Archive for PROVIDE Retirement Income
By Denise Appleby, MJ, CISP, CRC®, CRPS, CRSP, APA, Founder and Owner of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. The SECURE Acts 1.0 and 2 (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) are why we are here today because it does get complicated. How can we help you help your clients when they say, “Listen, advisor, I […]
Read more →By Tiffany T. House, CAP®, CEPA, FCEP, Gift Planning Institute and Tax & Estate Strategy Advisors, it is so vital to have charitable conversations with your clients. There are many reasons why. First, it offers us the ability to connect on a deeper level. There is something called oxytocin, which is a hormone released in the […]
Read more →By Heather L. Schreiber, RICP®, HLS Retirement Consulting, LLC There are so many twists and turns along the road to navigating as clients approach retirement, enter, and funnel through it. How can the average consumer possibly navigate all these rules at different ages? In addition, SECURE 2.0 has finally been signed into law, so in […]
Read more →By Tiffany T. House, CAP®, CEPA, FCEP, Gift Planning Institute and Tax & Estate Strategy There are many tax-advantaged sale options. My goal is to help you understand how various planning tools apply to different corporate structures of businesses like S-Corp, C-Corp, and LLCs and for you to feel confident as an advisory team member when […]
Read more →By Andrew Shedlock, Partner, Kutak Rock My goal is to help planners and fiduciaries understand the basis of cryptocurrency investments, what a crypto token is, what Bitcoin is, and how they work. I want to inspire you to learn more about what I can trigger in your mind about cryptocurrency. First, crypto is an alternative […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, MJ, CISP, CRC®, CRPS, CRSP, APA, Founder and Owner of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. When we look at the statistics, we see that most Americans are behind the eight ball when saving for retirement. Most of those who have anything saved are held in tax-deferred retirement accounts, so we have to help […]
Read more →By Wade D. Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, Professor of Retirement Income for the American College of Financial Services Alex Murgia, Ph.D., and I conducted this research in 2021 to help us understand when different retirement strategies best apply to different individuals. This is an ongoing debate in the profession. Today I saw an online discussion board […]
Read more →By Michael Wilson, CFP®, RC®, RICP®, Integrity Financial Planning If you do not know the acronyms, i.e., if you do not have a teenager running around, FOMO stands for fear of missing out. When people who have worked for an agency where they did not pay into Social Security, maybe they’ve heard of this GPO (government […]
Read more →By Michael Wilson, CFP®, RC®, RICP®, Integrity Financial Planning When it comes to WEP and Social Security, your workers, your employees, or you – if you work for a Social Security exempt agency – may have a fear of WEP (the Windfall Elimination Provision). FOMO means Fear of Missing Out. IDK stands for I Don’t Know. […]
Read more →By Steve Parrish, JD®, RICP®, CLU, ChFC®, AEP®, Co-Director Retirement Income Center and Adjunct Professor of Advanced Planning at The American College Estate planning is typically not a top of mind for consumers. However, lately, it has been a hot topic. I was surprised earlier this month when I was watching TV, and the local […]
Read more →By Tamiko Toland, Director, Retirement Markets, CANNEX There has been much change in this part of the industry since the original fixed index annuity product (FIA) was introduced in the late 1990s, and quite a lot of change just in the past couple of years. This is a very dynamic part of the industry. FIAs […]
Read more →By Curtis V. Cloke, CLTC, LUTCF, RICP®, Founder of Thrive Income Distribution System, LLC We can improve the knowledge about the best and worst uses of annuities because often, there are myths. This article is an advanced discussion, so we will assume that you know basic annuity tax facts. Breaking Myths and Biases Regarding Annuities […]
Read more →By Shelley Giordano, MA, Enterprise Integration Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Founder Academy Home Equity Financial Planning Dr. Wade Pfau, CFA, RICP notes that there are three significant threats in retirement: longevity, market volatility, and spending shocks. In this article, we are exploring how the housing asset can be utilized to counter these threats. What Share […]
Read more →By Barry Sacks, PhD, JD In this article, we will cover some advanced strategies that use housing wealth to improve financial outcomes in retirement. So, what’s meant by improving financial outcomes in this context? A significant concern of retirees and their financial planners is the risk of these retirees outliving their financial resources, which is […]
