An Interview with Mark Johnson, USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund

Bonds
What You Need to Know About Investing in Municipal Bonds
Munis deserve their popularity among individual investors. They are sound and relatively uncomplicated instruments. Nonetheless, buying individual municipal bonds is not quite as simple as buying Treasuries.

Estate Planning
Estate Planning: Should a Trust Be the Beneficiary of Your IRA?
Until recently, conflicting tax laws, and a lack of IRS guidance made it difficult to name trusts as beneficiaries of retirement plan assets. New rules make it easier to take advantage of the tax and estate planning benefits of trusts.

A Matter of Opinion
Asset Allocation Approaches: Building From the Bottom Up
To reduce risk, an investor needs to add to his portfolio holdings that have both good prospects and low correlations with other holdings. Whether those assets belong to a particular class is not important.

Portfolio Manager Interview
An Interview with Mark Johnson, USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund
Prospecting for profits in the volatile precious metals markets.

Portfolio Strategies
The Shrinking Equity Premium and What It Means to Investors
There is an emerging consensus among academics that the equity premium looking forward is significantly less than the traditional estimate. Current estimates imply a 5% to 7% annual future return for an all-stock portfolio.

Stock Screens
Dividends Count: Screening for Undervalued Stocks With Lower Risk
If a stock's price rises faster than its dividend, the dividend yield will fall, indicating the price may have been bid up too far. Conversely, if the yield rises to a high level, the stock may be poised for an increase.

Mutual Funds
One-Stop Mutual Fund Shopping: A Guide to the Discount Brokers
Switching funds within a family is relatively easy, but switching among fund families has significant costs in time and paperwork. With mutual fund supermarkets, one phone call will do it.

Bonds
What You Need to know About Investing in Municipal Bonds
Munis deserve their popularity among individual investors. They are sound and relatively uncomplicated instruments. Nonetheless, buying individual municipal bonds is not quite as simple as buying Treasuries.