Allgen Financial Services, Inc. will be sponsoring a team for the 2010 Corporate 5k run in Orlando, Florida on April 15, 2010. The race begins at 7:15pm at Lake Eola. The Allgen Financial team will be meeting at the Allgen Financial Services, Inc. corporate office on Lake Eola (301 E. Pine Street, Suite 150) at 6:00pm. For those who are participants on other teams, come to our corporate office on April 15th before the race to receive a free gift.
The first 6 people that join the Allgen Financial team will have their entry fee paid for by Allgen Financial Services, Inc. Also, anyone who joins the Allgen Financial team will receive a T-Shirt for the race, and a care packet.
Paul Roldan says, “We know tax time can be a stressful time for most people. Therefore, we want to offer our community a way to release that stress. The 2010 Corporate 5k is ideal for having some fun on an unpleasant day.”
For more information and to register, please contact Kathryn Hite.
Kathryn Hite will be Allgen Financial’s team captain. She can be reached at hite@allgenfinancial.com or (407) 210-3888.
If you were a Colonial Brokerage Investment Representative, please contact us to discuss the potential of becoming an Investment Advisor Representative for Allgen Financial Services, Inc.
Please contact and send your resume to:
(407) 210-3888
advisors@allgenfinancial.com
http://www.allgenfinancial.com
Orlando, FL, June 25, 2009 - Starting July 1st, 2009, Schwab will waive commissions on electronic equity trades and reimburse transfer of account fees charged by contra brokers until June 30, 2010 if you are new-to-Schwab and Allgen Financial Services, Inc. You must open an account by the end of this year.
What does this mean for you?
Allgen custodies its clients’ accounts at Schwab Institutional. As we actively manage your investments, there will be no fees charged by Schwab for any trades conducted on your account for one year. This can mean significant savings for you. Depending on the size of the account and amount of trades, you could save thousands of dollars. In addition, you will be reimbursed any fees for moving your account to Allgen Financial Services, Inc. & Schwab from another institution. This makes it a great opportunity to consider moving your account over to us since this offer will most-likely only be available for a limited time.
If you would like to learn more about this offer, and/or consider moving your account over to Allgen Financial Services, Inc., please contact us today at: (407) 210-3888 or toll-free 1(888) 6ALLGEN (625-5436).
Few business owners or managers will cite payroll management as one of their favorite tasks. But, when does it make sense to outsource payroll operations? Here’s a quick look at the top reasons that businesses turn to payroll-services providers.
1. Cost. Big businesses can afford to maintain big payroll departments. For small businesses, however, an in-house payroll service is a money burner. There’s a very good chance you can save money by outsourcing your payroll operations. Figure out how many hours your employees are devoting to payroll-related activities and calculate how much you’re spending. Be sure to factor in the money your business spends on purchasing, printing and distributing checks, creating tax documents, and the like. Compare the amount to the plans offered by several payroll-services providers. You’ll probably be surprised by the result.
2. Productivity. Payroll management is a time-consuming activity. With this burden removed, your employees can focus on doing more productive things.
3. Accuracy. Payroll mistakes can be painful, angering employees and — more ominously — the government. A good payroll-services provider is far less likely to make a serious error than your in-house staff. Furthermore, if a big mistake is made, you can seek restitution from the provider — something you can’t do with your own employees.
4. Redundancy. In-house payroll activities are as reliabe as the people doing the work. With a payroll service, output speed and quality won’t vary when vacations or illnesses arise. You also won’t have to spend time helping new hires understand your business’s payroll system.
5. Speed. Since payroll-services providers are specialists with vast technical resources at their disposal, they can process even the most complex payrolls at lightning-fast speed. Unlike most employers, they can also accommodate a temporary influx of seasonal workers without acquiring new systems that will remain dormant the rest of the year.
6. Expertise. A good payroll-services provider will know all the ins and outs of payroll-related tax laws and regulatory mandates on the federal, state and local levels. Your employees could try to achieve the same level of understanding, but it would take a considerable investment in time and effort.
7. Accountability. If checks are delayed or paperwork is mishandled, it’s the payroll-services provider’s responsibility to fix things. If the provider can’t (or won’t) remedy the situation to your satisfaction, you have recourse. You can switch to another service provider in a snap. Try firing, hiring and training an in-house payroll staff in anything less than several weeks.
8. Flexibility. Boring, repetitive payroll work is like an anchor on your business. Your staff, when freed of rote payroll responsibilities, will be free to focus on other, more creative work.
9. Oversight. Do you have the time and energy to closely supervise your business’s payroll for time and rate abuses and other shady activities? Most payroll services firms have technologies that can spot and alert clients to various types of payroll fraud, such as salary manipulation and “ghost employees.”
10. Peace of Mind. There’s a lot to be said for the security that outsourcing payroll services can bring to a business owner or manager. No headaches, no hassles: You’re left to focus on running a profitable business.
Perhaps you, like many business owners, are ready to make a change to your current payroll process. If so, there are a number of variables to consider during your search for the right service. When you identify the needs of your organization today and in the foreseeable future, you should be able to decide upon a payroll provider which offers the capabilities to support your needs for years to come.
