Condor Capital - Investment Advisor

Welcome to the March 2009 issue of Condor Monthly!

This issue is now available online along with an archive of past issues. To access past Condor Monthly and Condor Newsletters, just click on the link below or copy & paste the link into your favorite browser.

http://condorcapital.com/pages/news-info/online-reading.php

Please continue below to view the "From the Portfolio Manager" and "Financial Planning Corner" segments in this month's issue.

From the Portfolio Manager

Fixed Income Opportunities

Under "normal" market conditions, the equity markets and the credit markets typically have low correlation to one another. Meaning, a decline in one usually does not signify a decline in the other. However, as we all know neither 2008 nor 2009 have demonstrated "normal" market conditions. Investors saw monumental declines in both equity and fixed income markets in 2008, leaving them searching for safety, which many found in US Treasuries and CDs. However, as many investors pulled money out of the riskier areas of the bond market, such as corporate and municipal bonds, and flooded into treasuries, spreads have become extremely wide. Spreads are the differences in yields between non-Treasury investments and comparable Treasuries, or US government securities. These wide spreads have led to investment opportunities, particularly in high quality corporate and municipal bonds.

We have attached an article from JennisonDryden Mutual Funds highlighting the opportunities that currently exist in the fixed income markets. For the most part, our fixed income strategy already emphasizes investment-grade corporate and high-quality municipal bonds, so we feel that we are well-positioned. If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

The attached article will require Adobe Acrobat Reader to open. Most computers have this installed already. If you don't have this program, it is available for free at: http://get.adobe.com/reader/.

Please click here to view the article

Financial Planning Corner

Temporary Suspension of RMD Rules in 2009

Late last year, the President signed into law the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008. This act suspends required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2009 in IRAs and employer-sponsored defined contribution plans. This applies to both RMDs during the account owner's lifetime as well as after-death RMDs of beneficiaries. Prior to this act, once an owner of a retirement account turns 70 ½, they must begin taking yearly RMDs from the account, which are calculated by using the account value as of December 31st of the previous year divided by the account owner's life expectancy.

The Act is intended to allow retirement accounts time to recover from the unmatched 2008 market downfall. For people with limited income, it may still be beneficial to continue to withdraw from an IRA or employer-sponsored defined contribution plan to optimize low-tax brackets. Only people who do not need the income or can replace it from other sources (i.e. increasing distributions from a taxable account) should take advantage of the RMD suspension.

Normal RMD rules will resume for the 2010 calendar year and beyond. For more information on the temporary suspension of RMD rules and/or how this may apply to your individual situation, please contact our office.

How much is $1 Trillion?

President Obama's stimulus plan could cost more than $1 trillion. This hefty amount is unheard of, and many Americans are finding it hard to simply wrap their mind around this $1 trillion amount. US Global Investors recently distributed a list that puts this dollar amount in perspective.