Both of the lawyers I talked to over several years, told me that 401ks are protected, but did not mention contributory IRAs are more vulnerable.
...

For 401k/403b assets rolled into T-IRA, most of the protections of 401k/403b carryover to T-IRA.
For regular T-IRAs with personal contributions, only state-level protections apply and they range from nil/low to generous. So, check your state rule. Then there are issues such as what if you moved?
So, it is best NOT to mix 401k/403b rollovers with personal contributions - that results in mixed/tainted T-IRA. Some argue that courts may sort out which contributions came from 401k/403b and which from personal contributions and apply protections appropriately. But then the T-IRA in question may be frozen while the court and lawyers sort this out, and who will pay them to sort this out? Probably you. So, why create this mess?
It is also true that the broker may create a Rollover T-IRA when you first transfer 410k/403b funds, but they may not care what happens after that. YOU will have to keep it pure - i.e. put in more funds from other 401k/403b only, but not any personal contributions.

Both of the lawyers I talked to over several years, told me that 401ks are protected, but did not mention contributory IRAs are more vulnerable.
An Umbrella policy increases the liability limit on your current homeowner's and auto insurance. Good to have but read the fine print on what is covered. Medical bills unless from a car accident or injury on property are not.
As I understand it anyone obtaining a judgement against your LLC assets cannot demand distributions from it, other than the distributions that the LLC makes anyway. Thus you the manger are not required to pay off such a creditor, but I think that creditor can share in any distributions that are made. It does make it more complicated and expensive for someone to try to attach your assets.
It is pretty easy to set up and costs around $1000 but I would use a competent lawyer, not do it yourself. Another advantage to an LLC holding your investments is that the LLC can deduct expenses like investment expenses. You should not use it to pay any expenses that are not directly related to the investments, and you do have to file a separate partnership tax return on March 15 that is hard, but not impossible to do with TurboTax Business. If you use a CPA it will cost several hundred dollars.
Many states require an LLC to file an annual report and some require a fairly high annual fee ( up to $500), so check carefully.
There are other entities I have heard of ( Delaware companies, offshore companies) that are even more protective but much more expensive to maintain.

It’s very likely most here have thru our investments achieved rates of return that far exceeded the rate of inflation for at least the past decade. So I, for one, don’t feel compelled to take extra risk now just because the rate of inflation has bumped higher. But I agree that over longer periods it’s important to stay ahead of inflation.
Used to listen to Ramsey years ago. Enjoy a variety of perspectives and his is one worth considering (although don’t recall his mentioning ELP). 12% a year? Ambitious in today’s environment. As always, risk assumed should be commensurate with one’s tolerance level, situation, time horizon, etc.

My wife and I own....a lot, for a long time. Over 10+years it compares very favorably to the VG large growth ETF (VOOG)but in the last 4yrs it HAS gotten slammed. At the same time is BEAT a mid-cap growth ETFs since LARGE has beaten the snot out of everything else. The COVID Bear seems to have been a turning point, getting left in the dust since late winter/Early spring 2020. MFO Premium has VOOG as a lower risk 4/5 compared to VG Capital Opp. Both are 5/5 overall. VOOG is 38% Tech,11% Healthcare so...no way Cap Opps can compete with that.

@rono’s post of the video is timeless and welcome. A great tradition in our household ended a few years back when David Letterman did his last Christmas show featuring Darlene Love’s 28th appearance singing this Phil Spector classic:

I could and have been for the last 50 years. The distributions from my investments more than meet my needs.

Howdy folks,
@Derf is right about proper posting. I am guilty as charged. As for 15 years? Hell, I don't know. I've been posting here as long as this board has existed because it sort of evolved out of at least two previous boards devoted to mutual fund investing [the debt we all owe to Roy and Salil is enormous]. Salil and his predecessor evolved out of the UseNetNews group - Mutualfundinvesting. Oh, and for the history buffs, the newsgroup was unmoderated and could get very nasty with trolls and flame wars. That was before the world wide web (WWW) was invented and the internet was pretty wild west.
and all y'all have some great holidays and wear the damn mask,
rono

@hank : Okay I'll pick up the flag. 15 years ? My how time flys !

