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In A Proper Accounting: The Real Cost of Government Loans and Credit Guarantees the editors of the online newsletter Knowledge@Wharton point out that while our attention has been focused like a laser beam on the U.S.

There are a variety of characteristics a successful client-advisor relationship should have. Chief among them is that the relationship must be consultative. In my practice that involves much more than simply working together with clients in an open and honest partnership to meet their goals.

On January 2 2013 President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 also known as the Fiscal Cliff Bill into law. While tax rates grabbed all the headlines the bill also included some good news for charities – and for philanthropically inclined Individual Retirement Plan (IRA) owners.

It’s a new year and we’ve likely all made resolutions to improve ourselves.

The election. The fiscal cliff. The national debt. The federal deficit. Slow (to nonexistent) economic growth. Chronically high unemployment. Superstorm Sandy the east coast’s Katrina. Impending tax increases. The euro plague leapfrogging from Greece to Spain next perhaps to Italy and even France. The weak dollar. The Federal Reserve continuing to push on a string.

Amid intense political drama Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act on New Year’s Day to avert massive tax increases for nearly all earners that were slated for January 1st. The best comment I’ve read thus far on the legislation comes from David Lifson an accountant at Crowe Horwath in New York.

Well here we are on December 31 and there’s still no deal on Capitol Hill to avoid the Fiscal Cliff. Negotiations on Sunday had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell holding closed-door meetings. Their goal was to reach a compromise by mid-day but they fell short even as Vice president Joe Biden joined in.

“When we meet real tragedy in life we can react in two ways — either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.” That inspiring thought comes from the Dalai Lama and it is certainly applicable in the wake of the unfathomable tragedy in Newtown Connecticut.

Know what you are paying for and know how your advisor gets paid.

When State Street’s Applied Center for Research recently asked retail investors what steps they needed to take over the next ten years to prepare for retirement the number one response (40 percent) was to becom