Read more →By David M. Blanchett, PhD, CFA, CFP®, Head of Retirement Research, Morningstar Investment Management Of all the risks that people face, longevity risk is the oddest because risks are usually a bad thing. Living a long time, in theory, should be a good thing, right? When we retire, we want to have a long and […]
Read more →By Kevin S. Seibert, CFP®, CRC®, CEBS, Managing Director, International Foundation for Retirement Education (InFRE) The idea of retirement is a relatively new concept. A child born in 1900 had a life expectancy of age 47. People worked as long as they could and then moved in with their children. The idea of not working […]
Read more →Editor’s note: We obtained permission from CANNEX to reprint their 2015 research paper that explains the math behind how annuitizing a portion of assets benefits a client’s retirement income and legacy. This paper builds on a 2002 paper by Ameriks et al that showed the effects of annuitizating 0%, 25% and 50% of a portfolio. […]
Read more →By Michael Falk, CFA, CRC®, Focus Financial Consulting Behavior is more important than your investments, and behavior is about the choices that you make. That is the actual manifestation of your behavior. We need to understand risk, sequence, and magnitude. These three terms are what do a fantastic job of pushing and pulling on our […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, APA, CISP, CRPS, CRC®, CRSP, Founder and Owner of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act We think it is best to focus just on the SECURE Act’s changes to IRAs today versus employer plan changes as these changes are highly complex. It is best to cover […]
Read more →By David M. Blanchett, PhD, CFA, CFP®, Head of Retirement Research, Morningstar Investment Management My goal is to help you understand the trends and role of the age people retire to help you better help your clients Create reasonable expectations for their financial plans; Understand what the kind of drivers of early and late retirement […]
Read more →By Wade D. Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, Professor of Retirement Income for the American College of Financial Services Understanding how annuities work is the crucial first step towards subsequently then exploring the potential role they have in a financial plan. This article is based on material for my new book, “Safety First Retirement Planning,” available through […]
Read more →By Allen Chao, Senior Account Executive at Longbridge Financial The reverse mortgage program is a multi-faceted tool. As a lender is, we qualify your clients for the most amount of money that they can get. For a traditional reverse mortgage you can divide that money up such as a credit line that you can tap […]
Read more →By Joe Tomlinson, FSA, MAAA Recent articles in Advisor Perspectives by David Blanchett and by Zvi Bodie and Dirk Cotton have dealt with single-premium immediate annuities (SPIAs) used to generate lifetime income in retirement. The focus of those articles was the pricing and the risks of going without inflation protection. In addition to SPIAs, insurers […]
Read more →By Jamie Hopkins, Esq., LLM, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, RICP Can we build systems and processes that really encourage the client, the end consumer, have a more secure retirement and overcome the hurdles we know exist because of misconceptions and fear from biases? How Can Advisors Provide Value? If we are a comprehensive advisor, there are […]
Read more →By William Meyer, CEO, Retiree, Inc. and Social Security Solutions, Inc. Social Security planning is very technical. I’m proud that the software we have built based on our research is nation-leading. We were just ranked as the No. 1 Social Security analyzer in America. Our second software, Income Solver, will show you at the press […]
Read more →By Wade Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, author of academic retirement research with practical application, RetirementReseacher.com There are two schools of thought regarding retirement – probability based and safety first – that really approach retirement income from fundamentally different perspectives. We’ll focus here on the probability-based side, the idea of using an investment portfolio to manage retirement […]
Read more →By Peter Neuwirth, FSA, FCA, and Barry Sacks, PhD, JD Up until 2012, many efforts had been focusing on ways either to boost the accumulation or to maximize the investment returns during the accumulation phase and even potentially after the drawdown period, but there has not been much attention spent on exactly how a retiree […]
Read more →By Rex L. Hogue, Attorney and Partner, Haiman Hogue, PLLC Qualified retirement plans (QRPs) create numerous planning problems. I found that most people have no idea how much they complicate estate planning nor do they know how to deal with the complications. Many mistakes can be made that can be devastating, and frequently they are […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, CISP, CRC®, CRPS, CRSP, APA, President of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. There is so much that we need to be paying attention to today to protect our clients. By the end of this article, I hope you learn how to prevent rollover and RMD mistakes that can cost your clients their IRAs, […]
