(Money Manager) - The 412(i) plan is designed to be used for small United States business owners. These plans often suit the needs of those who might have problems saving for retirement while also focusing on building and investing in their company. These plans can provide the largest possible tax deduction, and are funded by an insurance company.

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(Michael Farr) - Last Sunday, the House passed a historic $938 billion health care bill and on Tuesday, President Obama signed the bill into law. The Senate will try to pass a second measure passed by the House on Sunday amending portions of the bill through a process called reconciliation. This massive health care overhaul is expected to guarantee insurance coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans. The cost of covering these currently uninsured citizens is expected to be covered by a combination of taxes on wealthy individuals and companies and through Medicare cost cuts.

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(Michael Farr) - We typically focus our market commentaries on discussions of topics that impact the equity markets. However, Farr, Miller & Washington also manages bond and balanced portfolios for its clients. A couple of things have happened over the past 2 years that have transformed the once boring fixed income market into something a bit more interesting. Today's blast will focus primarily on big changes that have occurred in the municipal bond market and how Farr, Miller & Washington is taking advantage, on a very selective basis, of these dislocations when building conservative bond portfolios.

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(Michael Farr) - Most of the larger banks have reported fourth quarter earnings already, and we must admit the results were better than we had anticipated. In general, the growth in problem loans declined, capital and reserve ratios strengthened, low-cost deposits continued to grow at a robust pace, and earnings largely surpassed estimates. Absent the bucket of cold water that President Obama threw on the sector when he announced new regulatory initiatives late last week, the 4Q results may have actually strengthened the resolve of those that believe we are nearing a peak in credit losses for this painful cycle. So while we at Farr, Miller & Washington remain non-believers for now (which we will explain further below), let’s examine some of the factors that have many people believing that the days of outsized loan write-offs at the banks are nearly over.

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(Michael Farr) - For the past 7 years we have published our Top Ten Stocks for the coming year. The results have been very gratifying, but we need to be mindful that concentrated positions also concentrate risk. Some institutional accounts have expressed interest in more concentrated portfolios like this. I buy this list personally for one of my personal accounts on the first trading day of the year and sell it completely on the last trading day of the year.

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(Sidney Blum) - Investing in broad based indexes such as the S & P 500 is generally less expensive than most index mutual funds.

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