Northstar is frequently featured in business and investing articles in Denver’s leading publications.

Charles J. Farrell, J.D., LL.M. Joins Northstar Investment Advisors
Click here to learn more about Northstar’s newest team member.

Northstar in the News

Retirees Overestimate Payout
Investment News—July 14, 2008
“Many investors fail to take inflation into account when they map out how much they will withdraw from their retirement accounts...Investors need to think of it as a range of probable outcomes. It's completely dependent on the historical cycle in which you retire."
--Charlie Farrell

Experts Vary on Bear-Market Stategy
Denver Post—July 3, 2008
“The trick is to find companies that can continue to raise or maintain dividends even if the economy slows. Companies in the consumer staples, healthcare, telecom, and utility sectors should be better able to do that."
--Fred Taylor

Slowing economy, oil prices help send Dow into 358-Point Tailspin
Rocky Mountain News—June 26, 2008
“The CBOE volatility index was up 13 percent today, which shows there was serious fear on Wall Street, but at 23 it is still a long way from the 30s it traded at in January and again in March, which may mean the markets have further to fall in the short term."
--Fred Taylor

Playing the Housing Slump: Is It Time to Make Your Move?
Wall Street Journal—March 12, 2008
“It's like going from a Honda to a Mercedes” says Charles Farrell, a financial advisor with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors. "It's a lifestsyle choice. As long as it doesn't cut into your ability to accumulate capital for retirement, this is probably a pretty good time to upgrade."
--Charlie Farrell

Magic Numbers, A Few Simple Ratios by Charlie Farrell
Financial Planning Magazine—February 2008
“Although detailed planning is critical to managing client relationships, communicating those facts may cause many of your clients to tune out. After all, they hired you to handle the nitty-gritty. Due to the complexity associated with financial projections, I supplement such planning with a report breaking down the output to one key ratio. This is the goal on which the client can focus each year—and make steady progress toward retirement. I call this financial ratio the client's Capital-to-Income ratio (C/I Ratio).”
--Charlie Farrell

Is the sky really falling?
Denver Business Journal—February 8-14, 2008
"Investors need to be cautious right now; there are a lot of problems facing the country right now. There are credit issues, housing writedowns from the banks, and consumers might stop spending money. In fact, that has already started happening at higher-end retail stores."
--Fred Taylor

Bear Market stirs after brief pause
Denver Post—February 6, 2008
"If you have money invested in the stock market, it would be great to get dividends from your investments to weather the storm".
--Fred Taylor

Rogue trader lit panic
Denver Post—January 27, 2008
“It doesn’t take a whole lot to panic people at this point”. In this environment the actions of just one rogue trader can be “like adding gasoline to the fire”.
--Fred Taylor

Searching for Stimulus
Rocky Mountain News—January 21, 2008
"What one stimulus would be best for the nation and/or Colorado?" "Cut the Fed Funds rate by 75 basis points before the January meeting. This sudden and decisive course of action would send a message to Wall Street and the world that the Fed is serious about averting a recession and is willing to forgo inflation concerns in the short term for the sake of preventing the stock market malaise from spreading from Wall Street to Main Street. This dramatic move would signal to ECB and other foreign banks to cut interest rates as soon as possible as well."
--Fred Taylor

The Winner's Circle: Colorado's Top 20 Advisors from 2007
The Denver Business Journal—December 21, 2007
Fred Taylor is featured as one of the Top 20 Wealth Advisors of 2007.

