Word: swap
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Pros: --Appreciate each other's Mott the Hoople stories --Can swap copies of Modern Maturity --Can bond over failed projects (Simon: The Capeman; Dylan: Christianity...
...really happened at the OK Corral during the assassinations of Sitting Bull and Wild Bill Hickok and at the Battle of Little Big Horn. On the way, suppose you happen to stumble across Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley and even Queen Victoria, with whom you share a few drinks and swap stories and. This may sound like the plot for Bill and Ted's Excellent Wild West Adventure, but it is actually the basic premise of Thomas Berger's novel The Return of Little Big Man, which manages to pull off the often difficult task of effortlessly and effectively mingling fiction...
...that swap funds aren't for everyone. They require that the stock be held in taxable accounts and are designed with stock-laden executives in mind, not the masses in tax-deferred retirement plans. They also require a minimum investment of $500,000 and a net worth of $1 million. It's a select crowd, for sure, and that bugs me. Diversification is a huge issue for all investors. If tax-free diversification for the rich is allowed to stand--and, frankly, even if it isn't--the time has come to ease restrictions on company-contributed shares...
Through something called swap funds, also known as exchange funds, Wall Street has divined a way for some overly concentrated investors to trade one stock that has risen for a basket of stocks of equal value--avoiding any immediate capital-gains tax. A crush of financial firms, including Banker's Trust, Salomon Smith Barney, J.P. Morgan and Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette, are launching swap funds right now. They aren't entirely new. But Congress took a whack at limiting them two years ago, and they're resurfacing with a new look...
...sure to ask. In your taxable accounts, lean toward diversified mutual funds, or individual stocks in at least six industries--and avoid the one in which you work. If you are concentrated in a single stock in a taxable account--and are not wealthy enough to join a swap fund--you'll have to pay capital-gains tax as you diversify. In most cases, that's a price worth paying...