10 Ways to Improve Your Finances Before Year-End - Bloomberg

10 Ways to Improve Your Finances Before Year-End

By Ben Steverman - Dec 12, 2011 11:43 AM ET

 

• http://www.bloomberg.com/money-gallery/2011-12-12/10-ways-to-improve-your-finances-before-year-end.html#slide8 

Reevaluate Risk

Chris Walters, executive vice president at CitizensTrust, is using the end of the year to discuss with clients how many risky assets, such as stocks, they can handle in their portfolios. In this market, "clients are getting bounced all over the place," he says. "If it's really stressing them out, then do they need to pull back?" One problem is the uncertainty in the financial and geopolitical outlook. "If it's driving you crazy now, it's going to drive you crazy in six months too," he says.

YOUR PRACTICE: Tap shrinks, coaches to avoid estate battles | Reuters

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/10/31/wealth-familydynamics-idINN1E79R0K320111031

YOUR PRACTICE: Tap shrinks, coaches to avoid estate battles

Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:21pm IST

*50 percent of advisers fail to keep wealth, study says

*Some firms hiring psychologists to address problems

By Jessica Toonkel

Oct 31 (Reuters)-- A few years ago, wealth adviser Chris Walters found himself in an impossible situation. After a client died, he had to divide the estate between two ex-wives, one widow and four children, each of whom felt they hadn't received a fair share.

"It was highly contentious and was one of those situations that could have been avoided had there been some legwork earlier on," Walters said.

The psychological aspects of wealth management aren't exactly taught in Adviser 101 and wealth managers too often tiptoe around topics that could be controversial.

But frank discussions about who gets what, how family businesses will to be run and other financial decisions are key if the family wants to keep its wealth, and advisers are increasingly making these discussions a vital part of their practice.

U.S. Bank's Ascent Private Capital Management, for one, has hired a psychologist to address "family dynamics issues."

The new private wealth business, which is targeting clients with at least $25 million in assets, expects will bring on more counselors as it expands, said Mark Jordahl, president of U.S. Bancorp Wealth Management Group.

"We really think having a psychologist on staff will differentiate us," he said.

DAUNTING ODDS

Whenever multiple generations are dealing with significant assets, advisers have to navigate complicated relationships. The complexities are often compounded by blended families and family-owned businesses.

"Estate planning is always a potentially contentious situation, that's why trust companies exist," said Walters, president of CitizensTrust, the private banking arm of Pasadena, California-based Citizens Business Bank, which has $1.7 billion in assets under management.

Avoiding controversial topics exacerbates future problems, he said.

"They are so focused on the math, that they miss some of the issues," he said. "You can have the best investment management plan in the world, but it can all be for naught if the family can't agree on a plan."

The odds of a wealthy family being able to make their money last from generation to generation are daunting.

Seventy percent of wealthy families fail to sustain their level of assets for two to three generations, according to the Institute for Preparing Heirs, which trains advisers on how to deal with wealth transfer issues.

This is often because the family does not agree or have a plan on how it will manage its wealth, advisers said.

And for advisers, the mere existence of generational wealth can be a business killer. Fifty percent of client assets leave a financial adviser when there is a transfer of wealth from one generation to the next, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2011 Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey.

MISSION STATEMENT

Broaching the topic of what clients are going to do with their money when they pass is delicate. And it isn't exactly easy to suggest that a family go see a counselor.

For his part, Walters doesn't tell a family that he thinks they may need a family psychologist outright. Instead, he tries to illustrate how such resources have helped other families in similar situations.

For example, if Walters has a family that can't agree about how the family business will be run after the first generation passes, he will often say something like, "we had another family in this situation and they met with a family coach to figure things out, and that really helped."

GenSpring Family Offices, which services families with at least $25 million in investable assets, has clients take a survey to assess each member's goals and relationships to money. Then the family together creates a "mission statement" on to handle the wealth, said Daisy Medici, director of governance at GenSpring.

"That way if somewhere down the line a family member decides he or she wants to do something else with the money, the family can say 'that's not in the mission statement," she said.

Even for families who don't get along, having these kinds of clear strategies can be helpful, she said.

