Since GLD inception 11-18-2004 recent history:
CAGR SPY 10.07% VBINX 60/40 7.38% and GLD 8.52%.

Interesting. Since inception GLD has done a little better on average than VBINX. However, VBINX’s inception date is about 12 years earlier (1992).
I agree with FD that gold hasn’t been a good investment compared to stocks. Can’t give you a good reason to own it. It does receive some attention from the financial press and is held by many central banks. There have been brief periods over the years where it outperformed many other investments. Very pretty stuff to look at I think. But that’s in the eyes of the beholder.
Possibly of interest - Costco selling as much as $200 million in gold bars monthly

Based on the timing, I'd guess the explanation is that MrRuffles is a Schwab Private Client. This is a new feature added July 10, 2023, and includes a dedicated rep.
Schwab press release
These dedicated reps, even credentialed ones, are more salespeople than advisors.

As part of these new experiences, all HNW and UHNW clients have access to a dedicated Schwab consultant who is responsible for their overall relationship with Schwab at no additional cost to them. ...
I received written responses from Michael Cianfrocca, my media contact at Schwab. He advised me that:

1. The new services aren’t advisory.
   
2. The dedicated financial consultant will primarily connect clients to different resources at Schwab, which are not free.
   
3. While some financial consultants are CFPs, their “primary role” is acting as a concierge and directing clients to Schwab's relevant services.
   
4. The financial consultants are not fiduciaries.

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2023/07/19/schwabs-insurance-leverage-marketing-solin

I asked my Schwab rep out of Texas if they could waive TF’s on a number of MF’s after a rep in my local office gave me the thumbs down. The remote rep was happy to do it and I just had to inform them after making my purchases.

It seems it is discretionary and on a case by case basis.
Do you get to reach the same rep each time or you have to call the pool of reps and take your chances that you might get an obliging rep?
Thanks

Schwab assigned me a dedicated Financial Consultant/CFP last year so i was able to directly email them with my request.

What is the difference between VMFXX and VMRXX, except for the 1 or 2 basis points 7-day yield difference?
VMRXX product summary from VG website: "The fund invests at least 99.5% of its total assets in cash, U.S. government securities, and/or repurchase agreements that are collateralized solely by U.S. government securities or cash (collectively, government securities). The fund invests more than 25% of its assets in securities issued by companies in the financial services industry, which includes securities issued by certain government-sponsored enterprises. The fund is considered one of the most conservative investment options offered by Vanguard. Although the fund invests in short-term U.S. government securities, the amount of income that a shareholder may receive will be largely dependent on the current interest rate environment. Investors who have a short-term savings goal and are interested in a fund that invests in securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies may wish to consider this option." [Bold added]
The sentence in Bold is not there in product summary for VMFXX, their default sweep fund. Is that the only difference between these two products?

@msf @sven
Worth talking to Lynnbolin2021 who uses both Vanguard and Fido advisors I think.
The Vanguard guy did not seem inexperienced on the phone, but clearly said they would not take any of our legacy positions into account when managing our money. Most is in Berkshire.So we would have had to sort do mental arithmetic to account for it
Fido, as I mentioned, seemed to offer little for the fee
Schwab farmed it out to a large independent firm ( Wealth Management Group) whose financial planning seemed comprehensive and pretty good. They reviewed our wills and caught significant typo our lawyer had missed, for example.
The portfolio was individual stocks with bond mutual funds. They had a plan to slowly sell positions they felt were not useful.
The portfolios resembled SCHD and SCHG, but hey had a tighter screen for a few parameters. It was unclear how flexible they were with their portfolios and if they changed dramatically. SCHD is a very cheap fund and only lost 3% in 202 but since has done little. My "Deep value" advisor is morevolitle but has beaten it by a mile.
All in all I was impressed but since I am still Compos Mentus, decided I could wait to switch. For someone who needs help, unless you go "All Bernstein" it is not a bad choice.

