News & Insights

West Financial Special Release i - On September 7th, credit reporting agency Equifax announced a massive data breach that occurred between May through July of this year and affected an estimated 143 million consumers in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom ii. The personal information exposed includes Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and in some cases, credit card numbers. Given how sensitive this information is, and what could be done with it in the wrong hands, experts across industries are recommending that this situation be taken very seriously

Given our philosophy to invest in individual bonds for the fixed income portion of portfolios, we receive tender offers for bonds held in client portfolios on a regular basis. With the decline in interest rates over the first six months of the year, we have seen an increase in these offers and calls from clients concerning any actions they should be taking in response to the offers. We wanted to take this opportunity to explain what can be a fairly complex transaction. A tender offer is when a company offers to repurchase some, or all, of a bond issuance before the stated maturity date. The

Earlier this year, Charles Schwab announced they were lowering commissions on stock and exchange traded fund (ETF) trades from $8.95 to $6.95 1 making them the cheapest brokerage firm for purchasing and selling stocks and ETFs. Not to be outdone, Fidelity shortly thereafter announced they too were lowering their fees, from $7.95 to $4.95 2. Fidelity’s time at the top (or bottom) didn’t last more than a few hours, as Schwab lowered their trading commission to match Fidelity later the same day. The new commission rates for both Schwab and Fidelity are now in effect and will likely benefit the