All Posts

A new hospital building is rising three miles from my home. Communities in the service area are growing and aging, so I’m betting the financial projections for a project this costly passed stress tests with room to spare. Because I drive past the site often and work with many health industry folks, construction of these capital-heavy projects always gets my attention. The new facility might well be essential to hold market share in our competitive health care market. But the

The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, provided us with enduring lessons in leadership and connection. Jobs joined Atari, the video gaming pioneer, in the mid-1970s as a young technician. Public accounts from Atari leaders describe him as prickly, abrasive, and unpolished. Atari eventually moved him to the night shift rather than have him work closely with others, solving a people problem while retaining his talent. Atari executives framed the move partly as practical: Job

In 1995, during his years in exile from Apple, Steve Jobs gave an interview that could have been advice to most successful professional service firms. Jobs said companies often stop innovating when they become successful. The product people—the innovators who know what make offerings useful, elegant, and different—slowly lose influence. The power shifts to sales, marketing, distribution, and operations. The company still looks successful, but something essential has been lost

Much of the discussion this year around the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) tax law passed in July 2025 has focused on two familiar themes: permanent extensions of the current personal income tax rates and increase in the federal estate tax exemption. Those are important changes. But in conversations recently, I’ve found that some of the practical, high return planning opportunities are receiving far less attention than the headline items. One of the key changes increased the

When you set up a new investment account, how much time did you (or your advisor) spend considering the titling of the account? If you have a trust, is it listed as beneficiary on the account? Whose Social Security number is on your joint account? These decisions seem routine, but they determine who owns and controls the assets in the account and what happens to them when you die. The discussion is overdue. Have it with the attorney who drafted your will or trust. Investment

Owning tangible assets like a home, business, or other real estate is a common path to building wealth. But leverage comes from many different angles and does not always involve taking on debt. It doesn’t have to be big to be good. The new Trump Account rules are worth understanding—not because they are a giant solution, but because they may allow a child’s first dollars to be matched by time, tax structure, a federal contribution, and big family gifting leverage. The account

Years ago, when my dad retired from the legislative fiscal bureau, a branch of the state legislature, his deputy, who was replacing him, delivered a retirement eulogy that stuck with me. He recognized Dad for creating a respected bipartisan culture within the agency, defining the difference between bipartisan and nonpartisan policymaking. Nonpartisan agencies engage in public policy, but not for one side. Bipartisan is different. It means major parties are participating, agre

The years 2000, 2007, and 2022. Three market declines, three very different causes, but one common warning sign. In each case, the market entered the downturn from a place of elevated valuation. That is where the Shiller CAPE ratio becomes useful. Robert Shiller was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on why markets can become disconnected from fundamentals for extended periods. It followed his previous work on market valuation and the long-run stock market outl

People like to talk about success as if it arrives in a flash of brilliance. It makes for interesting conversation, but it’s usually wrong. Pixar, the iconic maker of animated films, figured out something most investors eventually learn the hard way: the first idea is seldom the winning idea. Ed Catmull, one of Pixar’s founders, made this point. Too many people overestimate the brilliance of the original concept. How did Pixar produce consistent box office success and positiv

Just 25 years ago, the estate and gift tax exemption was $675,000. More than 50,000 estates paid estate taxes. Fast forward: estate planning used to be about planning for incapacity and estate taxes. But the high exemption of $15 million ($30 million for couples) has left only about 2,000 estates subject to the tax. Planning has changed, but tax planning hasn’t disappeared; it’s just moved to income tax management for couples and survivors. For married couples especially, the

It won’t be long before financial journalism finds a new story about Social Security ‘running out of money.’ Following the false reports of “no tax on Social Security” (not true). The Social Security Act requires the Trustees to report each year to Congress on the financial and actuarial status of the trust funds. The most recent Report in June 2025 was followed by headlines declaring, “Social Security is “running out of money.” The latest Trustees Report deserves attention b

Civilization has always moved in cycles. Families move in cycles too: our working years, retirement, and that little-appreciated period between the two ─ before Social Security and Required Minimum Distributions begin. The more you recognize them, the more you can use them instead of letting them use you. A couple sits at the kitchen table with a stack of statements, a note pad, and more uncertainty than they expected to feel after doing so many things right. They saved for y

FinTok Fact Check: Three Retirement Claims Graded The renowned artist-engineer, Leonardo Da Vinci, is best remembered for creating Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the Vitruvian Man. From 7,000 pages of journals, we know some of how he worked. This luminary made no distinction between art and science. When creating the Vitruvian Man, he made 230 measurements before drawing the portrait. His works couple scientific sophistication with beauty. Although brilliant, his notes

Roth Conversions: Social Media Advice Misses the Math Roth conversions are everywhere right now. Scroll financial media long enough and you’ll hear the same refrains: “Taxes are going up.” “Convert to fill your tax bracket.” “Pay tax once, never again.” Sometimes that advice is correct. Most of the time it’s incomplete, untested, or bad advice. Tax-rate arbitrage is one variable in the decision, and arguably not the most important. You’re paying tax today to avoid tax tomorro

Private Markets and Your 401(k): Promises, Policy, and Practical Questions You may start hearing more about private equity or private market investments showing up inside workplace retirement plans. That discussion didn’t appear overnight. It’s the result of years of policy debate, industry advocacy, and evolving views about where economic growth now happens. Before reacting strongly, it helps to separate headlines from history and insight. In 2020, federal regulators clarifi

Most conversations about health care costs start in the obvious places — medical insurance premiums, deductibles, co‑pays, prescription costs. Those are the bills we actually see, so naturally they dominate how we think about the issue. But the full cost of health care is much broader, and far less visible. It includes the taxes funding Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, veterans’ health care, public health programs, disability‑related Social Securit

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy are underway. By the numbers, the summer games first held in Athens in 1896 dominate with twice the sporting competitions and almost four times more athletes. But not for Minnesota, the land of five-month winters. In number, Minnesota’s 24 athletes in these Games trail only Colorado with 30, and beyond the number, the athletes are powerhouses in women’s and men’s hockey, Alpine and Nordic skiing, curling, and speed skating

Minnesota artist Phil Hansen holds the Guinness World Record for biggest connect-the-dots puzzle, a stunning image of a Native American elder referred to as Big Head by early 20th century photographer, Edward Curtis, created using almost 53,000 dots. The challenge was more than it seemed. Most of the numbers to complete the puzzle were five digits long, each dot taking more and more space. To solve that problem, Mr. Hansen had to create a coded system and a key to follow it.

Every so often, the markets stop whispering and start speaking plainly. Not in panic, but in a way that deserves attention. That’s where we are today. Over the past year, gold has moved above $5,000 per ounce and silver has crossed $100 per ounce. Both are more than double where they traded not that long ago. On their own, price moves don’t tell a full story. Markets overshoot and narratives change. But history suggests that sustained moves into hard assets tend to show up wh

Most of us forget about how big things started small. It’s a good way to think about your family wealth, your business, or your investments. Big successes are usually just small ideas that stayed alive long enough to grow. Take Amazon. Before it was AWS cloud computing and same-day delivery, it was an online bookstore run out of a garage. The launch of Marketplace was rocky, starting as Auctions, morphing into zShops, and finally succeeding as Marketplace. A narrow wedge. A s