September 18, 2000 

October Brings Our New Website

            We are no longer under construction!!  Come view lisch.com on the worldwide web.  Just go to www.lisch.com and see our business, Lisch Investment Services, with separate pages for a description of Accounting Offices of Howard Lisch and Howard Lisch Esq., CPA, Attorney-at-Law, our affiliated companies. 

            Under Lisch Investment Services, you will be able to read a description of what we do, why we started, and how we think under our welcome page.  You can read what our investment management process is under “Our Process”.  Read descriptions of our investment management staff under “Our Staff”. 

            This site is not being used for solicitation of new clients and is to be used for the benefit of our existing clients. 

            See the list of products and services provided by LIS or any of our affiliated companies under “Products and Services”.   

            Look up your favorite stocks and mutual funds and do research at the site.  More on that next month.

            View your accounts both at Securities Service Network, Inc. and direct at the funds to see the value of your accounts on a daily basis.  More on that in a future issue. 

            There are a wealth of special research areas and financial calculations that will be described in a future newsletter. 

            Your can email us directly from the website at “Email us”. 

            We will, of course, appreciate all feedback, through email, of course! 

Audit-Erotic! 

            Accordingly to Forbes Magazine, Juanita Broadrick, the woman who accused Bill Clinton of raping her, joins the list of Clinton opponents hit with an IRS audit.  Also on that list?  Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and former Miss America Elizabeth Ward Gracen, all of whom claim encounters with Bill.  Coincidence? 

Defaulted Plan Loans Due 

            The grace period for those with defaulted pension plan loans will not be extended by the Internal Revenue Service.  Employees who fall behind on loans from company plans must become current by the end of the next calendar quarter or the unpaid balance is taxable.  Any future loans to those participants in default will be limited.  If a prior loan has not been repaid, any subsequent loans will be taxable. 

Owners of IRAs

can invest the assets in their own partnerships.  An IRA owner also had a 12% interest in a family investment partnership.  He wanted a partnership’s asset manager to handle his IRA, but it failed to meet manager’s minimum capital requirement.  So, he asked the Labor Department to let his IRA invest in the partnership to gain the manager’s services.  The Labor Department said the investment would not be a prohibited transaction.  The IRA owner could get only an incidental benefit from the investment and he would not end up owning a majority interest in the partnership. 

March and April was Too High 

            according to advice given to many of you regarding the value of your investments.  But many of you actually believed, that since your account value was what it was then, that it really was yours.  Since then, the stock market plummeted and then slowly recovered until it is back to where it was then.  The difference between  Now and Then is that, today, the portfolio value has not gotten ahead of itself and it is now the value it should be (or a little too low!).  Trouble is, that many of you say your portfolio has not gone up this year, meaning not up from the inflated values of March and April.  Fact is, your portfolios have gone up, as measured from January 1, not March 10!  Seems as though some of you are taking continued outstanding stock market performance for granted! 

Clinton Vetoes Elimination of Death Tax

            while professing that the bill is wrong for our families and our future.  Each time I see a new housing development go up, I think not of the new houses for new families, I think of the farmer’s children who cannot continue to farm the land because of the death tax.  A farm needs many acres to be profitable.  Here, in New Jersey, (New York has already lost most of its farming land), a buildable plot of land is $350,000 and up per acre.  So a farmer, with 40 acres or so of land (a small farm), will pay several million dollars in death taxes.  His estate, or children, will have to sell off at least half the land just to pay the taxes.  Since there won’t be enough land to constitute a profitable farm, the balance will be sold.  Thus, we have more land for suburban homes and less for farming.  Yet, the President says that while the “average tax relief” would be $7,000,000 per person for less than 1% of the America people, it will do nothing for farm families.  Maybe the President ought to go to the almanac and see that less than 2% of Americans are farmers, approximately the same percentage as those people who would benefit from the tax relief.  He also says the other 98% of America, would not benefit from the repeal of the death tax.  How about lower prices for food, fresher food, better scenic vistas and a cleaner environment! 

            Can it be that the real reason for the veto is because the farmer is a small businessman and hence, likely to vote Republican? 

            Once again Clinton vetoes constructive change for America, if it does not benefit his political agenda.