@sma3, thank you for sharing your experience with Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard brokerages. I think it is a crapshoot of which agents you deal with and that set the tone on whether that firm works for you or not. These days there are high turnovers in the financial business. Planners I talk with have less than 10 years of experience. We are working on Plan B so that my wife can handle the finance without advisors when I pass on.
Like you I also subscribed to "No Load Fund Analyst" for a number of years until they retired that business. Rather than using an advisor early on, we spent time learning about asset allocation from William Bernstein's books. NLFA became the tool to implement the target allocation in our portfolio and the value of active management. This process has proven invaluable as we survived the severe drawdowns during the dotcom and GFC crisis, and we became more informed investors and asking the right questions.
We have been DIY investors ever since. Until last year I explored using financial advisors to manage part of our portfolio. Vanguard is reasonable with 0.3% fee but the choices are limited to Vanguard products only. Think that is the same with most brokerages. This experiment ended as we moved on from Vanguard.
Fidelity offers their advisory services and I will talk with them to better understand their capabilities now that I had experience with Vanguard.

I gave Vanguard a chance too, but they said they would ignore all of our existing low cost basis stocks so I though that was a no go.
Years ago I suggested to a friend what became Vanguard Personal Advisor Select. (At the time there was only one tier, with a $50K min.)
Vanguard was good about preserving investments with large gains and only selling them off gradually over several years. It was a pleasant contrast to TIAA, where this person had watched as an "advisor" immediately sold off everything at the start.
TIAA compounded the problem later by harvesting a loss in a taxable account while purchasing the same security in an IRA - thus generating a wash sale and permanently destroying the ability to declare the harvested loss.
On the tax front, Vanguard seems to be doing okay. Someone else I know with them was told that an account had recently crossed the designated allocation ranges and Vanguard could rebalance. Given that this was in a taxable account and rebalancing would recognize gains, Vanguard provided the option of rebalancing or not.
Maybe you just got hold of an inexperienced person at Vanguard or someone who was having a bad day.

@sven
Fido was wife's 401k custodian so most of her retirement money is there.
Our joint taxable account we started in 1988 at Schwab when we had an advisor for mutual funds. He used Littman-Gregory " No Load Fund Analyst" ( anybody else remember them?) so I finally decided I could do it myself with the newsletter. Then they stopped the newsletter and I didn't think it was worth a 0.7% fee on top of MF fees. Fortunately Fund Alarm was available.
While the advisors at Schwab changed frequently in the past, they have been stable the last 10 years. I can email the guy we have and he responds quickly.
I don't use them for investment advice but they are helpful with paperwork etc. I did explore their financial planning but decided I could do just as well with investments for now.
We never really connected to someone at Fido. I gave them a chance last year to demonstrate their ideas about financial planning and they kinda blew it. The rep didn't seem interested in following up and all they offered was Fido mutual funds.
I gave Vanguard a chance too, but they said they would ignore all of our existing low cost basis stocks so I though that was a no go.
I am sorta in the "paranoid" level of account security ( like Andy Grove) and I think having about a 50/50 split in brokerages is not a bad idea.
If they have good analytics, I have missed them, so I use M* and Quicken and a lot of the stuff people use here.

It was not an easy decision for us on Vanguard after being investors for over 30 years. The company has changed…
As I mentioned on this board, we initiated to move all tax-deferred accounts out to Fidelity. The transfer was completed with 5 days through ACAT, and the cost base information arrived several days later. As of yesterday, we transfer half of our joint account to Fidelity. We decide to keep the other half at Vanguard for the same reasons @msf mentioned above.
I can confirm that Fidelity offers $1,000 per $1M asset transfer to Fidelity after 60 days. They assigned an agent directly to oversee the transfer. The process is straightforward but it is nice touch to have a history with a specific person. And that is something Vanguard lacks. Additionally, we were contact from Fidelity’s financial consultant immediately to offer their service. I hesitated until we are ready to engage with them.
By the way, we have Vanguard managed part of our asset through their Advisory Select service (minimum $500k) as part of an experiment in case I pass away before my wife. We ended that relationships immediately when we decided to move on from Vanguard.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/874964/000093041324001838/c109092_497.htm
497 1 c109092_497.htm
THE LAZARD FUNDS, INC.
Lazard Managed Equity Volatility Portfolio
Supplement to Current Summary Prospectus and Prospectus
The Board of Directors of The Lazard Funds, Inc. (the “Fund”) has approved the liquidation of Lazard Managed Equity Volatility Portfolio (the “Portfolio”).
No further investments are being accepted into the Portfolio, except for investments by certain brokers or other financial intermediaries or employee benefit or retirement plans (acting on behalf of their clients or participants) with pre-existing investments in the Portfolio pursuant to an agreement or other arrangement with the Fund, the Distributor or another agent of the Fund regarding Portfolio investments. Promptly upon completion of liquidation of the Portfolio’s investments, the Portfolio will redeem all its outstanding shares by distribution of its assets to shareholders in amounts equal to the net asset value of each shareholder’s Portfolio investment. It is anticipated that the Portfolio’s assets will be distributed to shareholders on or about August 5, 2024.
Prior to the liquidation of the Portfolio, depending on the arrangements of any broker or other financial intermediary associated with your account through which Portfolio shares are held, the Fund’s exchange privilege may allow you to exchange shares of the Portfolio for shares of the same Class of another series of the Fund in an identically registered account. Please see the section of the Prospectus entitled “Shareholder Information—Investor Services—Exchange Privilege” for more information.
Dated: June 5, 2024