Read more →By Curtis V. Cloke, CLTC, LUTCF, RICP®, Founder of Thrive Income Distribution System, LLC There is a bridge in Honduras where no roads lead to it, and there’s no river running under it. A cyclone came through that was so severe that it took out all the roads that led to the bridge. It also […]
Read more →By Roy Ranthun, MPH, “Mr. HSA” and Aaron Benway, CFP®, MBA Couples who are 65 years old and retiring today are projected by Fidelity to need $260,000 in retirement to cover all of their out-of-pocket costs for the rest of their life, after what Medicare pays. Medicare also does not include long-term care. For those 45-year-old […]
Read more →By Wade Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, author of academic retirement research with practical application, RetirementReseacher.com A lot of advisors did their due diligence about reverse mortgages in the past. But the research and the public policy changes over the past few years indicate that reverse mortgages can be a valuable tool in a retirement income plan […]
Read more →By Sudipto Banerjee, Ph.D. Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) Introduction Spending is one of the crucial economic factors in retirement, so it is very important to understand the spending patterns of retired households and the causes that drive their spending behavior. Understanding spending patterns not only will help current retirees succeed, but it will also […]
Read more →By Steve Vernon, FSA, MAAA, Research Scholar, Stanford Center on Longevity Bill Sharpe, who won a Nobel Prize and is now associated with Stanford University, was recently he was quoted as saying, “Retirement income is a really hard problem. It’s the hardest problem I’ve ever looked at.” If a Nobel Prize winner in economics, who […]
Read more →The following is an excerpt from the August 2016, GAO Report to Congressional Requesters, “401(K) PLANS: DOL Could Take Steps to Improve Retirement Income Options for Plan Participants”. Why GAO Did This Study As 401(k) plan participants reach retirement they face the challenge of making their savings last for an unknown lifespan, and many 401(k) plan sponsors do […]
Read more →By Shelley Giordano, Chair of the Funding Longevity Task Force Editor’s Note: Below is an adaptation of the live webinar delivered by Shelley Giordano in 2016. Her comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can read the summary article below as part of the 3rd Qtr 2016 Retirement InSight and Trends Newsletter. You […]
Read more →The following is an excerpt from the March 2016 GAO Report to Congressional Requesters, RETIREMENT SECURITY – Better Information on Income Replacement Rates Needed to Help Workers Plan for Retirement. Why GAO Did This Study Part of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) mission is to promote the retirement security of America’s workers, a goal that has […]
Read more →By the Society of Actuaries and Mathew Greenwald, PhD, Retirement Research Expert Editor’s Note: Below is an adaptation of the live webinar delivered by Mathew Greenwald and Cindy Levering of the Society of Actuaries in 2016. Their comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can read the summary article below as part of the […]
Read more →By Faisal Habib, PE, MBA, FRM, President of QWeMA (pronounced KWEE-MA), a division of CANNEX Financial Exchanges Limited Editor’s note: For 25 years, the 4% withdrawal rule has reigned supreme in the financial planning community as the single solution for the highest probability of creating sustainable income from a retirement portfolio. I must confess that […]
Read more →By David Blanchett, CFA, CFP®, AIFA® – Head of Retirement Research, Morningstar Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered in live webinar format in 2016. David’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a YouTube brief of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course to […]
Read more →By Stephen Horan, PhD, CFA, CIPM, Managing Director, Credentialing, CFA Institute Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered in live webinar format in December, 2015. Stephen’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a YouTube brief of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course to […]
Read more →By Michael Falk, CFA, CRC®, Focus Financial Consulting Editor’s note: Below is an adaptation of the live webinar delivered by Michael Falk in 2016. Michael’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a short YouTube clip of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course, […]
Read more →By Alexandra Macqueen, CFP®, Personal Finance Expert and co-author of “Pensionize Your Nest Egg: How to Use Product Allocation to Create a Guaranteed Income for Life” with Moshe A. Milesky, Ph.D. Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered in live webinar format in 2015. Alexandra’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a YouTube […]