For more information about outsourcing your payroll process, please contact:
Debbie Sonntag
MasterPay USA
8879 West Colonial Dr., #154
Ocoee, FL 34761
(877) 374-1665
dsonntag@masterpayusa.com
www.masterpayusa.com
A common rivalry in the financial world is “Buy & Hold” vs. “Active Money Management”. So which one is better? Simple answer…it depends! If you were to look at a long-term chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Figure 1) going back to 1900, then you would see alternating time periods of prosperity and times of stagnation (flat to negative growth). On average these alternating time periods are around 15-years in duration. During the three time periods of prosperity “buy and hold” investing provided solid returns. However, during the three periods of no growth “buy and hold” actually lost money especially during the periods of stagflation (which means no growth and high inflation) which caused significant losses in real returns (returns after inflation).
Figure 1
Sources: Ned Davis Research (Secular Bear Markets), WSJ Market Data Group (DJIA)
Figure (1) specifically shows that the market grew from the low in 1915 to 1929 leading up to the “Great Depression”, approximately 14 years of prosperity. Then during the “Great Depression” from 1929 to 1942 the market averaged an annualized loss of 10%. Then, spurred on by World War II the Dow went from 100 in 1942 to 1,000 in 1966 increasing tenfold during a time of prosperity. From 1966 to 1982, a 16 year period of no growth, the market averaged -1.5% per year. Jump started by Reaganomics, then propelled higher by the tech bubble the market had one of its greatest bull markets of all time. From 1982 through 2000 the Dow went from 1,000 to over 10,000. Finally, year 2000 until present we have experience a net loss after 9 years.
Stagflation in the 70’s
Let’s take a closer look at the previous period of stagflation from 1966 to 1982. (Figure 2) As you can see during that 16-year period there were some significant falls and some strong rallies. In fact, the market decline from 1973 to 1975 was a loss of almost 50%. The following year from the 1975 low of 577 to the 1976 high of 1,000 the DOW rallied nearly 75%. During that 16-year time period there were other extreme falls followed by impressive rallies. A good active money management strategy will thrive during those times compared to the “buy and hold” allocation. The “buy and hold” portfolio would have lost money during that’s same 16-year time period.
Recent Market Events
If you look at the most recent decade since 2000 through to the present day (Figure 2), you will see similar major swings in the market. The DOW from 2000 to the end of 2002 was down nearly 40%. During that same time period, the tech heavy NASDAQ was down over 75%! During the following 5-years, the market nearly doubled with almost a 100% return. Then, the biggest market decline since the “Great Depression” came. From November 2007 to March 2009, the DOW was down over 54%. And most recently, in the last 2-months alone, the DOW has increased over 30%. The biggest two month rally in the last 70-years.
Over the past nine years, if you had your money invested properly, it would have been possible to be more defensive during the bad times, like the bursting of the tech bubble and also during 2008. At the same time, it would have been possible to to take advantage of the bull market from 2003-2007 and the recent 30% bounce off the bottom.
Figure 2
Source: StockCharts.com
Advantages of Active Money Management
During the non-growth periods, the reputable active money managers would have most-likely outperformed the “buy and hold” group because of their ability to go cash during the bad times. In turn, being able to get back in the market as the market turned around. To be fair, not all active money managers would have done better than the “buy and hold” managers during those time periods. It is not easy to time when to get in and when to get out of the market. But, reputable active money managers with a solid understanding of technical and fundamental analysis combined with a contrarian mind set, will increase your chances of outperforming the market significantly during times of stagnation and stagflation.
Another major advantage an active money manager has is their ability to spot emerging areas of growth outside of the typical asset allocation, and focus a portion of the portfolio to take advantage of strength in specific sectors. The most recent example of this would be the growth of commodities during 2003-2008. Asset classes like steel, oil, natural gas, coal, fertilizers, etc. outperformed the stock market by over 300% during that same time period. Other examples would be REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) from 2000-2005. Real Estate related stocks outperformed the stock market significantly, experiencing positive moves even during the bear market from 2000-2002. Emerging markets from 2003-2008 far outperformed your typical asset allocation during the same time period. Good technicians (chartists) are able to spot and take advantage of new emerging sectors coming off of bottoms.
What’s Next?
I believe we are 9-years into a cyclical 15-year period of stagnation that began in the year 2000. I also believe there is a very good chance over the next year we will see inflation increase because of the amount of money the U.S. government and other governments around the world are spending. If history repeats itself, we will experience extreme volatility. This means we will have powerful moves upward followed by powerful moves downward. If you are in the “buy and hold” camp during this time period, you will be at a serious disadvantage to some active money managers. These money managers will take advantage of powerful upward moves and honing in on the sectors that will outperform during inflationary times. Also, being able to go defensive if the market falls and experiences a prolonged bear trend.
Allgen’s Investment Approach
Allgen specializes in active money management. Through technical and fundamental analysis, along with a contrarian mindset, we strive to navigate the markets during periods of prosperity and/or decline. We constantly research and study the markets to find the next emerging area even in asset classes that are typically not used in your “buy and hold” asset allocation portfolios. During the good times we focus on strength, and during the bad times we try to preserve wealth. During periods of stagnation, such as we are experiencing now and potentially years to come, we see ample opportunities to take advantage of this market. If you want to see how active money management may fit into your overall investment portfolio then please email us advisors@allgenfinancial.com or give us a call at 1-888-6ALLGEN (625-5436).
Written By:
Jason Martin, CFP®, CMT
Senior Partner & Chief Investment Officer
Allgen Financial Services, Inc. martin@allgenfinancial.com
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