William Bengen published Conserving Client Portfolios During Retirement, Part III
in the Dec. 1997 Journal of Financial Planning. His recommended range for stock allocation
was between 50% and 75% for a 65 year-old investor.
"Because withdrawal rates within the recommended range of stocks are essentially equal,
they are not very useful in selecting stock allocation.
For another view of the matter, consider Chart 10, which depicts the nominal wealth built up
in a portfolio after 30 years, for a retiree who began withdrawing four percent the first year.
The two stock allocations displayed, 50 percent and 75 percent, represent the extreme ends
of the 'recommended range' for this investor at age-65 retirement."
PDF1
Edit/Add: Bengen published Conserving Client Portfolios During Retirement, Part IV
in the May 2001 Journal of Financial Planning. Two alternative withdrawal strategies are explored.
PDF2

WSJ reporting that MS may boot Gill from ETrade over manipulation concerns, so I guess BBF was right, this time there might just be some manipulation afoot. (The article says MS is debating on what kind of retail blowback they'll get if they actually give him the boot.)
< - >
Morgan Stanley employees, knowing that Gill is a customer, looked at his E*Trade account, according to people familiar with the matter. That sort of monitoring of clients is routine.
The employees saw he had purchased call options before the tweet, the people said. A call option gives a trader the right to buy the stock by a certain date at a stated price. At least some of those options expired that week, one of the people said. That meant Gill’s trades likely generated profits thanks to the stock move his tweet generated.
Morgan Stanley’s global financial-crimes unit and external counsel began discussing whether Gill’s actions were legal and whether the firm should cancel his E*Trade account, the people said.

”Let's ask the obvious easy question: if you held just the SP500 for your stock portion (based on Bogle+Buffet) have you done well YTD + in the last 3-5-10-15 years?”

The S&P 500 lost approximately

56.8% of its value between October 2007 and March 2009, according to the historical performance data. This significant decline was a result of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. (Credit: Brave Search AI summarizer)
Hey big guy - Every dollar you held in your S&P 500 index fund in October 2007 was worth 43 cents 16 months later. Sound like fun?

And...how much did the SP500 ended at after 15 years = 6/1/2008?
418% which includes the 50% loss that happened as you noted above, but wait, since 2010 I have been posting why you should invest in US LC tilting growth, SPY has been an easy choice but you could also invest some in QQQ. If you invested in QQQ you ended at 934% (https://schrts.co/zTCFZQSB)

”Let's ask the obvious easy question: if you held just the SP500 for your stock portion (based on Bogle+Buffet) have you done well YTD + in the last 3-5-10-15 years?”

The S&P 500 lost approximately 56.8% of its value between October 2007 and March 2009, according to the historical performance data. This significant decline was a result of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. (Credit: Brave Search AI summarizer)
Hey big guy - Every dollar you held in your S&P 500 index fund in October 2007 was worth 43 cents 16 months later. Sound like fun?

