Global Wealth Report 2015

Now in its sixth edition, the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information on global household wealth. This year, the United States continued adding to global wealth at an impressive rate, with solid growth also evident in China. Elsewhere, local currency wealth gains were offset by depreciation against the US dollar, so that world wealth declined overall by USD 12.4 trillion. The share of financial assets rose again as a percentage of total wealth and may help explain why wealth inequality is edging upwards. The top 1% of wealth holders now own half of all household wealth. Read more at:Credit Suisse

Financials for US Financial Institutions

The FDIC Institution Directory (ID) provides the latest comprehensive financial and demographic data for every FDIC-insured institution, including the most recent quarterly financial statements, with performance and condition ratios.

Use the FDIC Institution Directory to:

Find Bank Holding Companies

Identify the Regulatory Top Holder of FDIC-insured Subsidiaries
Identify all insured institutions owned by a bank holding company
Look up summary financial information of the insured institutions owned by a bank holding company

Find Institutions

Look up demographic and financial information on any bank or thrift insured by the FDIC
List FDIC insured banks and thrifts by location, size or other characteristics
Trace inactive (closed) banks to their successor institutions
Download Institution Lists and Summary Financial Reports displayed on a screen

Find Offices

Look up the locations of all offices (branches) of banks or thrifts insured by the FDIC Download lists of offices.

2010 Annual Survey of State Government Finances

Total state government revenue increased to $2.0 trillion in 2010, up 79.0 percent from $1.1 trillion in 2009, resulting mainly from large increases in social insurance trust revenue, according to the latest findings from the U.S. Census Bureau [PDF]. After a substantial loss in earnings in 2009, trust systems showed earnings of $450.5 billion in 2010, a gain of 218.2 percent over the year before.

Two major sources make up these trust systems: (1) employee retirement systems and (2) federal and state social insurance trust systems, which include the unemployment compensation system, state government worker's compensation programs, Social Security, Medicare, veteran's life insurance and railroad retirement.

Earnings on these systems vary widely year to year because state retirement systems invest heavily in financial markets and respond to shifts in market performance.

View the publication page for summary, tax, lottery and other data.

100 Great Ways to Spend Your Gap Year

Taking a time off for financial or personal reasons has become increasingly common amongst college students. But many worry that these gap years in between semesters or degrees may lead to lessened productivity and a compromised professional and academic future. This obviously doesn’t have to be the case! Free of scholastic shackles, students taking a year or 2 away from school have plenty of amazing opportunities to learn more about themselves and the world, make a difference in society, network, channel their creativity and intellect, and even earn a bit of extra money without making a commitment to a full-time position. Time away from school does not equate to time away from personal growth and opportunities to gain valuable experience to bolster their future careers.

Planning for College Financially

Data Detective Dale pointed this out to me. He thinks this is important to share, and I quite concur. Moreover, this being the graduation season, it’s timely !

He has discovered that many parents are quite surprised about how much they are expected to contribute to their kids’ college costs. Dale writes, "This is referred to as their Expected Family Contribution (EFC). What typically happens is that parents bumble along (I know we did) until their child is a junior in HS and then they go through the process of applying to colleges and for financial aid at the FAFSA.gov website when WHAM >>>> - they get a reality check upside the head when it comes to how much the federal government thinks THEY can contribute toward attending school." I can imagine there are MANY parents sitting in financial aid offices with tears in their eyes over this.

What can the schools or government do to reduce this sticker shock when it comes to EFCs? Dale notes, "Figuring out financial aid has always been a bit of a 'black box'. You put a bunch of numbers in and out comes your EFC with no understanding of what it is or how it comes about.

"Lo and behold, there is now a way to determine your EFC at the FAFSA website. It is called fafsa4caster. Basically you can punch in info for the current year as though your child were applying to a college right now, and get an EFC figured out for you. It takes maybe 15 minutes to do and requires you to answer a TON of questions, including tax and investment questions. (I estimated some just playing around with the website to see how it works, you could do the same if you wanted to get a ballpark EFC for your family.)

"Regardless, it is exactly what I have always maintained people should be able to do. Even better, it allows people to see their EFC right now, even if their kids are young and not even in kindergarten, let alone high school or college. So my challenge to everyone is to try it, and be prepared to hear the collective gasps of parents or perspective parents around the web as they see what their EFC actually is !

"OK, go to http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf and pick option "B" to get started. Remember, you’ll need some basics like your adjusted gross income and how much you paid in taxes last year. Having other info, like any 529 Education account balances, or 401K contributions is also good to have. But even in the worst case, you can just punch in some estimates to see what ballpark your EFC will fall in."

Dale believes that putting this information on this site "could help people reassess what they are doing to prepare for their kids' futures!"

Six EIU free/gratis reports

Marketing, sales and customer service don’t share information, according to Economist Intelligence Unit surveys. A series of surveys across six industries— financial services, technology, telecommunications, utilities, consumer goods and retail —reveals that most companies still fall short when trying to deliver value consistently in all the functions that interact with customers.

Important financial info for consumers

The Federal Reserve Publications Catalog is a treasure chest of 100's of free brochures.
Sort by date to get the latest.

Important financial info for consumers

The Federal Reserve Publications Catalog is a treasure chest of 100's of free brochures.
Sort by date to get the latest.

Current Trends in State Finances

Rockefeller Institute of Government researchers analyzed current state fiscal conditions in recent presentations to the National Tax Association, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston/Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the National Education Writers Association. View the presentations on the State and Local Government Finance section.

Foreclosures increase 8% in January 2008

RealtyTrac®, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its January 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ this week, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 233,001 properties during the month, an increase of 8 percent from the previous month and an increase of nearly 57 percent from January 2007.

Rockefeller Fiscal Report for State Governments

Looking at the past five recessions, Rockefeller Institute Senior Fellow Donald J. Boyd addresses the question — "What could happen now to state government finances in a recession?" Data are presented on all 50 states. To read the report, go here.
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Publication 58 (1/08), Information for Income tax Return Preparers for tax year 2007.

Industry and Company Ratios website

This is a common question for our clients going into business.

The roster is specific to the title access on the campus of origin, but seems fairly useful.