Hoenig & Hoenig

04/27/2026

Congratulations Kenzie Winfield for passing the SIE!

We hired Mackenzie full time in February initially as a financial planning specialist but she has the intention of becoming a fully licensed advisor. Mackenzie has already had the opportunity to work with many of our planning clients this year with many more still to come. She’s learning quickly and taking on a lot of responsibility and still found time to pass this exam, the first (and second most challenging) of 4 she need to be fully licensed.

Next up, Series 7, which typically requires 80-150 hours of study followed by a 3 hour 45 minute exam.

Sounds like a great summer ahead! 😉

04/14/2026

A.I. is coming for my job. However, "there is only one god and his name is Death, and there is only one thing we say to Death: Not today." (GOT reference for fans)

A few months ago after 25+ years of working with a retired couple the husband rather suddenly passed away. They were still relatively young retirees and had so many things in front of them they still wanted to do. We were able to settle things quickly here, within 2 weeks, but on top of the personal pain, the financial changes can be real. Surviving spouses can be left with more questions than answers, as plans are usually made on the assumption that both partners will remain alive. On top of that are the struggles with contacting social security, and pension plans and retitling bank accounts, getting burial plots, all kinds of things.

We met again this morning to review her plan. We were ready to walk through a whole scenario to give her the confidence that she would be able to continue her lifestyle, because that's what I knew she'd be worried about.

But when she came in we had to adapt on the fly. To start, she gave me a budget sheet that showed that she's actually been spending far less than before. She has taken out a travel expense and other things that were planned when he was alive, for instance. She had concerns that she would not be able to spend the same way. We use software and screens to visually run scenarios in real time so were able to make this change immediately. Of course in this scenario she was going to be just fine.

But then as we demonstrated that, light bulbs went off.

"I really would like to travel....."OK, let's add back in $10K in annual travel the rest of your life. Still OK.

"Well, I'd like to renovate property we own that I've always wanted to do (this is potentially triple figures)." OK, let's plug that in, still OK, no problem, let's do it.

"What if the cost goes over?" (Still OK, do it).

"My grandchildren are young and they've told me they really would like to take a vacation with me."

OK, time is short, we have a window at that age so you should do it. Let's add $30K for that (as a placeholder) . Look at that, still OK, book it. In fact maybe book a separate trip once a year for 3 years if it's important.

Being able to have these conversations and demo it in real time is powerful, especially in a situation like this. She has had tremendous loss, but she still has the ability to do so many things because of the plans they made over 25 years.

There were tears. Out of sadness because these were things she had hoped they could do together. But I'd like to think there was a little bit of relief and happiness as well. I got her tissues, they were lodged behind the Darth Vader mask and the Rock em Sock em robots on our credenza (don't judge). I really want her to do all of these things. When she's ready, but not waiting too long because those kids won't stay those ages forever.

For those wondering, there were no hugs, I have my bold lines, as you know. But there could have been. And do you really want A.I. handing you tissues and giving you a hug?

04/07/2026

I just wrote this for our site today. It's not that long and is meant to have people give thought about how they invest, as well as differentiate what Diane and I do for our managed account clients versus most wealth managers.

I'm actually surprised Ameriprise let us post this because we are sort of a square peg in a round hole of an industry that is increasingly engaging disconnected 3rd party managers.

Diane and I select our own securities, create our own risk models, do all of the trading and repositioning ourselves and have to directly communicate with clients about what went well and what didn't.

If you haven't heard from your people, know how you are invested and why during a time of geopolitical upheaval, you should have. "Just hold on" shouldn't always be the answer and actions should be proactive vs. reactive.

Transparency, flexibility and control - another case for direct management and knowing what you own.

03/26/2026

03/11/2026

AI is crazy with the pictures but I suppose it got your attention.

If you are aggressively invested right now, I think it means 1 (or more) of 3 things:

- you think the conflict in Iran will be over soon
- you are willing to live with any short to medium term market decline because you are focused much more on the long term
- you don't know what to do, what to change or how to change it

So far at the index level markets have not really reacted, which gives you the opportunity to make decisions from a position of strength now rather than trying to figure out later if you should change anything.

We create and manage models for clients so we can be strategic and targeted about changes we make. We have already made changes for our discretionary managed accounts and communicated the what and why.

The Strait of Hormuz normally carries 20 million barrels of oil DAILY. This is about 20% of the world's supply. Also 20% of LNG (natural gas). It's also agriculture, fertilizers, plastics and even helium which is important for semiconductor manufacturing.

And the longer this goes, it's not as simple as opening the strait. OPEC countries will stop or dramatically slow production because they have no place to store that much oil. If this goes on, you can't just start the spigot and start pumping and shipping. Think supply chain disruptions from Covid.

Maybe this is over soon and it's a minor hiccup economically. But you should be thinking about if you are mentally and financially prepared for the increasing possibility of world economic slowdown, higher inflation and much higher energy prices.

If you are a client and want to have a conversation about your current chosen risk level, use the link in the comments to schedule a call.

If you are not a client, who is managing you money and are they being proactive? Are they communicating? If you would like to talk we'd be happy to - scheduling link in the comments.

03/05/2026

https://www.ameripriseadvisors.com/team/hoenig-hoenig/team-profile/

03/02/2026

From the home section of our Hoenig & Hoenig page. We use technology but your relationship is with us and you know who you are speaking to.

12/05/2025

There's still time!

If you are a retired married client (or not a client), have taxable income less than $97K and have an IRA, you should really be considering a Roth conversion to make full use of the 12% bracket annually and for some maybe even the 22% or 24% brackets. Clients, we can do this remotely and fairly quickly if you can upload your 2024 return and we can coordinate with your tax advisor.

Not a client but interested?

(207) 324-4560
[email protected]