The Ruiz family has some expertise in bubbles. Our youngest son, Ethan, is a bubble-blowing savant. His version of chilling on a sunny afternoon is to stand on the upper deck blowing bubbles using a variety of tools and techniques. It’s a whimsical...

I’ve had a number of conversations recently regarding the use of living trusts, or a more specific type of trust called an IRA beneficiary trust, as the beneficiary of IRA accounts. IRAs, of course, hold much of the liquid net worth of middle-class...

I enjoy reading Tom Clancy novels. I’ve always appreciated the way Clancy’s plots connect disparate micro-events and small trends and pull them into a macro scenario which usually involves an international conflict of some sort. Some of...

In September 1998, before I was even writing “Your Mind on Money,” the stock market was blazing hot and heading higher. A local newspaper columnist decided to do a series of articles about a “stock market game” involving three different...

Eighteen years ago, Jason Urbaniak joined Oak Partners Inc. as a founding member to the Wealth Management Group.   “When I started at Oak I had to build my practice from the ground up,” Urbaniak said. “You have to take classes, pass...

A dear client of Oak Partners passed away late last year and my team has been assisting with her trust administration process.    The client was a smart and patient investor and had been able to use a variety of financial instruments...

Trips to the movie theater – one of the simplest things taken away by the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature of most movie theaters means close proximity, so even with restrictions loosening almost every movie venue in the Region is still shut down....

Some types of investment yield seem, for now, to be a thing of the past. The word “yield” in this conversation describes the practice of receiving an actual cash payment for an investment. Yield differs from capital appreciation, which is the...

Looking back at the dark days at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, it seems like a long time ago already. So much happened so quickly, and all of it was new to everyone. I know I worked out of my “bunker” for weeks and weeks; heck, the...