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1295908/000158064224002881/lebenthal_497.htm
497 1 lebenthal_497.htm 497
LEBENTHAL ULTRA SHORT TAX-FREE INCOME FUND
A Series of Centaur Mutual Funds Trust
Supplement dated May 29, 2024, to the Summary Prospectus, Statutory Prospectus and
Statement of Additional Information, each dated February 28, 2024
Effective immediately, the Lebenthal Ultra Short Tax-Free Income Fund (the “Fund”), a series of Centaur Mutual Funds Trust (the “Trust”), has terminated the public offering of its shares and will discontinue its operations effective July 10, 2024. Shares of the Fund are no longer available for purchase and, at the close of business on July 10, 2024, all outstanding shares of the Fund will be redeemed at net asset value (the “Transaction”).
The Board of Trustees of the Trust (the “Board”), at the recommendation of the Fund’s investment advisor, DCM Advisors, LLC (the “Adviser”), determined and approved by Written Consent of the Board on May 29, 2024 (the “Written Consent”), to discontinue the Fund’s operations based on, among other factors, the Advisor’s belief that it would be in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders to discontinue the Fund’s operations. Through the date of the Transaction, the Advisor will continue to waive investment advisory fees and reimburse expenses of the Fund, if necessary, in order to maintain the Fund at its current expense limit, as specified in the Fund’s Prospectus.
Through the Written Consent, the Board directed that: (i) all of the Fund’s portfolio securities be liquidated in an orderly manner not later than July 10, 2024; and (ii) all outstanding shareholder accounts on July 10, 2024, be closed and the proceeds of each account be sent to the shareholder’s address of record or to such other address as directed by the shareholder, including special instructions that may be needed for Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRAs”) and qualified pension and profit sharing accounts. As a result of the Transaction, the Fund’s portfolio holdings will be reduced to cash or cash equivalent securities. Accordingly, going forward, shareholders should not expect the Fund to achieve its stated investment objectives. Any capital gains will be distributed as soon as practicable to shareholders and reinvested in additional Fund shares, unless you have requested payment in cash.
Shareholders may continue to freely redeem their shares on each business day prior to the Transaction. Procedures for redeeming your account, including reinvested distributions, are contained in the section “Redeeming Your Shares” in the Fund’s Prospectus. Any shareholders that have not redeemed their shares of the Fund prior to July 10, 2024, will have their shares automatically redeemed as of that date, with proceeds being sent to the address of record. If your Fund shares were purchased through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and are held in a brokerage or other investment account, redemption proceeds may be forwarded by the Fund directly to the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary for deposit into your brokerage or other investment account.
The Transaction will be considered for tax purposes a sale of Fund shares by shareholders, and shareholders should consult with their own tax advisors to ensure its proper treatment on their income tax returns.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR RETIREMENT PLAN INVESTORS
Shareholders invested through an IRA or other tax-deferred account should consult the rules regarding the reinvestment of these assets. In order to avoid a potential tax issue, shareholders generally have 60 days from the date that proceeds are received to re-invest or “rollover” the proceeds in another IRA or qualified retirement account; otherwise the proceeds may be required to be included in the shareholder’s taxable income for the current tax year.
If you have any questions regarding the Fund, please call 1-888-484-5766.
Investors Should Retain this Supplement for Future Reference

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/225930/000174177324002468/c497.htm
497 1 c497.htm
6316 P2 05/24
TEMPLETON FUNDS
SUPPLEMENT DATED MAY 29, 2024
TO THE SUMMARY PROSPECTUS, PROSPECTUS AND
STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (“SAI”)
EACH DATED JANUARY 1, 2024, OF
TEMPLETON INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE FUND (THE “FUND”)
On May 22, 2024, the Board of Trustees of Templeton Funds, on behalf of Templeton International Climate Change Fund (the “Fund”), approved a proposal to liquidate and dissolve the Fund. The liquidation is anticipated to occur on or about August 9, 2024 (Liquidation Date); however, the liquidation may occur sooner if at any time before the Liquidation Date there are no shares outstanding in the Fund. The liquidation may also be delayed if unforeseen circumstances arise.
At the close of market on July 2, 2024, the Fund will be closed to new investors, except as noted below. Existing investors who had an open and funded account on July 2, 2024 can continue to invest in the Fund through exchanges and additional purchases after such date. The following categories of investors may continue to open new accounts in the Fund after the close of market on July 2, 2024: (1) clients of discretionary investment allocation programs where such programs had investments in the Fund prior to the close of market on July 2, 2024, and (2) Employer Sponsored Retirement Plans or benefit plans and their participants where the Fund was available to participants prior to the close of market on July 2, 2024. The Fund will not accept any additional purchases after the close of market on or about August 7, 2024. The Fund reserves the right to change this policy at any time.
Shareholders of the Fund on the Liquidation Date will have their accounts liquidated and the proceeds will be delivered to them. For those shareholders with taxable accounts and for Federal, state and local income tax purposes: (a) any liquidation proceeds paid to such shareholder should generally be treated as received by such shareholder in exchange for the shareholder’s shares and the shareholder will therefore generally recognize a taxable gain or loss; (b) in connection with the liquidation, the Fund may declare taxable distributions of its income and/or capital gain; and (c) an exchange out of the Fund prior to the Liquidation Date may be considered a taxable transaction and such shareholders may recognize a gain or loss. Shareholders should consult
their tax advisers regarding the effect of the Fund’s liquidation in light of their individual circumstances. Participants in an Employer Sponsored Retirement Plan that is a Fund shareholder should consult with their plan sponsor for further information regarding the impact of the liquidation. In considering new purchases or exchanges, shareholders may want to consult with their financial advisors to consider their investment options.
Please retain this supplement for future reference.

