Latest From Our Blog

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 brought about a new type of investment offering, Opportunity Zones, which provide a unique way of mitigating capital gains tax. It’s been reported that Qualified Opportunity Funds have raised over over $6.7 billion thru December 2019, and that there are over 200 available funds. Keep reading to learn more about O-Zones and their tax benefits, and to explore the characteristics of an investor that might consider this opportunity.

Given an ever-shifting market, it’s important to stay abreast of asset class expectations and how changes in market levels over time can help drive asset allocation decisions in an investment portfolio. In our first blog series on capital markets, we presented our forward-looking risk and return estimates. In this blog we will check current markets relative to our projections to illustrate how we use risk to garner insights necessary for optimal portfolio recommendations. Keep reading to learn more about risk premiums and what they might mean for your portfolio.

Two retirement reform bills (the SECURE Act and RESA) have been circling around Washington, and if passed, may make significant changes to many retirement and estate plans. Notably, the proposed changes outlined in the bill(s) have meaningful implications as the rules on inherited IRA’s are up for debate. Both the House and Senate have different views on the technical aspects of how tax shelters for inherited wealth could be reduced. Read our blog to learn about the differences in proposed changes for “Stretch IRA’s” and what they could mean for tax planning, wealth accumulation and wealth transfer.

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a meaningful economic indicator that may return to its heyday as a predictor of future changes in market prices. At Centura, we believe the BDI is a great barometer for global economic health and is likely to be a useful datapoint as trade wars continue to escalate. Understanding how changes in global trade and key macro-economic factors may impact your portfolio is a key consideration related to portfolio planning and investment strategy. For example, what does a trade war mean for your portfolio? At Centura Wealth Advisory we specialize in constructing globally diverse portfolios and the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is one tool we use to measure the current health of the global economy. We model the BDI in combination with other factors to learn how changes may impact markets & portfolios. When designing and managing our clients’ portfolios, we are careful to evaluate emerging trends (e.g., recent changes in BDI rates), to assess where there may or may not be opportunity and/or risk. Read our blog post on Trade Wars and the Baltic Dry Index to understand why we like this indicator and how it may be used by investors and advisors alike.

Passive management or active? We believe in both, but not universally. In order to achieve the best of both worlds, a blended approach is what we offer to deliver the best risk-adjusted after-tax returns, and this post explains why. At Centura Wealth Advisory we believe we can add alpha to both stocks and bonds, although the path to do so is very different. With equities, it is all about taxes, and with fixed income it has to do with economics and math.

Sophisticated projections are critical to crafting a well-designed financial plan and capital market projections are one of many key inputs that play a vital role in doing that. At Centura Wealth Advisory, we pair forward looking capital market projections with the Monte Carlo Method to estimate: Probability of a client running out of money before their “end of plan” (i.e., death) Most likely “end of plan” value (e.g., wealth transfer, charitable giving purposes) Optimal asset allocation strategy for a given plan