"We had one family who had a lot of problems and we said to them, 'look you have to just do these meetings, come up with a plan and stick to it. But you don't have to go out and have dinner after,'" she said. "And that worked."

GETTING HELP

For financial advisers who don't have the time or expertise to handle complicated family issues, there are places to turn.

In addition to a two-day training course for financial advisers on how to handle family issues, The Institute for Preparing Heirs is putting together a family coach registry advisers can use to tap experts on matters like dealing with blended families, said Diane Doolin, founding director of the Institute for Preparing Heirs.

The registry will be up by year-end and will start with 50 family coaches. The coaches are not psychologists but have experience with these issues, she said.

At least one bank believes having psychologists on staff will help it win ultra high-net-worth clients.

U.S. Bank's Ascent has hired Amy Zehnder as its "wealth dynamics consultant." Zehnder, who works with a variety of clients -- including high-net-worth families in private practice, said that the main challenge is just getting people to talk about money.

When an adviser refers a family to Zehnder she will generally work with them once a month for 12 to 18 months. She tries to get families to understand each member's differences and she helps them design a plan on which they can agree.

As part of the process, Zehnder, along with the adviser, will meet with each family member for four to six hours individually.

The price tag depends on the level of assets the client has with the bank. For investors who don't work with the bank such a financial-psychological program can cost between $200,000 and $250,000, she said.

Of course, not all advisers believe a staff psychologist is necessary, as long as you have professionals that you can refer a family to when needed.

"I have worked with over 200 families since I came to GenSpring and there have been only three times I have had to refer them to a counselor," Medici said. (Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Chelsea Emery)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576583011082262384.html

October 4, 2011, 4:04 p.m. ET

ADVISER ALERT

News for Brokers, Wealth Managers And Their Clients

Pushing for the Full Picture

Once in a while, sometimes years into the relationship, one of Chris Walters's clients will mention holding an investment Mr. Walters didn't know existed.

Clients may withhold information out of distrust or forgetfulness—and some advisers don't probe too hard "for fear of overstepping their role," says Mr. Walters, the head of CitizensTrust, the wealth-management unit of Citizens Business Bank, Ontario, Calif.

But advisers can do a better job if they know all the facts. And by asking more questions, Mr. Walters and other financial pros say they win clients' loyalty and a shot at becoming the "quarterback" among a client's multiple advisers.

Clients like advisers who take a broad view, says Rob Clarfeld of Clarfeld Financial Advisors in Tarrytown, N.Y. "You're the only one looking at things in a holistic way."

Still, some clients are hesitant to be fully open. Kurt Rozman of Rozman Wealth Management in Brookfield, Wis., tries this strategy on them: He asks in detail about their goals and talks about how having a complete picture of their financial lives will help to get them there.

Seeking Income Solutions

Income strategies such as annuities and systematic-withdrawal plans are attracting a bigger share of assets rolled over from 401(k)s and other employer-sponsored retirement plans, a Spectrem Group Inc. study found.

This year, about 10% of rolled-over assets went into an income strategy, up from about 4% in 2000, Spectrem says.

Of the money that went into income strategies in 2011, 43% went into systematic-withdrawal plans, where a financial firm provides periodic payments from an investor's portfolio.

Some 31% went into annuities; 22% went into a structured portfolio, primarily fixed income; and 4% went into other solutions.

Written by Dow Jones Newswires writers Thomas Coyle (thomas.coyle@dowjones.com) and Daisy Maxey (daisy.maxey@dowjones.com).

Brokerages next big threat? Portfolios-to-go - InvestmentNews

http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20110408/FREE/110409923

Brokerages next big threat? Portfolios-to-go

Some say cheap, prepackaged investment models could do to financial advisers what Expedia did to travel agents

 

April 8, 2011 7:30 am ET

 

Andy Cohen, 47, uses exchange-traded fund portfolios recommended by MarketRiders Inc. to manage his retirement plan and children's college savings. He's charged about $10 a month.