A Nervous Investor's Guide To Overcoming Market Jitters
Wall Street Journal—November 21, 2007
Even as investors grow more restless, the big money continues to be made by those who stay the course…Charles Farrell, an adviser with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors, used data from Morningstar's Ibbotson Associates to analyze 52 rolling 30-year periods, starting with 1926 to 1955 and ending with 1977 to 2006...But here's what's interesting: The majority of your wealth would almost always have come in the last 10 years. Mr. Farrell calculates that, on average, you would have notched 8% of your final wealth after the first decade and 32% after the second. In other words, 68% of the total sum accumulated was amassed in the last 10 years. Clearly, tenacity pays off. "Once you get to a certain portfolio size, the dollar gains are just huge," Mr. Farrell says.
-- Charlie Farrell

Dump This House: Unloading Your Property in a Slow Market
Wall Street Journal—November 7, 2007
The monthly cost of carrying a vacant home could equal 1% of a home's value, figures Charles Farrell, an adviser with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors. After all, you still have to pay utilities, insurance, property taxes, maintenance and, of course, the mortgage. To make matters worse, "prices could be lower a year from now," Mr. Farrell warns. "There's also the risk of owning a physical asset. I'm thinking about things like fire, broken pipes, theft."
-- Charlie Farrell

Small Loss? Okay. Large One? No Way.
The Wall Street Journal—October 7, 2007
Suppose you have half your nest egg in stocks and half in bonds. "If you're 50-50 and the stock market falls 20%, you might be down 10%," Mr. Farrell notes. He continues: "In fact, with the interest you get from your bonds, you might be down just 7% or 8% for the year. I'm a big advocate, especially in the later years, of being more balanced."
-- Charlie Farrell

'Goldilocks' Retirement: Is your distribution rate just about right?
Investment News—October 2, 2007
Retirement distribution planning is one of the most challenging areas facing financial advisers. Regardless of the difficulty, clients want to know how much income they can expect each year. Telling clients that “it depends” probably means they will be looking to another adviser for more clarity.
-- Charlie Farrell

"Santa Claus" rally may not satisfy volatile U.S. market
The Denver Post—September 29, 2007
"The Fed made the right move by cutting. They will follow it up with another rate cut,"
-- Fred Taylor

Live Debt Free
Smart Money—September, 2007
"The people who have the most trouble are the people who carry the most debt into their retirement years. Those fixed obligations can bury you."
-- Charlie Farrell

Metro experts give the straight scoop on what you should do in this market
Rocky Mountain News—August 18, 2007
I am telling investors not to panic, first and foremost. We have finally had a 10 percent correction in the S&P 500 from the peak a month ago. We haven't had a correction of this magnitude in years, so investors have become complacent and may have forgotten that investing in the stock market is risky in the short term but more profitable than bonds in the long haul."
-- Fred Taylor

Farrell -- maker of 'personal financial ratios' -- joins Northstar
The Denver Business Journal - May 25, 2007
Saving for retirement is a bit like losing weight, said Charles Farrell, a new financial adviser at Northstar Investment Advisors. "There are a million diet plans on TV, right?" Farrell said. "But you know the formula: You have to decrease your input and increase your output. It's the same as building wealth. There's really no easy path to doing it. You have to increase your savings rate, decrease your debt, be prudent and get time on your side."
-- Charlie Farrell

A $1 Million Retirement: How to Get There From Here
Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2007
“People wonder how they will ever accumulate enough money. But what many investors fail to understand is that once they reach a certain level of assets most of the savings should come from investment growth.”.
-- Charlie Farrell

A warming world or a rising tide
Denver Post, May 9, 2007
Climate change could hit the global economy hard, but that also means savvy investors can win big… Taylor pointed to three alternative energy related funds - PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy, PowerShares Cleantech, PowerShares Water Resources - which each have matched or outperformed the broader market so far this year. "It's like the dotcom era: You just don't know if it's safe to make bets on just one or two companies," he said.
-- Fred Taylor

