Wealth Planning & Management, LLC
Report to Clients and to Prospects
For the First Half, 2005
We do not recall a more dull, lackluster non-event than the first six months of 2005.
During the second quarter, the Standard & Poors Index of 500 companies declined 1.70 %. Having experienced a slight increase during the first quarter, the cumulative result for six months was 0.91 %.
We did slightly better. The composite return for our portfolios was 0.92 % for stocks alone, and 1.01 % for complete portfolios, including fixed-income securities. Clearly, the routine returns on fixed-income instruments helped our effort.
To place these data in perspective, we decided to take a look at what happened over the last year and one-half, for the 18 months commencing December 31, 2003. The S&P Index returned 4.72 % for this time period, while our composite for total portfolios was 8.85 %, and 9.86 % for stocks alone. These data put our work in a much better light, but readers should be cautious. Money managers always look for time periods that generate their best statistics. We want to look good. Readers, especially prospects, obtain a balanced view of our work only by reading all quarterly reports, good and bad. All our reports back to 1998 appear on this web site.
Sadly, we lost three accounts, all in June. The first liquidated to pay personal expenses, possibly including the costs of a recent wedding. The second decided to self-manage utilizing the advice of a full-service brokerage firm. Since results for this account were positive, we believe that she will retain most of the securities held at the time of her resignation. We believe that the third departure was subject to an unethical presentation by a competitor. This account earned more than 7 % since 1999, a stellar result. We will discuss this case in more detail in the August 15 newsletter, Thoughtful Wealth Planning & Management. The issue will appear on this web site under “Newsletters.”
We do not here present performance of accounts invested exclusively in tax-exempt securities, a specialty of partner Nancy Haddock. The investment objective of these accounts is unique, and not comparable to balanced portfolios. Of course, Nancy will provide any data requested by clients or prospects.
During the quarter, we attracted approximately $450,000 of new business, about equal to the amount lost.
Jwg—7.16.05
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