The Need for Financial Advisers in Anticipation of Forthcoming Changes in Tax Policies

Several tax policies that are likely to take place under the Biden administration will impact the tax payments of wealthy individuals and high income earners. While it is difficult to quantify the impact of the potential tax changes, there is no doubt that now more than ever, tax planning will prove essential for any business.

Keeping abreast of ever-changing tax policies is necessary, but when there are different changes to consider, the tax plan that business owners need this year is best left to the expertise of financial advisers or wealth managers. Moreover, the IRS annually adjusts the taxable income bracket in consideration of the rate of inflation for the year. That is why for the year 2021, the top tax rate of 37% will apply to the amount of taxable income that exceeds $523,000 for single taxpayers, or $628,300 married taxpayers filing jointly.

If the Biden administration’s proposed tax change pushes through, that highest tax rate of 37% will revert to 39.60%, the tax rate prior to the “tax-cut law” enacted by ex-president Trump. Actually, there are several other changes that financial advisers anticipate in behalf of their clients. Mainly because early adoption of financial strategies are critical in developing tax plans for the year 2021.

However, when looking for a financial adviser or wealth manager to handle not only your business but also your personal investments and other assets, don’t limit your choices to high profile wealth management companies.

Customization is Key to Effective Financial Planning

Keep in mind that every tax plan must be customized according to the type of business from which the taxable income will be generated. That is regardless of your net worth. Consider the fact that while large wealth management firms have a stable of wealth managers or financial advisers under their employ, not all have the expertise of the top honchos running the firm. The wealth managers with high-caliber expertise will be focused on strategizing and planning the portfolios of high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients.

If your business or your net worth is in the small to medium scale level, a big named wealth management firm may agree to handle your asset portfolio, but will likely relegate your account to one of the junior financial advisers. Still, many try to avoid that kind of scenario by setting a minimum net worth value as requirement, when contracting for financial planning services.

Mainly because financial planning should be flexible rather than conventional, while financial strategies require different tools for analysis and additional services in order to arrive at the best fit for each client. More so now that now that numerous changes are about to transpire, not only for tax rates but also in tax incentives as well.

Nonetheless, if you are reading this because you are researching for guidelines on how to choose the best financial advisor, checkout the wealth of advice given by Pillar Wealth Management via ”The Ultimate Guide To Choosing the Best Financial Advisor” book.

What’s All the Fuss about GameStop and Who Are Reacting?

Year 2020 was a period of uncertainty, which has extended to year 2021 as weird things happen in both politics and business it’s hard to guess what’s next. Trump is out but a new political loony by the name of Marjorie Taylor Green is sowing the seeds of divisiveness with her crazy conspiracy theories. So much for Green, but let’s just look at what happened to GameStop instead. Not even the owners of the company knew what was coming.

The GameStop bombshell sent many hedge fund managers reeling, not expecting that an already debilitating games retail store could still attain market capitalization way beyond its market worth. In August 2019, the Texas-based video game retail company GameStop was only worth $300 million. Today, things happened in the stock market that enabled the retail company to reach a market capital of almost $20 billion.

Background Info about GameStop

GameStop is neither a games developer or a gaming technology innovator. It’s just a big walk-in store where teenagers used to go to buy the latest in video game releases. In the last two years, GameStop was seen as one of the many dying retail businesses, since gaming platforms can simply sell their new games online and deliver their products to customers by way of downloads.

However, something weird happened because GameStop shares started selling continuously in recent months. So much so that the retail company’s capitalization increased by 3,000%,

Who Was Affected by GameStop’s Phenomenal Growth?

Conventional investors usually buy stocks at cheap prices, which they keep and later sell in the future when the price per share increases. In order to optimize this strategy, they buy shares of companies that show a bright future; specifically with the likeliest potential to attract investors.

A group of stock traders known as short sellers do the opposite. They focus on the less popular shares of stock. However, they usually do so by borrowing and not buying the shares of stock from a big institutional investor in exchange for a small fee. It’s a win-win situation because the stock lender will be able to get some return from a stock that has not been performing well in the market.

The short sellers on the other hand sell the borrowed stocks at the current market price. Since it’s a non performing stock, they’ll wait until the price of the stock drops further so they can buy it back and return the shares to the investor.

Short sellers realize profits without the need to invest money. Selling the borrowed stock earlier at a higher price and subsequently buying them back for a lower price, allows them to gain from the transaction. Whatever difference between the selling and buying transactions is theirs for the taking, since they only need to return the shares of stock to its original owner/investor.