I'll play the Grinch ! Why wasn't this posted in OT?

I vote … Coal for @Derf / Gold for @rono
Similar to a blocking foul being called in BB, if the defender was already in position when the ball carrier arrived at that spot, there’s no foul. Rono’s been posting this Merry XMas video for the enjoyment of MFO readers (and earlier FA readers) in the investing section for at least 15 years. He already had position.
So, in this case … No foul
(PS - Just a reminder everyone that the December Commentary is posted at the top of the board.)

VHCOX is a Primecap SubAdvised fund and I have been a fan of the Primecap funds for a long time. It was a top performing Mid/Large Cap offering 2012-16 but the last 4 years have not been kind. Slumps and out of style for the current cycle are nothing new and all investments go through this naturally. What's making me question the product is the Style Drift over the past 5-7 years and has that helped/hurt the product. It was a Growth fund, focused on mid caps, and naturally evolved into a large cap fund. Now, it's a large blend as per M*. Primecap has Aggressive Growth and Core offrings but as far as I know, this was a ' clone' (not the correct terminology) of the Aggressive product.
Also, they are heavily allocated to Tech and Health so you would think they'd at least catch some of that momentum. I think their tech exposre was higher than the current 28%...Anyone else own this fund and have similar questions?

BaluBalu
Being curious was the main adventure of my post. Having observed "alternative" funds over the years has not caused me to need/want to travel that path, as our mix has provided. The chart allows for an observation for whomever to reflect for their own needs as to portfolio construction.
You stated:

Your comments: "My expectation for MFO members is that alternative funds are not necessarily a bright spot for money over the years."
If you meant the above for the future, please share your thoughts on why.
"AND if one doesn't hold at least 10% of a portfolio in an alternative fund, any gain or loss is noise; and of little benefit to the portfolio."
I am deducing from your statement that you do not expect JHQAX's historic 10% per year (not compounded) return (somewhat lower return, pre-Covid) to continue. But do you expect it to perform worse than a good HY fund, say, ARTFX? I am not one to quibble about predictions about the future but it would be helpful to know your thoughts.

I, as with you, are not able to offer any forward/future prediction about how any fund will perform in a given market; from effects of the market and/or management skills and decisions. So, I don't have a clue as to JHQAX and its future ability to sail a smooth path for the next 1, 3 or 5 years; and be able to provide a positive ballast for a portfolio. Many here have discovered, over the years; that there are times when the big money houses and the economic educated and enlightened one's have been off course with their observations into the near term and future.
A tangent:
As with my prior chart, I was curious about matching other investments with JHQAX to discover return relationships. The below numbers are real world from a 529 educational account started 15 years ago, and for the heck of it; compared to JHQAX. The two initial holdings in the 529 have not been changed, being 50/50. The two funds are: VITPX and VBMPX. NOTE: A mandatory requirement of this 529 is that the 50/50 (equity/bond) balance is reset every September. So, neither holding has outrun the other, percentage wise; over the years.
The return numbers are annualized where appropriate, with the 529 numbers being a combination of the two holdings returns.

YTD 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR 15 YR
529 +10.9 +12.8 +14.3 +10.7 +9.7 +7.4
JHQAX +12.9 +13.8 +13.3 +10.2 (partial year)

The above is not an attempt to provide anything more meaningful than a simple portfolio may provide, regardless of ones choices over the long term. A two fund portfolio being QQQ and AGG would provide, IMHO.
We've (household) attempted, over many years; to maintain a low number of investment vehicles. As with every investor, we all have our choices; based upon whatever moves us in a particular direction to hopefully provide the most benefit to a portfolio. We are fortuitous that our career paths were directed towards technology and healthcare; which helped us focus our investments based upon our understanding and insight of these areas.
Our equity holdings today are directed towards technology and healthcare.
Bonds? Don't have a clue at this moment, as the large support of high rates is now missing, which is where the "running" room used to be to have advantage of falling rates and obtain the profits from pricing; versus the prior 40 years.
I wandered a bit........, eh?
Remain curious,
Catch

