Employees Honor Founder, Joe Ford.
Dean, Dorton & Ford employees joined with the Ford family to participate in the American Cancer Society's 2007 Relay for Life. The team's participation this year was dedicated to one of the firm's founders, Joe Ford, who passed away February 4th, 2007. more...

Read Joe Ford's Tribute

Retirement Savings - How Much is Enough?
by Doug Dean
An interesting research paper published by the investment firm Alliance Bernstein's Wealth Management Group is titled "Retirement: Plan Early and Often." Among the issues it deals with are how much is needed for a comfortable retirement and the importance of the individual's or family's spending rate. Consider the following table from Bernstein's paper which shows how much a married couple of the same age needs in investment assets. more...

HSAs Gaining Popularity
by Doug Dean and Kathy Jaeger
We are observing increased usage of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), either as an option in connection with employer-sponsored medical insurance plans or by self-employed individuals. Essentially, HSAs involve a deductible (if paid by the employee or self-employed person) or nontaxable (if paid by the employer) contribution to the HSA, a tax-free buildup of earnings on the HSA funds, and no tax consequences when distriubtions are made from the HSA (as long as the distributions are used to fund what otherwise would be deductible medical expenses). more...