We recently expanded Northstar’s Client Service Team to include our new staff members, Lexi Schmidt and Luis Perez. We introduced both Lexi and Luis to clients at our Client Appreciation Event in June but thought it might be nice to provide a bit more background on each of them and how they are helping Northstar…
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Many people who are preparing for retirement ask us if they should pay off their mortgage. In an ideal world, you should pay off your mortgage. But not everyone’s finances are ideal. If that’s your situation, then there are times when it may not make sense to pay off the mortgage. Here’s a look at…
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At Northstar, our relationship isn’t just with your wealth, it’s with you and your whole family. We want to collaborate with you to ensure that your plans are in place, that transitions are smooth, and that you feel comfortable that your needs are met during your lifetime. We’ve known many of you for a long…
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Just as the markets have seemingly entered a new phase, so too has cybercrime. It used to be that your email and online financial accounts posed the biggest threat to the security of our personal data. Now it appears that the profiles from those innocuous social media channels like Facebook and the data gleaned from…
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If you are going to retire and attempt to live off the returns from your investment portfolio, you should be familiar with something called “sequencing of return” risk. What this means is that while over a long period of time, say 25 years, you may get good returns in your portfolio, if they come in…
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Finding the right investment advisor can be a confusing and challenging process. First, the number of professionals offering to manage your investments has continued to grow, with everyone from bankers to insurance agents promoting their financial acumen. Second, with so many choices – including automated options like Robo-advisors – it’s difficult to know where to…
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To figure out how much you need for retirement, you need to know how much you can reasonably distribute from your retirement portfolio each year. In the world of finance, we’ve been operating under something called the “4 percent rule” for the last 20 years or so. This rule basically says that if you distribute…
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The recent bankruptcy filing by former retail giant Sears proves that the retail sector is continuing to experience a vast disruption. Struggling for years, Sears had closed 300 stores and cut more than 20,000 employees already this year. Whether Sears can survive remains to be seen. But even if it joins the growing graveyard of…
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It’s no secret that most Americans aren’t financially ready for retirement. A recent survey from Northwestern Mutual found that one-third of Americans had just $5,000 saved for their golden years. Thankfully, the average amount that Americans have squirreled away is higher – at $84,821, but that still isn’t enough to cover expenses for an extended…
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