Inside This Issue

Feature Staff Spotlight Investment Update Charitable Planning News

I love clutter. Actually, I don’t like

clutter but I do love Microsoft

Clutter. Clutter is an email filtering

option available to Microsoft Office

365 customers like HoyleCohen. It is

similar to an anti-spam filter in that it

moves less important email into a

'clutter' folder where they can be

ignored or reviewed later. Best of all,

it learns and adapts based on your

reading and reviewing habits.

Some months ago, we added this

capability and it’s been one of

quickest productivity boosts I’ve

experienced in a while. Why?

Because I didn’t realize how much

clutter I received and how much time

I actually spend on clutter. I also

didn’t appreciate that ‘clutter’ and

‘junk’ aren’t really the same thing.

Junk we know is bad. After all, it’s

‘junk.’ We don’t like or want junk

and try to dispose of it as quickly and

efficiently as possible. Clutter is

more deceptive because it often has

some value, just not as much as those

things we deem important. Worse

yet, we’re tempted to spend time on

it because it often comes from

sources we know and trust or that we

once viewed as valuable.

Unfortunately, I know now that I was

wasting a lot of time on clutter. First,

I get much more clutter than junk.

This surprised me.

- Continued on Page 4

Welcome F E A T U R E

Clutter

Welcome to the latest issue of The

Shift. This issue’s feature focuses

on how the proliferation of clutter

in our lives often shifts our time

and attention away from what is

most important. One important ac-

tivity for many people each year is

to donate to charitable causes. Un-

fortunately, too much of this is of-

ten done hastily at year end due to

tax considerations. With April 15th

soon behind us and plenty of time

before year end, this issue offers a

simple framework for ‘how to be

good at doing good.’ Finally, most

readers know HoyleCohen best

through the one or two faces with

whom each interacts most frequent-

ly. This issue will begin introducing

team members who often work

behind-the-scenes so you can more

easily recognize the faces and

names of those who support our

clients and advisory teams. We

hope you enjoy this issue and have

a Happy Spring!

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By Mark Delfino

Spring 2016 Issue 11

Overall, 2015 was a poor year for traditional financial markets across the globe and across most asset classes. Among major global stock markets, the U.S. was the best performer, but that’s faint praise given the S&P 500’s 1.4% return. What’s more, it was a market in which a handful of large tech/Internet companies (e.g., Facebook, Netflix, Google and Amazon.com) generated huge gains while the equal-weighted S&P 500 index actually fell 2.2% for the year. Investors were taken on a bumpy ride in the first quarter of 2016 that – similar to 2015 – ended with the S&P 500 roughly where it started the quarter.

One striking feature of last year’s investment environment was the difference in the direction of the U.S. economy and U.S. monetary policy versus other major global economies. In December, the U.S. Federal Reserve was sufficiently comfortable with the outlook for economic growth and the potential for inflation that it made its first increase in rates in nearly a decade. More recently, the Fed has indicated that future increases may not be forthcoming as quickly as many expected due to the softness in the global economy.

Outside the U.S., regaining more normal growth and inflation has been challenging. Sharply lower commodity prices (notably oil), Middle East tensions, and China’s slower growth continue to weigh on foreign stock market returns. Developed international stocks ended 2015 down 0.8% and lost another 3% in Q1. Emerging markets fared worse, falling 14.9% in 2015, before gaining 5.7% in Q1.

U.S. dollar strength exacerbated the underperformance of foreign markets. While currency effects will always be a shorter-term wild card for non-U.S. assets, they should eventually be a tailwind to dollar-based returns after years of drag.

Oil continues to be a short-term negative, but longer-term positive fac-tor for the global economy. Oil pr ices

hit an 11-year low, falling 30% in 2015 and nearly 50% in 2014.

Fixed-income offered little respite in 2015 but had gains in Q1 2016 due to falling interest rates. High-yield bonds fared worse than higher quality bonds in 2015, but gained back most losses in Q1. Investment-grade municipal bonds continue to be a relative bright spot, rising in both 2015 and Q1 2016.

Private lending and U.S. residential and commercial real estate remain strong with U.S. real estate pr ices continuing the uptrend of the past few years.

These conditions reinforce our belief in the value of our CorePlus approach. When 2016 began and stock prices fell, we began exploring opportunities. In January, we purchased a 5-year Morgan Stanley structured note for many clients with a 15% downside buffer, and the potential to earn three times the upside return in the S&P 500 subject to a total maximum return of 72.5% (11.5% annual compounded return).

In March, we added a public real estate fund to our Core Models. The fund invests primarily in private commercial real-estate funds with the remaining 20-30% invested in public real estate funds (REITs). This enables the fund to be publically traded, while still offering the prospect of lower volatility and stable income as a result of the private funds in which it invests.

We continue to seek out targeted moves like these that we believe can add value for suitable clients over the long run, whether for growth, income or downside protection. As always, we appreciate your confidence in us as we build portfolios for the long run. Please do not hesitate to contact your Advisor with any questions.

From Vanessa Wieliczko, CFA, CAIA & the HoyleCohen Investment Committee

INVESTMENT UPDATE

Many clients should recog-nize Vanessa’s name since it appears on many investment-related communications. Vanessa is our Director of Investments and Portfolio Management and leads the firm’s Investment Commit-tee. While each advisor is a member of our Investment Committee, HoyleCohen’s unique investment capabili-ties and strategies are largely a result of Vanessa’s efforts. To learn more about Vanessa click here.

Welcome Ismar to HC!

