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What’s New on Starmont.com – Winter 2012 Update

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 | no comments

There never seems to be a dull moment even in the “dead of winter” as we freshen up Starmont.com to keep you up to date on what is going on.  Lots has been happening keeping us busy preparing for year end and starting off a new year.  At the same time we sent out timely communications to our Clients, a priority, and contributed our thoughts to media and through our blogging.  Here’s what’s new… 

Harvey Rowen opens his kimono  and shares his personal and professional sides in an interview with Servcorp.  Servcorp is the company from whom we rent our San Francisco office. 

We’ve been busy Bloggers!  Vivian Groman’s blog 5 Tips To Become a Better Investor was picked up by not only Starmont.com, but WomenAdvisorForum.com and Forbes.com.  Make sure to follow Vivian on Forbes.com here: http://blogs.forbes.com/people/viviangroman/. 

Harvey’s blog was also featured on Forbes.com 5 Questions to Ask Before Picking a Mutual Fund in 2012.  It seems 5 was a popular number this month. 

Harvey was quoted in a recent MarketWatch.com article Where To Put Your Money If The Bond Bull Stumbles where he shares his perspective on bond investing.

As always we strive to keep our Clients informed on the market and Starmont’s investment actions.  You can read two emails we recently sent to our Clients, When will investments go up? and Tax Loss Harvesting & Asset Allocations.

Hope you stay warm and healthy through the rest of this season.  Do not hesitate to reach out if we can be of any service to you or yours.

The Starmont Team

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5 Questions To Ask Before Picking A Mutual Fund In 2012

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 | no comments

As Featured on Forbes.com

by Harvey Rowen

When Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) like myself choose investments for clients we have a fiduciary responsibility to find the most appropriate investments. We want to avoid taking too much risk while also looking for returns above the benchmark.

We take that responsibility very seriously. We look for mutual funds, for example, that we believe will provide good returns without taking unwarranted risk, funds we think will be stable for the long run and will put the investor first.

Over time, we have developed an effective technique for selecting what we consider to be best-of-breed mutual fund managers and investment companies. As an investor, you can use this same approach when researching where to invest your 401k, IRA, college savings fund or other investment.

Get the answers to these questions before you invest in a new fund.

1.  Have returns been generally consistent through both up and down markets? (more…)

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Harvey Rowen Interviewed for Servcorp Spotlight Newsletter

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 | 1 comment

Last month Starmont’s Harvey Rowen was interviewed by Servcorp and highlighted in their monthly newsletter!  Servcorp is the company Starmont leases their San Francisco office from at 555 California Street.  This office has made it much easier for our Clients to meet with us and through Servcorp Starmont has access to offices in Irvine, CA and New York allowing for convenient places for us to meet with Clients on both coasts.

Here is the interview…Harvey shares his personal history as well as his perspective on the advice business – Read on and Enjoy!

Client Spotlight
This month, our feature client is Harvey Rowen. He is the CEO andFounder of Starmont Asset Management. One of the things I most admire about Mr. Rowen is his dedication to his clients. Being an Asset Management company, the economy has been rough on his industry, but he constantly strives to keep all his clients financially secure and happy. Mr. Rowen is currently a full-time Executive Suite client at our 555 California Street center, and working with him has not only been an exciting experience, but he is also someone I can look up to. I asked him some questions so we could get to know him a little better:

Tell me a little bit about yourself. 

Born, Chicago, Ill.  (more…)

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Client Communications: Tax Loss Harvesting & Asset Allocations

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 | no comments
January 3, 2012

To Our Valued Clients and Friends, 

Happy New Year!

May 2012 be a year of peace, happiness, prosperity, and a lot less stress!Starmont spent the last week of December reviewing taxable accounts, and seeking to “harvest losses” by selling positions in those accounts that had losses, so as to offset taxable gains in those accounts. In some cases we were able to eliminate all taxable gains; in most cases we were able to eliminate some but not all of the taxable gains, and in some cases we had no losses in the taxable account to harvest. The end of December is the one time of the year that those of us at Starmont wish we had more losses in our Clients’ taxable accounts.You will be receiving confirmations from Charles Schwab, or e-mail notices from Schwab letting you know that confirmations are available to you on-line, reflecting the sales. We will be e-mailing to Starmont Clients, and to your CPAs, the final Gain/Loss report for all taxable accounts prior to the January 15th due date for final estimated income tax payments for 2011.The sales left large amounts of cash in taxable accounts. (more…)

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5 Things Investors Should Know for 2012

Thursday, January 5th, 2012 | no comments

Vivian Groman regularly blogs for Forbes.com and the WomenAdvisorsForum.com, this month’s post follow…

A lot of people become reflective at the beginning of a year, mulling over the highs and lows of the year that just ended. We decided, instead, to take a look ahead and give you some ideas that will help you be better investors in this new year. 