Yet that didn’t happen for GameStop short sellers because instead of share prices dropping, prices started to rise; even skyrocketing instead of hitting rock bottom.The occurrence exposed the issues concerning short selling as there can be no profit if the stock price keeps rising.

Who is Behind GameStop’s Phenomenal Growth?

Understand that Reddit has a r/WallStreetBets forum, which is actually a chat room dedicated for stock market discussions. Apparently, there’s a group of anonymous investors who do not approve of short selling, to which discussions led to plans on how not to make the short selling technique work for short sellers.

The group chose to support GameStop, being one of the companies included among short sellers’ deathwatch list. The group of radical investors then started discussing buying shares of GameStop for about two years, promoting the company as an undervalued entity.

In April 2020, the group bought GameStop stocks together in order to spur increases in the price of the shares. The buying activities sent signals to fintech platforms that allowed small investors to pool their money and buy stocks that have been showing positive performance in the stock markets, with GameStop being the most prominent investment candidate.

The rest is history, because the radical group of investors were able to prove their point that short selling is not an ethical method of stock trading, since most short sellers are simply making money out of borrowed shares.

Alternative Approaches to Running an Independent Crypto Mining Business

At the rate bitcoin has been trading for months, mining for bitcoins nowadays is more difficult, as the crypto hashes have likewise increased in complexity . Yet in case you didn’t know, some entities are now offering Mining as a Service (MaaS). It’s an alternative approach to running a self-supporting crypto mining business, where you don’t have to exert extra effort and pay for rocket-high electric bills to mine BTCs.

Using MaaS to Expand Your Crypto Currency Mining Business

MaaS providers offer customers a mining platform and a pool of miners who will do the bitcoin mining for you. That way, you can use your mining rig for exploring altcoins that could become the next important cryptocurrency tomorrow. Actually, a lot of miners are already diversifying by mining other digital tokens, as both buying BTCs have become more expensive as well as risky, due to price volatility.

Top 5 Altcoins Recommended by Crypto Market Analysts

Choosing the type of altcoin to focus on also presents difficulty since more than 4,000 cryptocurrencies have sprung up since the start of year 2021. Nevertheless, analysts have been evaluating the noteworthy tokens, in terms of trade volumes, followings and/or of the blockchain features that could make them the next super cryptocoin. Expand your crypto mining business by focusing on these altcoins while they are still in that stage of not needing a massive mining rig to solve the crypto hash. Below are the top five (5) altcoins currently being recommended by cryptocurrency market analysts:

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum is of course the first in the list because it currently stands as the next important cryptocurrency in the trading market. ETH’s strong points include its use of Smart Contracts as added security. Moreover, ETH transactions run on a decentralized platform without any downtime and risk of interference from a third party.

ETH mining opportunities have likewise increased as the new breed of investors who have joined the cryptocurrency economy are also adding Ethereum tokens to their portfolio. As of this writing, a unit of Ether sells at $1,635. 48.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is one of the earliest altcoins to arrive in the cryptocurrency market, being a product of the factional split between the developers of the original bitcoin chain. While both BTC and BCH uses the native code, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has higher scalability. BCH allows up to 8 MB as blockchain size, as opposed to BTC’s 1 MB per blockchain. Currently BCH has a price value of $443.47 per unit.

Litecoin (LTC)

As an altcoin, Litecoin is touted by many as the “silver coin to Bitcoin’s gold token.” Litecoin transactions run on an open-source global payment network, whilst using “scrypt” that can be decoded even with the aid of consumer-grade CPUs. Litecoin is likened to Bitcoin in many ways, but has been noted to deliver at a faster block generation rate, which in essence denotes speedier transaction-confirmation. That particular trait is one reason why most merchants choose to accept Litecoin as an alternative to Bitcoin. A unit of Litecoin is currently valued at $153.77

Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot is one of the newest altcoins to hit the market and has gained a substantial number of followers because of its unique interoperability with other blockchains. Following a protocol that allows connection between permissioned and permissionless blockchains,

Polkadot’s chain technology allows network systems to collaborate under one roof. Moreover, it permits developers to build and create their own blockchain, whilst using Polkadot’s security features, to prevent the smaller platform from being attacked. DOT’s current price value per unit is $17.29.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a spinoff of Ethereum, being a product of one the co-founders of Ethereum. Dubbed as the “Ethereum killer” due to its stand out proof-of-stake technology, it aims to provide financial solutions that offer chain interoperability. A unit of Cardano has a price tag of $0.424.

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