“I don't have enough money that I have a dedicated wealth manager,” said Cohen, who lives in San Mateo, California, and is chief executive officer of Caring.com, which offers resources for children helping aging parents. “It got me a much more diversified portfolio than I could have ever done on my own.”The next thundering herd on Wall Street may be the ranks of low-cost portfolio managers such as MarketRiders and Folio Investing, which cater to self-directed investors like Cohen. Sites that sell prepackaged portfolios have attracted more than $3 billion in assets over the last three years as more investors leave their full-service brokers.“Individual investors have started to realize they can actually do some things as self-directed investors reasonably well, if they're given a platform that allows them to invest more intelligently,” said Steven Wallman, chief executive officer of Folio Investing, where investors can purchase predesigned and customized index portfolios for $29 a month.Some of the firms, such as Flat Fee Portfolios, are too new to have any performance history. MarketRiders can't track the actual performance of its customers' accounts, since it doesn't have custody of their assets. Covestor and Wealthfront Inc., which give users access to third-party investors, publish performance history for the managers they work with on their sites.“Who are the people that are advising me when I'm going to a faceless website?” said Chris Walters, head of wealth management for Pasadena, California-based CitizensTrust. He said investors should be concerned by the lack of performance history available from some of the firms. Losing ClientsBank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the top two full-service brokerages by client assets, had combined outflows of about $150 billion during 2009, the most recent year for which data is available, and about 10,600 financial advisers left the firms that year, according to Aite Group, a Boston-based research firm. Merrill Lynch hasn't seen a trend of investors leaving the broker, said Selena Morris, a spokeswoman for the bank.“The number one source of accounts is what we would refer to as full-commission brokers,” said Peter Sidebottom, executive vice president of product, marketing and client experience for Omaha, Nebraska-based TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., which caters to do-it-yourself investors.'Wolfgang Puck Express'Traditional brokerages are focusing more on their wealthiest clients in an effort to improve profitability, so the customers leaving these firms tend to be the ones with the smallest accounts, said Katharine Wolf, senior analyst for Cerulli Associates, a Boston-based research firm.“They're not looking to target a client that has, say, under $250,000 to invest,” she said.Those investors are potential customers for services such as Flat Fee Portfolios, which began opening accounts in February. Clients with assets of less than $250,000 are offered several predesigned portfolios with an annual review for a fee of $129 a month.It's the “Wolfgang Puck Express” of portfolio management, said Mark Cortazzo, founder of Flat Fee Portfolios, referring to the celebrity chef who sells gourmet dishes for low prices at his fast-food restaurants. The portfolios are managed by Macro Consulting Group in Parsippany, New Jersey.“It's for people who want good quality asset management,” at a price that is “accessible to a much wider demographic,” he said. The firm charges $199 a month and provides semiannual reviews for accounts with at least $250,000.Lack of ControlAt Hedgeable Inc., investors can choose from among 20 different exchange-traded fund or stock model portfolios. Fees for the service, which began opening accounts through its website in December, range from 0.75 percent to 1.5 percent. Investors like the transparency of the Web-based business models, said Mike Kane, founder of the New York-based firm.“Traditionally in the investment advisory world you hand over to your adviser say $100,000, and they invest it how they see fit. You meet with them once a quarter or once a year and you really don't have any control beyond that,” Kane said. Hedgeable investors can view up-to-date account information including transactions and holdings on their mobile phones, he said.E-Mail ExchangeSome of the services leave investors in control of their assets and others take discretionary authority over client accounts. With Flat Fee Portfolios, managers have discretion over client assets. MarketRiders gives advice on investment decisions, such as rebalancing, and investors may then choose whether to apply it to their own brokerage accounts. Other than Folio Investing, which is a broker-dealer, all of the firms are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as investment advisers.