S&P tops 1,500, nears a high
Dow sets third straight record as inflation slows
Rocky Mountain News, May 4, 2007
For investment advisers and mutual fund managers, the S&P 500 making an all-time (high) is more meaningful for two reasons. First, the Dow Jones Industrial Index measures the stock performance of only 30 large capitalization companies in that particular benchmark, whereas the S&P 500 measures the performance of 500 companies. Therefore, the S&P is a broader snapshot of how the economy is doing. Secondly, most if not all investment advisers and mutual fund managers are judged how they perform against the S&P 500 Index, not the Dow Jones Industrial Index. In fact, I have never seen performance reports that include the Dow as a measurement benchmark.
-- Fred Taylor

Consulting the crystal ball
Metro-area experts share predictions on 14,000, sectors poised for movement
Rocky Mountain News, April 26, 2007
“If the markets stay strong, I would keep an eye on the Nasdaq and technology sector because that index and group of companies have not really participated in the market rally since 2003 and on a PE basis are cheaper than quite a few value stocks. I would also watch the weakening U.S. dollar and have some money invested in the international markets as a hedge to the U.S. dollar falling any further.”
-- Fred Taylor

Markets spring back with the crocus
Rocky Mountain News, April 19, 2007
“The markets have rebounded since the end of February because the sell-off in China was short-lived and the sub-prime loans scare has been priced into the markets. Investors are now focused on the next move from the Fed and corporate earnings. With inflation under control, full employment and the decent housing numbers today, the Fed won't be lowering interest rates soon, but at least there is still that hope by year-end. Thus far, corporate earnings are proving to be better than the reduced expectations, which has also helped the Dow push higher." – Fred Taylor

"Sit tight," expert tells small-time investors
Denver Post, February 28, 2007
“In the big picture, this is a well-needed correction. The fundamentals haven't changed in the last two days. This may be a buying opportunity when it all settles out. ” – Fred Taylor

What the experts think
Rocky Mountain News, February 28, 2007
“I wouldn't be buying or selling anything (today) based on what happened(Tuesday). I would rather wait to evaluate whether this is a one-to-two day phenomenon or the start of a more serious correction or even a bear market. The rest of the week will be important to see if there is a bounceback in the Chinese markets first, then what damage has been done to the hedge funds around the world, and third if investors use this as a buying opportunity to pick up stocks unfairly punished in this sell-off. ” – Fred Taylor

Looking forward
Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, October 3, 2006
“...the Dow has potential to surpass the current record close if energy and interest rates stay low, corporate profits exceed analysts expectations, and company executives are optimistic about their fourth quarter performance. ” – Fred Taylor

The Experts weigh in
Rocky Mountain News, September 30, 2006
“Ben Bernanke has been very clear about his concerns regarding the economy, the housing market, inflation, and the direction of short-term interests rates. In short, I think he has filled some very big shoes extremely well in just two months on the job. His professional qualifications, relative youth and Federal Reserve experience give Wall Street a great deal of confidence.

“Despite all the negative headlines regarding the housing bubble bursting, the war in Iraq, and weak durable goods orders, the S&P made a new 52-week high because of the 20% fall in oil prices, gas at the pump selling well under the $3 level, and too much cash on the sidelines expecting the market to fall in September. The stock market has also been encouraged by the Fed leaving rates unchanged.” – Fred Taylor

Formula foretells security level
Chicago Tribune, August 6, 2006
Charles Farrell devised three ratios: debt to income, savings to income and savings rate to income, to give snapshots to plan for a financially secure retirement. “We have ratios, like a price-earnings ratio on stocks that we use to make a quick assessment of a company. These [ratios] certainly don't tell the whole story of a company, but they are widely used because they are so easy.” – Charlie Farrell

INFLATION: Increases spread beyond energy
Denver Post, May 18, 2006
“Wall Street's rally to start 2006 was fueled in part by investor speculation in energy, gold, and industrial stocks, a scenario that made a market correction almost inevitable. He advised homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages to convert their loans to fixed-rate mortgages in anticipation of more rate hikes. He also suggested that investors funnel cash into tax-sheltered investments such as IRA's or work-sponsored 401(k) plans and money-market funds until stocks appear poised to rally.” – Fred Taylor