HoyleCohen is happy to wel-come the newest member of our staff, Ismar Zildzic. Ismar joins us as a Wealth Advisor in our Sacramento office. Learn more about Is-mar here.

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Vanessa Wieliczko, CFA, CAIA

(Pronounced “Via-Leech-Ko”)

Staff Spotlight

Ismar Zildzic

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Before you know how to get

there, you have to know where

you’re going. Set charitable

goals that are measurable and

have a clear timeline before start-

ing on a charitable giving strate-

gy.

Charitable giving is about more

than just personal satisfaction—

it’s about creating a charitable leg-

acy. By involving your family

with your plan, you can ensure

that your charitable values are

passed on to future generations.

Make sure your goals are realistic by

consulting your budget and your finan-

cial advisor. It’s important to find the

right balance of what you hope to ac-

complish in the world and how much

you can reasonably afford to give.

Do some research before opening

your checkbook. Verifying an

organization’s legitimacy is im-

portant, as is evaluating its fiscal

responsibility, mission statement

and affiliations.

Cash, trusts, securities, real estate,

clothing, art and even vehicles—

each will have different implica-

tions for your giving strategy. Con-

sider which may be best based on

your assets and your tax situation.

Success won’t look the same for each

donor. Periodically ask yourself: Have

I met my initial goals? Am I on track

to do so? If not, how can I improve

the success of my plan for next year?

HC Giving Back has been very busy in the last few months.

Here are some of the latest updates:

Ashley Rhame is the new Chairwoman. Karen Ocskasy steps down after leading the group for three years. Thank you, Karen!

Over 200 sack lunches were delivered to the homeless in downtown San Diego.

School supplies including 250 recorders and 660 individual whiteboards were donated to San Miguel Elementary School.

HC Giving Back

CHARITABLE PLANNING

How to Be Good at Doing Good 6 steps for planning charitable giving

HoyleCohen is a fee based investment advisor and does not

receive commissions for the investment strategies discussed.

Analysis of market conditions and performance is neither an

indication nor a guarantee of future market conditions or

future investment performance. Descriptions of investments,

asset classes and portfolios are for illustration purposes

only. No decisions regarding investment strategies should be

made based solely on this content. Each Situation is unique

and each client should first discuss his or her circumstances

with advisor. The opinions expressed here are those of the

authors and may not represent those of others at the firm.

This newsletter is published by:

HoyleCohen, LLC

9350 Waxie Way, Suite 500

San Diego, CA 92123

Phone: 858-576-7300

www.hoylecohen.com

© 2016-All rights reserved

In the past six days my Junk folder

added less than 100 emails whereas

Clutter nabbed and put 706 emails in

its folder.

How did this happen? Clutter gives

me a nice summary by source so I can

see the culprits. For instance, there’s

a service called Advisor Perspectives

that I like and often read. When the

service started years ago, I got one

email a week, each with links to mul-

tiple industry articles or reports. I

then began receiving emails daily,

making interesting articles harder to

find. They didn’t stop there because

they were my number one ‘clutter

culprit,’ accounting for 33 messages

in only six days.

Pre-Clutter, I would start my day

skimming and deleting 30-50 emails

that I received between 10 p.m. and

6 a.m. the prior night. Many tempted

me with interesting headlines or links

which I too frequently clicked on.

Post-Clutter, I enjoy seeing very few

new messages when I start the day.

With all my Clutter out of view, I

spend more time on what’s important

but can quickly skim Clutter periodi-

cally to find something of value or

train it.

Why all of this about Clutter? Be-

cause, the same is true of financial

clutter. Before joining HoyleCohen, I

used to watch CNBC regularly.

Eventually, I realized that it was not

relevant to what was most important

to me 99% of the time and had be-

come financial clutter. Today it is

much harder to avoid because it is

easier than ever for marketers to

reach high net worth individuals, re-

sulting in a proliferation of financial

clutter.

I want HoyleCohen to be part of the

solution, not the problem. We do this

in part by helping clients focus on

what’s really important – their goals,

concerns, family legacy, charitable

desires – so it’s easier to filter out fi-

nancial clutter. Increasingly, we will

use our Portal to share information

with clients and to consolidate and

organize what’s most important so we

better serve as the ‘easy button’ for

important wealth-related matters.

As we do so, we must also become

more active in soliciting feedback to

ensure that we are adding value and

not simply creating more clutter. I

hope that you – our clients, profes-

sional colleagues and friends – will let

us know what you find valuable, what

you want more of and what you deem

to be clutter so we can learn and serve

you better.

Elisabeth Cullington: Was recently selected to be a part of TD Ameritrade’s Human Finance Project. Elisabeth was featured at TD’s national conference in Orlando. To watch the full video that TD Ameritrade did on Elisabeth, click here.

Continued Feature Update from Page 1.

Emilie Hersh: We would like to congratulate Emilie on her recent achievement. Emilie was recently recognized as a 2016 San Diego Women of Influence winner! Her company ‘Unbuttoned Innovation’ won the prestigious “Emerging Women Owned Business Award” hosted by Connected Women of Influence in San Diego. Hundreds of participants represent-ing every industry possible also participated in the nomination. Congratulations, Emilie!

Important Disclosures

Clients in the News

Erwin Shustak: We are very happy to announce that Erwin has been selected as a 2016 SuperLawyer! Super-Lawyers select attorneys using a multiple phase selection process. The process includes research, peer nominations and evaluations. The final published list represents less than 5 percent of the lawyers in the state. This is also Erwin’s 6th time being selected. Congratulation, Erwin!

HC News