you in a single view. You will also be able to store your estate planning and other essential planning documents in the portal for easy and secure access in the future.
We will be reaching out in the next couple of weeks to many of you to connect your retirement plans to our new state-of-the-art management platform. The retirement plan investment management platform will provide us with the ability to implement your investment portfolio more comprehensively, ensure your whole portfolio is rebalanced correctly, and removes the burden from you of having to manage a large portion of your investment portfolio.
2021 should be a better year for all of us. We wish you good health and continued prosperity throughout the year.
All the best,
Mike
