On March 25th, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation in the Senate titled “For the 99.5% Act”, representing the first piece of legislation this year to propose lowering the estate tax exemption along with other key proposals since President Biden took office. On Monday, Senator Chris Van Hollen introduced a bill that would tax gain on capital assets at death and many gifts. While these pieces of legislation are only proposed and would have to follow typical protocols prior to being voted on and enacted, we thought it was important to provide bullet points on the key provisions of the bills as they relate to estate planning.

So, the next (final?) round of stimulus was signed into law by President Biden. Let’s dive in. The $1.9 trillion bill called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes stimulus checks, child tax credits, jobless help, vaccine-distribution money, healthcare subsidies, and aid for struggling restaurants. What’s not inside? A higher minimum wage. Here's a quick visual of how it compares to prior rounds of stimulus.

Does it feel like 2021 yet? The twists and turns so far make it seem like 2020 is dragging into a second season. As an American, I’m shocked and worried, and I’m wondering how political disagreements turned into excuses for violence. As a financial advisor, I know that the politics, protests, and rioting in DC are just one factor affecting markets. I honestly don’t know what will happen over the next few weeks, but I can help you understand how it affects you as an investor.

3 Keys to Optimizing Your Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) The purpose of incentive stock options (ISOs) are to provide incentives to attract, retain and motivate people whose contributions are important to the success of the company by offering them an opportunity to participate in the company’s future performance through the grant of awards. Typically, we see ISOs granted by private companies, and as those companies go public, they generally replace their ISO equity to an RSU equity offering. ISOs have created tremendous wealth to those who have been fortunate enough to align with a company who has experienced significant growth in valuation, but with that wealth comes a lot of strategies on the best way to manage your ISOs and company equity.

The CARES Act was signed into law on Friday, March 27, 2020. While that is great news, in and of itself, here's a look at the six key components that may impact you. In addition, we talk about the buying opportunity of a lifetime in today's market.