As the coronavirus continues to have an increased impact on all of our daily lives, we would like to make you aware of several important updates as they pertain to NorthAvenue, your tax preparation, and your investments.
NorthAvenue Staff Now Working Remotely From Home
All NorthAvenue team members are working from home, starting Monday, March 16th.
As was mentioned in a prior email communication, we have the capability to conduct business from our home offices just as we do from our Columbus office. At this time, we feel it is in the best interest of our staff and clients to protect us and our loved ones from the coronavirus and support our common efforts to “flatten the curve.”
Our staff can still be reached via our office phone numbers, which ring through to our cell phones. We receive all missed calls and voicemails, and we will get back to you within 24 business hours.
At this time, we are also shifting all future meetings to be held remotely until we deem that it is safe to return to the office and resume in-person meetings.
You may not know that our staff is accustomed to holding remote meetings, as we already work successfully with a quarter of our clients remotely. If you have an upcoming in-person meeting already scheduled, we will be in touch with remote meeting details prior to your meeting.
How to Send Us Your Hard-Copy Tax Documents
As we are working from home, we will not be at the office to receive your tax documents in person. Office mail is currently being forwarded to Kristen Moosmiller’s home address. However, the USPS has informed us that sending mail to our office address will increase end delivery time to us by 2-3 business days. If you are unable to send us documents electronically, we recommend that you mail any hard copy documents to Kristen’s home address so that we may receive them as expeditiously as possible. If you plan to mail us documents, please contact one of our staff, and we will provide you with her mailing address.
Tax Preparation Deadline Likely To Be Delayed
Over the past week, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has been calling on the Treasury Department and the IRS to provide relief to all taxpayers and tax preparers in light of the challenges posed by the coronavirus.
Based upon these efforts, they anticipate that the Treasury Department and the IRS will announce this week an extension of the April 15thdeadline by as much as 90 days and a waiver of penalties and interest for most taxpayers.We do not yet have confirmation of this extension.
We are closely following these updates as they become available. While we will of course appreciate any flexibility that an extended deadline provides, our team plans to continue preparing tax returns as scheduled, as best we are able.
Market Volatility Amidst Uncertainty
As the coronavirus' effect on the U.S. and global economies dominate the news cycle, anxiety over market volatility is a natural reaction. We are here to remind you that your portfolio is structured to sustain these types of drops, bounces, and fluctuations. In building your investment portfolio, we prepared for both short and long-term volatility by setting aside nearly a decade, if not more, of cash flow needs into safe funds, in order to prevent selling stock at a low point.
The topic of portfolio structure and investment philosophy has been one that we have revisited regularly with each of our clients over the course of our relationship. While we feel that it is important to understand the technical side of your portfolio, we also want to acknowledge that there is a personal and emotional side to investing as well.
How we feel about money uncertainties can often cloud or interfere with reason, especially when we see this type of market volatility. This is a common reaction, and you are not alone. In times like these, we need to remind ourselves about what we can and cannot control. Remember that your portfolio is structured for all seasons: stocks for prosperous times, and cash and bonds to ride out the storms. We don’t know where the market will go from here, but it seems clear that we can expect continued volatility as coronavirus cases increase throughout the U.S.
The latest forecast from Vanguard’s Global Chief Economist, Joe Davis, resonates with our perspective. We have included an excerpt below.
We remain optimistic about the prospects for economic and market recovery. The last global recession, the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, was deep and long. We don't view our latest challenge in the same light. The global financial crisis was a house of cards falling down, a crisis of excessive leverage, with the financial system itself in jeopardy. The system is sounder now. And although we do expect that global economies will contract in the second quarter, we believe that most will be in a position to rebound strongly later this year and early next year when the virus-related shock subsides and pent-up demand emerges.
Prefer to watch your content? This recent video from Dimensional Fund Advisors provides helpful context on volatility and expected returns.
And Finally, Some Good News!
Now may be a good time to refinance! With the Fed cutting rates, mortgage rates have fallen. We have been reaching out to many of our clients who we believe are good candidates for refinancing to take advantage of these low rates. It’s important to note that mortgage rates are also experiencing dips and bounce backs. Please reach out to us if you feel that refinancing may be worth pursuing for you.
Ally Bank is offering a 1% cash bonus up to $250 on new money moved to an Ally bank account. Simply move at least $1,000 of net new funds into an eligible Ally Bank account to receive the cash bonus. As many of our clients have Ally checking and savings accounts, we don’t want you to miss out on this offer.
For more information and Terms & Conditions, click here.
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