As shipwrecked mentioned....If you actually look at Palm Valley's website, it refers to ABSOLUTE RETURN Investing...."Focused on Absolute Returns"....in large letters.

And I already commented that this IS NOT an absolute fund.
Mr C. uses cash, how about communicating better every month the % of stocks, cash, and the rest?
Maybe I missed it, but can you find on the fund page (https://www.palmvalleycapital.com/) the portfolio breakdown?
Just for fun, I read Mr. C comments on 4/1/2023 (https://www.palmvalleycapital.com/_files/ugd/ef2f99_c0d0844318294a93b988e858fd3274da.pdf) Quote "Today, there are numerous signs of an impending recession and an incipient loss of confidence in the financial system, as the higher interest rates required to quash inflation are exposing deep cracks in the economy. "
He is a typical downer and don't like tech...since 4/1 SPY is up about 30% and QQQ about 42%

Wouldn't expect this from conservatively-run juggernaught Capital, but here they are. I hope these funds don't tarnish their reputation by getting too ... creative. (I hold several large long-long-loooong term positions in various of their equity funds)
Per WSJ:
Capital Group, the stock-picking juggernaut whose American Funds have been a staple in brokerage accounts for nearly a century, is tapping private-equity pioneer KKR to step into the lucrative world of private investments.
Capital and KKR are planning a series of hybrid funds that will invest in both publicly and privately traded assets. The first two strategies, expected to launch next year, will hold about 60% in public bonds picked by Capital managers, and 40% in direct and asset-based loans sourced by KKR.
The new funds will target mass-affluent clients, or those who invest between $100,000 and $1 million. These customers hold the biggest chunk of the assets in wealth accounts, and represent the next frontier for firms that manage alternative assets such as private companies, loans and real estate.
Capital and KKR also intend to explore multiple flavors of hybrid funds—and private assets—in different markets around the world.
< - >

The plan marks one of Capital’s biggest forays into private assets since the 1970s when it helped start a venture-capital fund that would later emerge as Sequoia Capital. The money-management industry has changed dramatically since then, as trillions of dollars flowed into low-cost funds that track market indexes.
For KKR, the partnership will help extend its reach beyond the ultrawealthy individuals and families who currently invest in its products through wealth managers and financial advisers.
“Roughly 5% of U.S. households would meet that qualification,” Nuttall said. “There is this whole universe that we’re not getting close to touching.”
Facing relentless pressure to lower their own fees, traditional stock and bond managers have turned to investing in alternatives. These investments still command higher fees, and are harder for index and exchange-traded funds to duplicate. The pitch for customers is a chance at market-beating returns.
< - >
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/american-funds-parent-launching-partnership-with-kkr-to-move-into-private-assets-114430d0?mod=hp_lead_pos5

No, we can express gratitude to any service provider. Because we in this forum have written pages and pages of angst from financial service providers, it was easy to mention them.
It does not have to be “beyond call of duty.” It can simply be doing duty sincerely and competently, which I do not take for granted..

Are we limited to strictly financial dealings? I can recall a "beyond the call of duty" episode with airline staff, many years ago, at the airport...