We (wife and I) have been with TRP for over twenty years and regularly use the brokerage.
I agree it is not as accomplished as some other offerings, but you do get used to the quirks. On the "Tools" menu you can search for funds which have NTF, and combine that with a choice of sectors, minimum investment requirement, expense ratio, fund family, and so on. From that list of results you can sort by past performance, volatility, income characteristics, and so forth.
I have noticed in the last twelve months there are a lot more funds which used to have a $35 transaction fee but are now free to trade. And some funds which were previously unavailable are now on offer. Nine times out of ten I have been able to acquire the specific fund I wanted.
Whenever I have had a question I have always used the messaging facility. I have never had to make a phone call. All my questions have been answered in a timely and professional manner.
We won't be changing brokerages because we have most of our money tied up in TRP funds themselves.

Even worse, I deactivated another account that I had previously linked the "Schwab Bank Investor C".
Still CC-501 error with "Schwab & Co" and as with the other account I can link it to "Investor -C" but the account is not listed in the "link to existing account" drop down.
Why do I think Quicken has done nothing to fix this in a week?
I can't imagine anyone signing up for renewal ( mine is due in February) unless this is fixed quickly.
Just think, being a loyal Quicken customer for almost 30 years get me what???
A big fat ZERO!!

My expectation for MFO members is that alternative funds are not necessarily a bright spot for money over the years. AND if one doesn't hold at least 10% of a portfolio in an alternative fund, any gain or loss is noise; and of little benefit to the portfolio.

Two good points @catch22. But...
1) I agree alts have not been a bright spot in the past, but I'm not confident in the traditional diversifier, bonds, being a bright spot going forward. It's possible bond funds may return zero% or worst. Use bond funds as a diversifier in a portfolio? Ok, but maybe you can do the same with a couple alternative funds. For me 'some' of these alts are an alternative to traditional bond funds, not equity or balanced funds). My expectation is they return what we have expected from core bond funds or even HY funds in the past.
2) Your 10% rule - I agree. I try not to be a fund collector or toe-dipper into a bunch of funds, but I see the term "alternative" as some what different than owning multiple similar-type traditional category funds. Alternative has such a diverse spread of style application. I think you can own a couple of these alt funds with differing approaches totaling 10% or more and get the average return you are looking for. In my case, FWIW, my sleeve of 3 alt funds total close to 20% of my self managed portfolio. Again, this is taking the place of traditional bond funds with the same return expectation of what core bond funds returned in the past.
I'll add, 30% of my self managed port is in 3 balanced funds, PRWCX easily the bulk of that, so I still have bonds in that aspect. Will alts work as bond alternatives? I'll let you know :)

