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Brevity is the soul of wit.
― Polonius, Hamlet by William Shakespeare
For the first time in several years, we have actually gotten significant snow here on beautiful Cape Cod. Along with very cold temperatures more reminiscent of the upper mid-west than our typically moderate peninsula. People aren’t even playing golf outside, the horror! I would love to tell you the storms and surrounding disruptions are the reason this is going to be a shorter than normal newsletter, but they’re not, as convenient an excuse as that would have been. Between the transition work we’re doing behind the scenes for the upcoming Commonwealth to LPL move, a bunch of continuing education requirements I have to meet to maintain my insurance licensing and CFP® designation and a very nice get away for my 27th wedding anniversary – the month has gotten away from me. So, here’s a brief market commentary and some important information about tax mailings, and hopefully I will come up with something clever and/ or important to discuss in March.
As for the markets, the “buy the dip” phenomenon is still going strong. After a few days’ swoon, the market came back on Friday, February 6 and made all-time highs again. Gold and Silver likewise bounced back, and international markets are doing even better than the U.S., boosted by the U.S. Dollar dropping against international currencies. (If an international stock goes up 5%, but the dollar drops 10% against that country’s currency, then the stock rises 15% in the United States.) While the U.S. Markets measured by the S&P 500 are up about 1.4% Year to Date (YTD) as of this writing, Developed Markets measured by the MSCI EAFE are up just under 6% and Emerging Markets measured by the MSCI EM index are up close to 7.5% just in the less than six weeks we’ve had of 2026. The future, as always, is unknowable, but we have a pretty good cushion already built up should sell-offs begin.
Now for your tax mailings / emails. If you get your forms electronically you should get an email telling you when they are available. Of course, you can always just log in to check if you’re not sure. Tax mailings for “Qualified” accounts, that is IRA’s and most types of employee retirement accounts have been released. You should have either gotten them in the mail or seen them available online by now. If you don’t think you have them and you get them through the mail, please check your correspondence, they’re mailed in fairly plain, unassuming envelopes. If you’re certain you didn’t get it yet – give us a call. As for all taxable accounts, those 1099’s will most likely take a little longer. Technically there was a “tranche” of 1099’s mailed on January 24 and a second on February 7, but our managed accounts are not included in those mailings, they are typically for brokerage accounts that may have just held an interest baring investment or a single mutual fund. The majority of our taxable, managed investment account tax forms will not be mailed until February 21, and some could be delayed up to March 15. “Preliminary 1099’s” for those accounts may be available as early as February 12, these preliminary forms may help you in figuring out your tax liability for 2025, but they are not to be filed with your taxes, they’re simply informational. Even after March 15th there’s the possibility of amendments – these can occur even after the tax filing deadline and it’s up to your tax preparer to determine if you should file an amended return or correct the errors when you file 2026’s taxes. This is exceedingly rare but has happened.
As always, those of you who typically get money back are anxious to file as soon as possible, while those who typically owe don’t seem to mind waiting for their documents. Just know that we have zero control over when your documents will be available. The only thing we can help with is if you get them by mail, we will have them online before they get to your house or P.O. Box. If you’d like us to get documents to your tax preparers or get additional copies for you, please call the office. We cannot email you your tax documents through regular email under any circumstances, but there are other more secure ways to get them to you. Also, another reminder to consider going paperless with your accounts in the future. You will get access to your tax documents much sooner and most tax preparers want an electronic file of your tax forms rather than the paper copies anyway.
If you have specific questions about your individual tax forms, please give us a call. If you are on our list of clients who we send information directly to their CPA’s, please be assured we have that list and will forward that info as soon as we can. While this doesn’t apply to the current tax season, for 2026 most of our clients will get two sets of tax forms as we will transition from National Financial Services as a custodian to LPL in November. This will make things a little more complicated for 2026, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I hope everyone who stayed on Cape made it through the storms and cold with minimal difficulty. Hopefully we’ll have warmer weather sometime soon.
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