December 2025 Planning Tip Bigger Distributions, Bigger Tax Bills: What Investors Need to Know Before Year-End December is the month where financial planning gets squeezed between holiday travel, year-end deadlines, and whatever last-minute work chaos shows up uninvited. But it’s also when a lot of investors get blindsided by something they aren’t tracking during the year: capital gain distributions from their mutual funds. This year in particular, we’re seeing distribution amounts that are...
13 days ago • 2 min read
November 2025 Planning Tip The Hidden Cost of Idle Cash: How We Maximize Every Dollar for Clients Cash is often the most overlooked part of an investment portfolio, but it shouldn’t be. At Ark Royal Wealth Management, we treat cash with the same discipline we apply to the rest of your portfolio. Here’s why that matters. Cost of "The Spread" When you hold cash in an investment account, there are two common places it can sit: Idle cash (or “sweep” cash): This is the default cash position in...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
ARK ROYAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT Three Charts That Have Our Attention If you are curious about what’s going on in the market or economy, we’d like to share some charts / graphics that we think are insightful. Markets & Government Shutdowns. What happens to your portfolio when the government shuts down? History suggest the political nuisance is nothing to react to. Time in the Market. This chart highlights a fundamental principle of investing: the longer you stay invested, the lower your chances of...
2 months ago • 1 min read
ARK ROYAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT Three Charts That Have Our Attention If you are curious about what’s going on in the market or economy, we’d like to share some charts / graphics that we think are insightful. Bigger Isn't Always Better. The biggest companies today aren’t guaranteed to stay there tomorrow. Market leadership changes faster than most investors realize, and history proves it. Few companies hold onto the top spot for long and many former giants eventually fade from the leaderboard....
3 months ago • 1 min read
September 2025 Planning Tip Tax Payments Are Going Paperless: Steps to Get Ahead of the Change Starting September 30, 2025, paper checks will no longer be accepted for federal tax payments, nor will they be issued for refunds. This is part of a broader government push to modernize the tax system, improve efficiency, and reduce fraud. For individuals and families, this means that the familiar process of mailing in a check with a tax return or waiting for a paper refund check to arrive in the...
3 months ago • 2 min read
ARK ROYAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT Three Charts That Have Our Attention If you are curious about what’s going on in the market or economy, we’d like to share some charts / graphics that we think are insightful. Large Cap Market Concentration. Nvidia now has the largest weight in the S&P 500 of any individual stock in history. Expanding to some of the other largest market caps there is an extreme AI concentration. Buying at Highs. Many people think buying after the market hits an all-time high is...
4 months ago • 1 min read
August 2025 Planning Tip Ratings vs. Returns: The Investor’s Dilemma Everyone wants better investment results, but few realize how often their decisions are shaped by outside forces with entirely different priorities. If your market outlook is based on what you see on financial news networks, you’re being guided by incentives that often run in direct opposition to your own. The business model isn’t built to make you a better investor, it’s built to keep you watching. Sensationalism is a...
5 months ago • 1 min read
ARK ROYAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT Three Charts That Have Our Attention If you are curious about what’s going on in the market or economy, we’d like to share some charts / graphics that we think are insightful. Household Leverage. The U.S. household debt-to-asset ratio is at a 50-year low. On the surface, that sounds like a good thing but this can happen for two reasons: either people are paying down debt and building real wealth, or asset values (like homes and stocks) have risen so much that the...
5 months ago • 1 min read
ARK ROYAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT Three Charts That Have Our Attention If you are curious about what’s going on in the market or economy, we’d like to share some charts / graphics that we think are insightful. Buyer's Market. The U.S. housing market has shifted dramatically into a buyer’s market, with sellers now outnumbering buyers by nearly 490,000, the largest gap since 2013, potentially leading to a 1% drop in home prices by the end of 2025 if trends continue. Redfin expects buyers may gain...
6 months ago • 1 min read