“The beauty of it for me is that monthly e-mail that just says ‘Here's how to do it,'” said Cohen, who has been using MarketRiders for about two years. “If I didn't get that e-mail I'd never do it.”Prepackaged portfolios from Folio Investing may contain individual stocks, mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. The McLean, Virginia-based company's moderate portfolio for investors planning on retiring in 2040 is composed of 10 exchange-traded funds and notes that track stocks, real-estate investment trusts and commodities, including the PowerShares QQQ fund, which follows the Nasdaq-100 stock index.That portfolio returned 3 percent annualized over the three years to April 6, compared with average returns of 1.3 percent for 2040 target-date mutual funds, according to Folio Investing and Morningstar data.Hedge FundCovestor, which began managing money in November 2009, tracks the portfolios of about 30,000 users who choose to make their investment actions viewable to others on the site, and users may have their accounts track the trades of about 150 pre- screened managers on the site.“It's like an open-source hedge fund,” said Perry Blacher, chief executive officer of London-based Covestor. Some of the managers on the Covestor site are professional investment advisers registered with the SEC and some aren't. The managers range from Atlas Capital Advisors, a San Francisco-based registered investment adviser that manages $175 million for high-net-worth investors, to “an ophthalmologist in Wisconsin,” Blacher said.Global Reach“Investors should always be very careful to check out the people providing investment advice,” said Patricia Struck, administrator for the division of securities of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, “especially when what they're giving you is not tailored to your needs.” SEC spokeswoman Florence Harmon declined to comment on the Covestor business model.These sites don't represent a competitive threat to traditional brokerages, said Jim Wiggins, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.“People don't come to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney for discount trading,” he said. “They come for professional money management and to access some of the products and services that are only available through a global investment bank.” He declined to provide the range of fees full-service brokerage customers pay.‘Cookie-Cutter Approach'MarketRiders, based in Palo Alto, California, has $2.7 billion in user portfolios. Traditional brokerages had about $4.7 trillion in assets under management at the end of 2009 and account for about 38 percent of all U.S. wealth-management assets, according to Aite data. Folio Investing, which is closely held, has “multiple billions” invested, said Wallman, who wouldn't provide a specific figure. Covestor's Blacher, who wouldn't disclose assets, said the company is gaining about 15 percent in assets each month.“I have yet to see a cookie-cutter approach that is as appropriate as a customized approach, and that's what you give up when you go to one of these types of services,” said Walters of CitizensTrust, which is the wealth-management division of Ontario, Canada-based Citizens Business Bank. Walters's firm has an average client account size of $4 million. Wealthfront Inc., which started in October 2009, lets users invest as little as $10,000 among 40 different registered investment advisers who normally have account minimums of $1 million. The firm has about $180 million in assets invested through its site.Mass Management“We're trying to deliver institutional-class asset management to the masses,” said Andy Rachleff, chief executive officer of Palo Alto, California-based Wealthfront. He said the firm chooses investment managers to participate the same way endowments do, by examining managers' historical trade details rather than just their performance history. Rachleff is the vice chairman of the University of Pennsylvania's endowment investment committee.Wealthfront managers have returned an average of 30 percent from the site's start in October 2009 through Feb. 18, compared with a 27 percent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The managers charge average fees of 1.3 percent.Richard Ferri, founder of Troy, Michigan-based Portfolio Solutions, builds index fund and exchange-traded fund portfolios for clients and rebalances them periodically for a fee of 25 basis points. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. Rebalancing during times of market turmoil may add about one percentage point to returns annually, he said. The firm has almost $1 billion in assets under management.Saving MoneyInvestors could save more money on their investments and improve their returns by skipping services such as MarketRiders and making decisions themselves, said Burton Malkiel, professor of economics at Princeton University and author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.” The 10th edition of the book was published in January.He recommends investors hold a mix of the Vanguard Total World Stock Index exchange-traded fund and a broad-market bond exchange-traded fund such as the iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond Fund or the Vanguard Total Bond Market exchange-traded fund, and rebalance annually.“I don't want to pay 25 basis points to anybody to do that for me,” said Malkiel.--Bloomberg News--

