Tools to Fight Fraud by Kathy Frakes Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month! I recently heard on the radio that Millennials are being scammed more often than Baby Boomers, though Boomers lose more money because they have more money. Technology has made our lives simpler in many ways. It has also made it simpler for would-be thieves to access your information. How can you protect yourself? Here are some suggestions for all ages: Don’t participate in the surveys on social media about your favorite things. While it may seem like a harmless… Read More

By Davis Gardner Many people wait until the new year to address their finances, simply adding it to their list of resolutions for the year. However, December 31st is a critical deadline for many key actions related to your financial life, and by waiting until January to evaluate where you stand, you could miss out on some huge benefits. By reviewing the items in this list, you ensure that you meet those deadlines and set yourself up for success in 2020. Here are the main items to review before December… Read More

Were you affected by the Equifax Data Breach in 2017? Equifax has just reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and 50 U.S. States and territories. You may be eligible for benefits. Please see https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2019/07/equifax-data-breach-settlement-what-you-should-know for details. Also check out Omega Wealth Management’s latest newsletter for additional cyber tips! (https://www.docdroid.net/NsZxEoQ/2019-q3-omega-newsletter-final.pdf) (If you aren’t sure if you were affected, the claims site will have a tool to use to check!)

529 DAY IS HERE! You may be familiar with the fantastic college savings tool known as the 529 Savings Plan. It got its name because it was established under section 529 of the tax code. In a 529 savings accounts, your money can grow tax free and be used for qualified education expenses. Many states also provide a state income tax deduction for contributions made to 529 savings accounts. To help bring awareness to this great tool, May 29th has been designated 529 Day! Several states are offering sweepstakes or… Read More

On March 14th 2019, Lisa Kirchenbauer, CFP®, RLP®, CeFT® Founder & President of Omega Wealth Management was honored to receive one of the 2018 Investment News Women to Watch awards in New York City. Joining her at a gala luncheon were Omega associates Kathy Frakes and Jared Jones. The lunch and award is an opportunity to honor the still minority number of women advisors in the financial services industry. Lisa credits the award to hard work, and the support of amazing clients and a fantastic team. Be sure to check… Read More

Jared and Lisa’s joint article Cracking the Code: A Blueprint for How to Work with Millennial Clients was recently featured in the 2018 Best of Journal of Financial Planning Magazine. Click the link below to get an HTML-version or Flash-version of their article. Link to HTML-version of article Link to Flash-version of article

SEI’s Erin Garnett recently wrote about The Yield Curve and why it’s important to not try to time the market. Read an excerpt below and follow the link to the full article. According to the San Francisco Fed, every recession in the last 40 years was preceded by a yield-curve inversion; however, we do not necessarily expect all inversions to be associated with immediate market declines. After each of the last five inversions, for example, the S&P 500 Index gained 24.7% and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index gained 7.2%,… Read More

Lisa recently wrote about her sabbatical experience for the FPA’s Journal of Financial Planning. Read an excerpt below, and check out the full article here: https://www.onefpa.org/journal/Pages/SEP18-Sabbatical-Success-How-to-Have-a-Business-to-Come-Back-to-After-6-Weeks-Away.aspx Recently, I returned from my second six-week sabbatical in six years. Under two different teams, I was able to (almost) completely unplug from the business. In preparing for my most recent sabbatical, I received interesting feedback from a variety of business owners—including some financial planners. While most were very supportive, many could not imagine being able to leave their business for even a two-week… Read More

Knowing how to use some basic features of MS Excel can really enhance your spreadsheet experience. Once you have these down, you’ll be able to more easily navigate within your workbook! Get more comfortable in Excel now, give these tricks a try! Quickly Fit Columns and Rows to Show All Text. Select the shaded triangle in the left hand corner of your sheet – where the rows and columns meet. This highlights the entire workbook. (Alternately, you can just select the rows and/or columns for which you’d like to adjust the… Read More