Read more →by Gary Baker, President, U.S. Division at CANNEX Financial Exchanges and Curtis Cloke, CLTC, LUTCF, RICP Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered in live webinar format in 2015. Gary’s and Curtis’ comments below have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a YouTube brief of the original presentation here. You may also choose to […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, CISP, CRC®, CRPS, CRSP, APA, President of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. If you are one of the many financial/tax professionals who have been seeking clarity about converting after-tax amounts to Roth IRAs tax-free, IRS Notice 2014-54, issued September 18, 2014, provides welcome answers. While there was never any question that after-tax amounts […]
Read more →By David Blanchett, CFA, CFP®, AIFA® – Head of Retirement Research, Morningstar Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered in live webinar format in 2015. David’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a YouTube brief of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course to earn 1 […]
Read more →By Bruce McPherson, CRMP Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered in live webinar format in 2015. Bruce’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a YouTube brief of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course and earn 1 CRC®, CFP®, and/or PACE CE credit. A […]
Read more →By Michael Falk, CFA, CRC®, Focus Financial Consulting Editor’s note: Below is an adaptation of the live webinar delivered by Michael Falk in 2015. Michael’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a short YouTube clip of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course, […]
Read more →By Kevin S. Seibert, CFP®, CRC®, CEBS, Managing Director, International Foundation for Retirement Education (InFRE) There are key questions to answer for clients, and you can also ask certain employees if that’s appropriate based on whom you’re working with. The key questions to ask clients and employees when creating retirement income solutions are: What’s different […]
Read more →By Lisa A. Scalia, CPC, QPFC, QPA, QKA Joanne Jacobson, JD, LLM Marjorie Martin, EA, MAAA, MSPA From the Knowledge Resource Center of Buck Consultants Effective July 2, 2014, deferred annuities that meet the criteria for a qualifying longevity annuity contract can be excluded from participant account balances when calculating required minimum distributions. This will […]
Read more →By Manish Malhotra, MBA, Founder, President & CEO of Income Discovery – Expert on Retirement Income Planning Software Editor’s note: Retirement income planning is complex, as it requires breaking down the silos of retirement plan or product type and evaluating how to combine resources such as Social Security, human capital, home equity, and various types […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, CISP, CRC®, CRPS, CRSP, APA, President of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. We’re going to be looking at traditional IRA distributions at a very high level, and we’ll talk about Roth IRA distributions as well. I thought this would be an important topic to address because I’ve been receiving so many questions from […]
Read more →By Greg Prost, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Ambassador Capital Management Editor’s note: What I haven’t been seeing at the national retirement conferences recently is how the Fed was going to bring us out of these historically low interest rates without putting a damper on economic activity and prolonging the slow recovery that we’ve been experiencing […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA, CFP®, CRC®, Director of Education, and Research, InFRE Editor’s note: This presentation was delivered at the 2013 Financial Planning Association Annual conference. You can view brief YouTube clips of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course to earn 1 CRC®, CFP®, and/or PACE CE […]
Read more →By Michael Falk, CFA, CRC®, Focus Financial Consulting Editor’s note: Below is an adaptation of the live webinar delivered by Michael Falk in 2014. Michael’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a short YouTube clip of the original presentation here. You may also view the accompanying presentation in its entirety and […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA, CFP®, CRC® Director of Education and Research, InFRE As financial planners, we know that when someone arrives at retirement age and doesn’t have enough financial assets accumulated for retirement, there are still things they can do to substantially increase their retirement security even if the decision to retire has already been […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA, CFP®, CRC® Director of Education and Research, InFRE The financial planning industry is not ready to help the middle market make informed retirement decisions when they need it most. In my April, 2013 article in the Journal of Financial Planning (Still MIA: Comprehensive Best Practices for the Mid-Market), I referred to a […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA, CFP®, CRC® Director of Education and Research, InFRE Serving the retirement planning needs of the mid-market will be the big career opportunity of people in the financial services industry today, in addition to health care planning. According to new LIMRA research, investible retirement assets of U.S. households aged 55+ are expected […]
