INVITE to Webinar | 2020 Contributions | Vaccine Cards & Laughs from Down Under

INVITE: Join us for our Disruptive Innovations Webinar: Compass Ion Advisors invites you to join a special research presentation hosted by ARK Investment Management (“ARK Invest”). No registration is required and you are welcome to invite others.

Join us for this educational series that explores the investment opportunities associated with disruptive innovations such as streaming media, biotech R&D efficiency, and digital wallets.

Date: December 14, 2020
Time: 12:00pm
Where: Zoom Webinar, via the following link: https://ionadv.zoom.us/j/92556499507

Year-End Reminder: Max Out Contributions: Now is the time to see if you are on pace to max out your retirement contributions for the year. If not, consider changing how much you contribute over the last pay periods of the month. Additionally, your cash flow permitting, consider putting most or all of any bonus you receive into the plan. Do the same for IRA and Roth IRA contributions. The IRA contribution limit for 2020 is $6,000 (unless you are 50 or older—then it is $7,000). If you have questions, just give us a call. We can help you make this happen.

For more year-end financial planning tips and reminders, click here to listen to our recently released Year-End Checklist.

A SIGN of Things to Come in 2021: The Department of Defense released the first images of a Covid-19 vaccination record card and vaccination kits Wednesday. Vaccination cards will be used as the “simplest” way to keep track of Covid-19 shots, said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting frontline workers administering Covid-19 vaccinations.

“Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due,” Moore said. Moore said many places are planning to ask patients to voluntarily provide a cell phone number so that patients can get a text message telling them when and where their next dose is scheduled. Every dose administered will be reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.

Oxford Economics “Recovery Slogs Forward without Momentum”: The US Recovery Tracker rose 0.5ppts to 78.3, ahead of Thanksgiving, led by modest gains in production and financial conditions. However, rising ICU utilization rates, slower mobility, cooler consumer spending, and slower employment provided a stark reminder that the road to recovery is still steep.

While the daily flow of encouraging vaccine news fosters hopes of a strong recovery in 2021, real-time data is much less optimistic. Amid slowing economic momentum, we can acknowledge the admirable recovery so far, but we should not omit the fact that it remains incomplete.

The CARES Act was a critical lifeline for the economy through the pandemic’s first phase, but rear-view economics cannot inform the current state of the recovery. We fear the next couple of months will prove difficult for the economy with downside risks from the looming expiry of unemployment benefits for millions of Americans, along with the end of eviction and foreclosure moratoriums.

3 Vaccine Executives Say Distribution Will Be the Main Challenge: The top executives of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson said in an NBC News interview that even after their companies developed potential Covid-19 vaccines at a breakneck pace, some of the biggest challenges still lay ahead: quickly producing enough doses and ensuring fair distribution through the uneven US health care system.

An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to meet Dec. 10 to consider whether to grant emergency use authorization to Pfizer for its vaccine candidate. The FDA itself would weigh in next.

A member of an FDA advisory committee, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a separate interview: “The standard we’re going to hold this to is: Would I give this vaccine to myself or my own family? And if the answer to that question is ‘I’m not sure,’ then we’re not going to move forward.”

And If You Need Help Getting into the Holiday Spirit: Picture a Christmas tree and you’ll probably think of baubles, tinsel and lights. Yet one Australian woman came home to find an unusual adornment: a koala.

Surprised by the unusual visitor, Amanda McCormick called local koala rescue organization 1300Koalaz.

“This evening our hotline operator took a call. At first she thought she was the victim of a prank call,” wrote the organization. “But no, a koala desperate to get in the Christmas spirit had wandered in… and decided it wanted to be the fairy on the Christmas tree.”

“The koala was released out the front of the house, which is in a really lovely area for koalas,” said Hearne-Hellon. “The koala was still in the same tree she chose to climb when I saw her today.”

Tis the season to be jolly! Koala-la-la-la La-la-la-la!