@catch22, Thanks for the chart. I was not sure, with the chart, if you were agreeing with my statement that until the beginning of Covid, it performed more or less similar to a good High Yield bond fund or you wanted me to see some other aspect I had not mentioned. Please spell it out. Interestingly, pre March / April 2020, JHQAX was pretty anchored to ARTFX but after that date interest rates have only gone up and JHQAX accelerated higher from ARTFX - may be that just proved JHQAX's worth as a good replacement for (HY) bond funds, which per MikeM was part of the i(e)nquiry in this forum earlier this year.
Your comments: "My expectation for MFO members is that alternative funds are not necessarily a bright spot for money over the years."
If you meant the above for the future, please share your thoughts on why.
"AND if one doesn't hold at least 10% of a portfolio in an alternative fund, any gain or loss is noise; and of little benefit to the portfolio."
I am deducing from your statement that you do not expect JHQAX's historic 10% per year (not compounded) return (somewhat lower return, pre-Covid) to continue. But do you expect it to perform worse than a good HY fund, say, ARTFX? I am not one to quibble about predictions about the future but it would be helpful to know your thoughts. I am going to divert some of my bond (low volatility) sleeve to this fund. I do not own any dedicated investment grade fixed income.
I am not a big fan of alternative funds in general because a lot of them are idiosyncratic and potentially have a large range of outcomes. I experimented with a few of them over the years and never felt I understood their behavior. The last one I owned was an AQR fund - some 15% of my portfolio - I can not say I understood that fund at anytime of my ownership. JHQAX is very simple and its relative outcomes are reasonably predictable - or let us say, I understand it as well as any equity or bond fund I currently own. For the relative low volatility it is expected to have, I owning >10% of portfolio in JHQAX is not a problem.

BaluBalu
JHQAX
Per your initial post:

As an aside, its performance from inception (2014) until the beginning of Covid is about the same (more or less) as a good high yield fund but bond funds had falling rates as a tail wind - may be not a fair comparison.

Being curious, the below chart; starting at inception of JHQAX:
ARTFX is a decent active managed HY fund, SPY for a standard equity view and FBALX.
CHART
Your Dec. 9 post:

Upon my search of MFO site, I am surprised to learn only three posters (incl @carew388) indicated owning this fund. I would have thought it would have a wider ownership among MFO posters.

My expectation for MFO members is that alternative funds are not necessarily a bright spot for money over the years. AND if one doesn't hold at least 10% of a portfolio in an alternative fund, any gain or loss is noise; and of little benefit to the portfolio.
Remain curious,
Catch

I've owned the fund since March. There was a lot of talk about alternative funds at the start of 2021. The discussion in part was what might take the place of bond funds moving forward. That is where I first heard of it. Also mentioned at the time was that it was about to close, so after some research and comparison to other alternative funds and ETF's mentioned I dove into JHQAX. Options trading has been interesting and doing well for a while now. It was also different to anything else I owned. I don't have the time or experience to play options myself so this fund seemed perfect for addition to my alternative sleeve in my self managed portfolio (along with TMSRX and CTFAX). The fund has been a great buy since purchase.
I hold it in my tax deferred IRA so I know nothing about the tax ramifications.
What do I expect from it? I expect it to out-perform bonds, high yield or otherwise, with just slightly more risk. It has averaged about 13+% per year over the last 3 years but I don't expect it to duplicate that return in the next 3-5 years. I expect volatility to be low. In the past 3 years the funds STD has been ~7% compared to SPY at ~18%. Going forward, 60-70% of the S&P 500 return with 1/2 the down side in a bear market would be good I think.
FWIW, so far I really like the fund.

Cathie Wood worked in the hedge fund business in the past.

In 1998, along with Lulu C. Wang, Wood co-founded Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund based in New York City

Many fund managers have disciplined buy and sell processes with a holding period of 5 years or longer. Also the positions are built on multiple buys without rising the stock prices.

I think most fund investors (self included) are very “fickle” today. If a fund disappoints over a few months or a year they’re ready to pull money out. So, the more volatility that’s associated with a fund the more likely it is to experience these swings in investor commitment. And, being forced to unload assets during poor markets is never a good thing for the manager or the stalwarts who stick with the fund. Wood’s approach might work better in a hedge fund where minimum holding periods are sometimes stipulated. BTW - one reason for the success of PRWCX over many years is that it’s not the kind of high octane fund that invites a lot of hot money flows in and out.
As investors today it might be a good idea to consider the growing impact short sellers are exerting on some targeted equities.

Sorry if I sounded ungrateful! Agree Giroux is always worth listening to. Just trying to summarize the interview for those who didn’t have chance to view it. First time I’ve watched CNBC in a couple years. On Bloomberg interviews are a mixed bag - some brief and others very detailed.