Independence Day

Happy July 4th from La Cucina Sabina! Actually, I am writing this Musing from Florida, but by the time you read it, my family and I will be learning to cook at the La Cucina Sabina culinary villa, which is 30 miles north of Rome. The villa owes its name, Tartaruga Sabina, to the family Micheletta's love for turtles (tartaruga is turtle in Italian, and Sabina is the name of the region). Today the villa is surrounded by 1,000 olive trees and produces some of the finest olive oil in the world. It combines the comfort and elegance of an Italian villa set among rolling olive groves, a great chef teaching traditional and contemporary Italian recipes AND the breathtaking beauty, culture and fun of Rome.

Long time readers of my Musings know that July 4^th is always a celebratory time in my family. As a reminder, my father was born on July 4^th, and remarkably, the year after he died, my eldest granddaughter Micaela was born on the exact same day! Also, my younger daughter Dana and her husband Kenji were married on July 4^th as well! So, clearly, we all love July 4^th.

Dana and Kenji's - July 4, 1998

This July is extra special though – Micaela will be celebrating her 18^th birthday and Dana and Kenji will be celebrating their 20^thwedding anniversary. Since this is the case, I decided to celebrate my October birthday a few months early and the entire family is headed to Italy to celebrate the 4^th. My surviving brother and sisters (and their spouses) are joining us too. I plan to take a small jar of my dad’s famous BBQ sauce …maybe to put on our eggs; but I guess we’ll have to survive on amazing pasta and wine….plus all the gelato my grandkids can eat!

The last time this many members of our family were together to celebrate a “destination birthday,” we were in Memphis for my mom’s 80^th, nearly 17 years ago. We rented out rooms at the famous Peabody Hotel and watched the ducks stroll through the lobby

My mom was so happy to have the family together that she purchased presents for everyone else, even though we were supposed to be giving presents to her! That was the kind of person my mom was, generous and kind always. Plus, it’s the Chinese tradition that the elder gives a gift to her children who host the birthday celebration of their elders. Bruce still uses the Mont Blanc pen that she gave him on that occasion. My treat to the family is the week at La Cacina Sabina!

Family dinner at La Cucina Sabina

Margaret and Bruce making Pizza

I’m proud to again celebrate being on the Barron’s 2018 Top 100 Women Advisors list....now since 2007. In Barron’s (June 9 ) and WSJ (June 12) I was featured with my picture and an interview “Cash is the Key to Success”. If the link doesn’t work, we have reprints in my office.

Changes...

In other news, GE was removed from the Dow last week, following in the footsteps of Alcoa, AT&T, Bank of America, and Hewlett Packard. Though GE’s recent performance justifies the move, this is the ending of an era, as GE was the final original member left in the Index.

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC.

Source : Barron’s “Top 1,200 Financial Advisors,” DATE, XXXX. Barron’s is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company, L.P. All rights reserved. The rankings are based on data provided by over 4,000 individual advisors and their firms and include qualitative and quantitative criteria. Data points that relate to quality of practice include professionals with a minimum of 7 years financial services experience, acceptable compliance records, client retention reports, charitable and philanthropic work, quality of practice, designations held, offering services beyond investments offered including estates and trusts, and more. Financial Advisors are quantitatively rated based on varying types of revenues produced and assets under management by the financial professional, with weightings associated for each. Investment performance is not an explicit component because not all advisors have audited results and because performance figures often are influenced more by clients’ risk tolerance than by an advisor’s investment picking abilities. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisor’s future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. Barron’s is not affiliated with Raymond James. Rankings are comprised of wirehouses, independent and RIA advisors; individual advisors not required to be individually registered in FINRA.

The FT 400 was developed in collaboration with Ignites Research, a subsidiary of the FT that provides specialized content on asset management. To qualify for the list, advisers had to have 10 years of experience and at least $300 million in assets under management (AUM). The FT then invited a list of just under 1,000 advisors to complete a survey used to obtain more information on the advisors practices. 400 qualified advisers were then scored on six attributes: AUM, AUM growth rate, compliance record, experience, industry certifications and online accessibility. AUM is the top factor, accounting for roughly 60-70 percent of the applicant’s score. Additionally, to provide a diversity of advisors, the FT placed a cap on the number of advisors from any one state that's roughly correlated to the distribution of millionaires across the U.S. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisor’s future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. The FT is not affiliated with Raymond James.

The Forbes ranking of America’s Top Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors with a minimum of seven years of experience. Ranking algorithm is based on quality of practice, including: telephone and in-person interviews, client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criteria because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC which does not receive compensation from the advisors or their firms in exchange for placement on the ranking. Research Summary (as of DATE XXXX): (Insert total amount) Advisor nominations were received, based on thresholds. (Insert total amount) Advisors were invited to complete the online survey. (Insert total amount) Advisors were interviewed by telephone. (Insert total amount) Advisors were interviewed in-person at the Advisors’ location. Final list of the top (Insert total amount) Advisors was then compiled based upon the quantitative criteria. Raymond James is not affiliated with Forbes or Shook Research, LLC. This ranking is not indicative of advisor’s future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients’ experience. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating.

Here are America's top women financial advisors, as identified by Barron's. The ranking reflects the volume of assets overseen by the advisors and their teams, revenues generated for the firms and the quality of the advisors' practices. The scoring system assigns a top score of 100 and rates the rest by comparing them with the top-ranked advisor. A ranking of "N" indicates the advisor was not ranked in the specified year.