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Eagle Ridge Investment Management, LLC is very pleased to announce the hiring of Michael B Oliver, CFA. Mike will be directly involved in portfolio management, financial planning and client service at Eagle Ridge.  Prior to joining Eagle Ridge, Mike worked as a Senior Wealth Manager for BNY Wealth Management advising high net worth individuals/families, family offices and tax-exempt institutions for 6 years.  Prior to that, Mike worked for 3 years at Lazard Wealth Management as a Vice President and Senior Investment Analyst and for 4 years as a Vice President…

It’s an understatement to say that the Great Financial Crisis of 2008/2009 has not easily been forgotten by US equity investors. It looms large in peoples’ psyche even today - eleven years later and well into the second longest economic expansion in US history. Investors and market pundits are extremely busy predicting the arrival of the next US recession. We’ve written previously about the dangers of ‘market timing’ - the belief that investors can time stock investments correctly to avoid sell offs (without actually doing more damage to longer run…

An apt description for 2018 might be “Be careful what you wish for.” It was a year that began with great promise and optimism but ended with disappointment along with a healthy dose of anxiety. In January, the change in the tax law was expected to generate higher economic growth than had been experienced over the prior several years. In fact, GDP growth did accelerate, wages, especially for lower income households, began to rise meaningfully, unemployment is now at a 50-year low, the Federal Reserve continued its normalization of monetary…

Since reaching a peak on September 24th, the stock market (S&P 500) has lost 9.6% of its value as of Friday, November 23rd, taking us back to where we started the year. Losses have been greatest in the technology sector among previous high fliers, but the selloff has been broad based. Even though it’s impossible to explain any market movements given the infinite number of factors that influence security prices, following is a list of potential explanations:  Trade War with China: China has been able to grow into the second…

Fall is typically an opportune time to take stock of one’s finances in preparation for the upcoming income tax preparation season. For many taxpayers, income taxes for the 2018 calendar year may prove to be a much simpler process due to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act late last year. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any opportunities to take some strategic steps now to save on income taxes come April 2019. Before we get to these tax savings strategies, let’s quickly review some of the…