Business Students to Invest Real Money

http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/ci_17703205

The New Normal?

“It’s Different This Time”

These are four words that should be banned from the investment lexicon.  We heard it in the late nineties when the “new economy” was predicted to lay waste to the old model that solid fundamentals and profits were necessary components for growth in stock valuations. The bursting of the Tech Bubble in early 2000 showed that it was, much to the surprise of the vox populi, not different that time.

Over and over again, the financial media is replete with articles and interviews that profess that the current situation – a snapshot in time – is the new constant. To support the message they cite an unremitting string of experts all confirming that the world has changed, the old theories are banal and that “it is different this time”.  Don’t be fooled.

The financial markets are a complex, dynamic organism.  The averages are never the actual result and any one of a series of exogenous events can cause the markets to surge forward or retreat as the case may be.  That said, the Law of Large Numbers tells us that markets – however volatile they may be right now – will perform in a certain way over a longer period of time.  Moreover, it is statistically important that we have had these tumultuous markets to provide additional support for more stable markets going forward.

The current debate is whether the tried-and-true asset allocation philosophy is somehow passé. Again, I would caution you against falling for this specious argument.  Harry Markowitz, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), established mathematical certainty for the need to diversify.  One of the major tenets of MPT is that an efficient portfolio is one that is diversified among different asset classes. The concept of diversification is that these various assets classes will not go up in tandem nor will the go down in tandem, thereby smoothing out the returns of the collective portfolio.  In other words, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket; sound advice in any environment.  Yet, the new argument that you will be hearing is that this strategy will no longer work.  The major claim against traditional asset allocation is that, with a global marketplace, correlations have converged to the point that the strategy of diversification has lost its effectiveness.  Said another way, the asset classes (foreign and domestic, big companies and little companies, traditional and non-traditional asset classes) now move together so closely that the value of having one investment zig while the other is zagging is no longer possible. While it is true that the benefits of multi-asset class investing have been muted in recent years, it is nonetheless a cornerstone of intelligent investing and will remain so.  Studies show that the correlations between asset classes are very dynamic; they change from year to year for a litany of reasons.  One thing is clear, in periods of high volatility – such as we are presently experiencing – correlations converge. So the current behavior of asset classes to move together is not anomalous but rather is it quite consistent with empirical evidence that these interactions are very fluid and will change from market to market, economic cycle to economic cycle, etc.

Another controversial theory that is gaining attention is that it is bonds, rather than stocks, that will perform the best over the long run.  Again, much of the support for this argument depends on the aphorism that “it’s different this time”. As support for this argument the pundits are showing that, for the past 40 years, the relative return of bonds has beaten those of stocks. Why 40 years instead of 50 years? What if we would have run those calculations last year, or the year before? Is the result the same or is it only during certain 40 year periods?  The convenient part of the last 40 years is that it ended with an equity market that had one of its worst years on record.  Furthermore, within that period of time, runaway inflation resulted in interest rates at levels we will likely not see again in our lifetime. Notwithstanding, it is because of the poor performance of stocks over the past 18 months that investors should consider them in their portfolio today.  It was the low of 1932 that formed the foundation of the tremendous returns earned over the following five, ten, twenty and thirty years.

In August of 1979, the cover of Business Week suggested the death of equities.  Over the next year the S&P 500 had appreciated by 16%, over the next five years its annualized return was over 20%; hardly the death of the asset class.

The vicissitudes of the stock market require a watchful eye.  It is not enough to just buy a collection of stocks and hold them for the long term. You must be diligent in your approach, mindful of your exposures and strategic in your asset class decisions.  And take heart; the principles of successful investing are not that transitory.  It is NOT different this time.

Originally published in the Orange County Business Journal April 13, 2009

Tax Worries Coloring Investment Decisions - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703418004575455533507633368.html

Worries Over Tax Hikes Coloring Business Decisions

By JOHN D. MCKINNON, BEN LEVISOHN And JUSTIN LAHART

The uncertainty over looming tax increases is starting to affect both investing and corporate decision-making.
The economy remains the biggest factor in many investors' and businesses' decisions. But worries over whether Congress will extend some of the expiring Bush-era tax breaks are emerging as another important one.
Stock prices of utilities, for example, recently have appeared to be factoring in the possibility of significantly higher dividend taxes next year, several analysts say. Some companies are pumping up dividend payments this year to beat the possible 2011 tax increase, and their shares have rallied.
Small-business owners say unease about tax policy, along with the economy, has led them to hold off on hiring and investment. And many advisers are encouraging well-to-do clients to sell appreciated assets to avoid higher capital-gains taxes.
Congress hasn't decided how to address the tax cuts from the George W. Bush administration, which are set to expire Dec. 31. President Barack Obama proposes to allow taxes on dividends and capital gains to rise to 20% from the current 15% for higher earners, defined as families with incomes of more than $250,000.