  1. Be News Agnostic — Avoid being swayed by the news of the day, whether it’s good or bad. Focus on trends versus headlines. Expose yourself to thoughtful interpretation of what’s going on by following analysts, journalists and bloggers you trust.
  2. Cash is Not Necessarily King — You may sleep better at night if you are invested in cash and thus avoiding the ups and downs of the market. However,  cash has a price since it isn’t returning enough to cover even our current low inflation rate—so you are actually losing money when you are overly invested in cash. 
  3. Prudence is Queen — A diversified portfolio, modified for current economic, political and global circumstances, is the best approach. Make sure you are not over-invested in your company’s stock and that you have a good mix of various types of investments, including cash.
  4. Time for Generosity — If your assets exceed $5 million as an individual or $10 million as a couple, you can reduce estate taxes in the future by making some strategic gifts to heirs now.  The $5 million per person estate/gift tax exemption is going away by the end of 2012.
  5. Give Plans Another Go-Around — Many experts are projecting lower returns on investments in the coming years.  So this is a good time to get a financial plan—or refresh your last one—and assess whether you are still on track to meet your retirement goals.

Client Communications: When Will Investments Start to Go Up?

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 | 1 comment

November 28, 2011

To Our Valued Clients

As the attached chart shows, in the past 115 years there have been four secular bull (up) markets in the United States, and four secular bear (down) markets, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

A secular bull market is a long term upward trending market, where each successive high point is higher than the previous one.

Conversely a secular bear market is a long term downward trending market, where the trend does not rise above the previous high.

According to the attached chart, the four secular bull markets lasted 43 years in total, while the four secular bear markets lasted 72 years. Yet the cumulative return for the secular bull markets was 1,601.06%, while the cumulative return for the longer lasting secular bear markets was 4.05% (through December 2010).  For that reason the DJIA over that period of time has gone from about 50 to over 10,000.

(more…)

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Remedy For Advisors On The Roller Coaster

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 | no comments

Starmont’s Vivian Groman was once again a contributor to the Women Advisor Forum with this month’s blog post.  In her post Vivian provides advice to other advisors on how to support Clients through the markets’ volatility.  At Starmont, we serve our Clients by providing sound investment advice and the personal relationship that support Clients through any market condition or life experience.

Read Vivian’s Blog Here

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Starmont’s Craig Bigelow Wins Inaugural FPA East Bay Golf Tournament

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 | no comments

On Sept. 19, more than 100 golfers teed off on a beautiful, warm day for the first FPA East Bay Golf Tournament. Financial Planners Association (FPA) members hosted clients, prospects and allied professionals to help raise funds for FPA East Bay at Round Hill Country Club in Alamo. The winning team including Starmont’s own Craig Bigelow, David Borrelli, Jeff Gail, and David Rice – recorded the low score of 127 for the day. Their names will be engraved on the large Stanley Cup-style trophy, the “FPA East Bay Cup.”

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Client Communications: Third Quarter Reports

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 | no comments

October 25, 2011

To Our Valued Clients

Here are your Third Quarter Reports.

The Quarter to Forget, an October to Remember (so far)

As we told you in our October 7th e-mail, the third quarter produced the worst results for stocks and bonds since the market meltdown in the Fall of 2008, wiping out 2011 gains and putting returns solidly in the red as of September 30th.

The good news is that October has been a very strong month and returns for 2011 have returned to the black, or are close to it, as I write this in the last week of October.  If this week is decent, your Schwab October statements will bring a smile to your face and some joy to your heart.

Europe and Congress: Full of Promise but Resolution Still Elusive

Just as fear of a European meltdown and some troubling economic data about the pace of GDP growth and unemployment caused the terrible third quarter, the belief that European leaders now are serious about solving that problem and some solid U.S. earnings reports and resultant low p/e ratios, have caused the October rally.

In order for the rally to continue (more…)

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Press Release:Starmont Jumps On Schwab RiA Bandwagon!

Thursday, October 20th, 2011 | no comments

 Starmont Asset Management to Participate in Schwab RiA Campaign

 For Immediate Release                                            

Contact:       Sondra Harris/Sondra Harris PR/(415) 888-2394/ sharrispr@comcast.net

San Francisco, October 20, 2011—Starmont Asset Management LLC, an independent wealth advisory and investment management company, announced today that it will participate in the advertising campaign being launched by Charles Schwab & Co. to promote registered investment advisors (RiAs). 

Charles Schwab already has placed its campaign banners on the websites of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg, Economist and Atlantic, using the special Schwab RiA Logo that Schwab has developed for this campaign.  And this weekend (October 22-23) Schwab will run a two page ad in the Wall Street Journal print and electronic editions touting the use of RiAs by investors.

Said Harvey Rowen, CEO of Starmont, “We will be communicating with our Clients about this campaign using the RiA Logo.  We also will be developing a special section on the Starmont website for information Schwab has developed about the benefits RIAs provide to investors.” 

Mr. Rowen, former President of the Charles Schwab Trust Company, continued,  “Starmont houses our Clients’ assets with Charles Schwab. We are delighted that they have decided to make a considerable effort to educate investors about RiAs and how they differ from other investment advice providers.”

Starmont Asset Management is an independent wealth advisory and investment management company serving affluent individuals and families, and their businesses.  Its goal is to preserve and grow its Clients’ net worth by constructing and managing a diversified tax sensitive investment portfolio, using traditional and “alternative” investments, and by providing ongoing advice to its Clients on all matters impacting their financial affairs over the course of their relationship with Starmont.

End

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