But many congressional Democrats want to let dividend tax rates, along with ordinary income rates, rise next year for higher earners to as much as 39.6%.
A senior House aide said late last month that Democratic leaders hadn't decided yet whether to end the current rates on dividends and capital gains for higher earners, or to extend them for everyone. Republicans are largely united in calling for a complete extension, although House GOP Leader John Boehner on Sunday signaled a measure of flexibility. If Congress takes no action, investment taxes would go up virtually across the board.
The broadest impact of higher investment taxes could come on financial markets. But analysts and economists differ over the likely effect.
A July analysis by Barclays Capital suggested that increasing taxes on investment income, as many Democrats advocate, could trim about 9% off the S&P 500 index. Talley Leger, vice president of U.S. portfolio strategy for Barclays Capital, called it "a potential headwind for stocks for the next couple of years."
A 2005 study by three economists at the Federal Reserve, looking back at the market response to the 2003 Bush tax cuts on dividends, concluded there wasn't a significant impact on overall stock values.
Alan Auerbach, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who also has studied the effect of the Bush tax cuts, said the evidence suggested that repealing the changes probably would produce a "small negative effect" on financial markets.
Citigroup Global Markets forecasts that if all the proposals to raise dividend tax rates take effect for higher earners, investors could pay an additional $39 billion in taxes in 2013.
"That's a big effect, and probably a bit bigger than some market participants believe," said Steven Wieting, U.S. economist at Citigroup Global Markets.
There are signs that tax concerns have been affecting a range of transactions on the ground. Analysts say spreads between utility-stock dividend yields and yields on some other securities recently have reflected expectations of a top dividend tax rate in the low-30% range.
"The stocks could initially fall if dividend tax rates reset to marginal rates, but we don't think it will be permanent," said Dan Eggers, a utility equity research analyst at Credit Suisse Group in New York.
Some companies are squeezing in big dividends before year's end. In anticipation of its conversion to a real-estate investment trust, Weyerhaeuser Co. plans a $5.6 billion accumulated-earnings dividend payout this year, most of it in the form of stock. Pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott PLC has arranged to borrow more than $2 billion to make an extraordinary dividend payment of $8.50 a share to shareholders.
While dividends are getting most of the attention, wealthy investors also are facing big incentives to realize capital gains by selling assets.
"We advise people that if they have gains to take or oversize positions that need to be diversified, sell them before the end of the year, rather than wait and pay higher taxes," said Sam Katzman, chief investment officer at Constellation Wealth Advisors in New York.

Small-business owners, especially older ones, also face tax incentives to sell soon.
"If someone is planning on selling a business, they should do it now," said Chris Walters, an executive vice president based in Pasadena, Calif., at CitizensTrust, the wealth management arm of Citizens Business Bank.

Some are hesitating, hoping for higher prices in the future. And business owners who sell now can face risks, because of the way such deals may be structured. Chris Hesse, head of the tax practice at LeMaster Daniels in Spokane, Wash., said a client in his early 60s sold his remaining shares in a business in a 10-year installment deal, and chose to pay all the tax at once this year, in anticipation of higher rates in the future. That looks like a smart strategy—unless the buyer can't make the future payments.
The prospect of higher taxes in 2011 and beyond also could be weighing on business owners' operational decision-making. In its July survey of small-business owners, the National Federation of Independent Business found that 22% of small businesses said the most important problem they faced was taxes, up from 19% a year earlier. More businesses—29%—identified poor sales as their No. 1 problem, but that was down from 34% a year earlier.
Democrats say that less than 3% of small-business owners would be affected by changes in tax rates for high earners. Republicans counter that the changes would affect roughly half of all such income, possibly more.
"It's like deer in the headlights. Nobody is doing much of anything about expanding or hiring or investing in new equipment," said Ken Keith, owner of Kasbar Inc., a Winston-Salem, N.C., accounting firm that works with small businesses.
Target Plastics Inc., a Salem, Ore., maker of custom plastic products, used to have seven employees, but now it has only two full-time workers, with an additional person working half-time, said owner Melissa Hescock.
"I've basically cut back because of the amount of taxes," Ms. Hescock said, including recent state increases and anticipated future federal boosts. "I have fewer people doing more work."
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Justin Lahart at justin.lahart@wsj.com