Read more →By Michael Falk, CFA, CRC®, Focus Financial Consulting Editor’s note: Below is an adaptation of the live webinar delivered by Michael Falk in 2014. Michael’s comments have been edited for clarity and length. You can view a short YouTube clip of the original presentation here. You may also choose to take the full length course, […]
Read more →Editor’s note: Last year, the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) about using lifetime income illustrations in defined contribution participant statements such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, etc. to help employees understand what their savings might provide in terms of retirement income. Information like this can help […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, CISP, CRC®, CRPS, CRSP, APA, President of Appleby Retirement Consulting, Inc. From a general perspective, we’re going to be looking at some transactions that must be completed by the end of the year in order for your clients to benefit from these provisions. I was speaking with some clients yesterday and I […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA, CFP®, CRC® Last year I went to the new Costco in Ann Arbor, MI because I could tell that my eyesight had changed so much that it was time for new lenses. I expected a glaucoma test first, but this doctor’s assistant instead used a diagnostic machine to take several pictures […]
Read more →By John Salter, PhD, CFP®, AIFA®, Associate Professor, Personal Financial Planning, Texas Tech University Editor’s note: Many retirement professionals are concerned about the retirement security of the mid-market. Home equity is the average retiree’s second largest household asset behind their Social Security benefits – not only for the middle mass market, but most of the […]
Read more →By Chuck Yanikoski, Founder and President of StillRiver Retirement Planning Software, Inc. Editor’s note: There were an estimated 3.7 million full-time equivalent elementary and secondary schoolteachers in the United States as of the fall of 2011. About three quarters of these teachers are female. In this article, Chuck Yanikoski of Still River Retirement Planning Software, […]
Read more →by Michael Finke, Ph.D., CFP®, Wade D. Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, David M. Blanchett, CFA, CFP® Editor’s Note: I have been concerned for several years about the effect of low interest rates on retirees and what will happen to their bond investments once interest rates are not artificially suppressed. I’ve also long held that the 4% rule is not […]
Read more →Editor’s note: also see this issue’s other article on retirement income options in employer-sponsored defined contribution plans In-plan guaranteed income solutions can help defined contribution (DC) plan participants mitigate their longevity risk. Yet because the available solutions can differ on several dimensions, they are hard to compare. We hear statements such as “XYZ is illiquid, […]
Read more →This is the second half of a summary of focus groups with financial planners at the Financial Planning Association 2012 Retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 6-7, 2012. The first half of this report appeared in the December, 2012 issue of Retirement Insight and Trends. By Anna Rappaport FSA, Jaleen Edwards, and Betty Meredith, CFA®, […]
Read more →A summary of focus groups with financial planners at the Financial Planning Association 2012 Retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 6-7, 2012 By Anna Rappaport FSA, Jaleen Edwards, and Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® Many surveys of America’s middle-market have found that this market is vastly underserved when it comes to financial planning, services and […]
Read more →By Denise Appleby, APA, CISP, CRPS, CRC®, CRSP Editor’s Note: Denise is a long-time supporter of InFRE and a fellow Certified Retirement Counselor®. She excels at explaining IRA and employer plan rules and regulations, because not only does she know and understand the regulations, she has extensive practical experience. Here are two articles to help […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA, CFP®, CRC® Making informed retirement income decisions is much more difficult than making retirement accumulation decisions, and millions of pre-retirement and retired Americans currently do not have access to the qualified professional advice they need. Professionals choosing to work with these millions of middle mass and middle mass affluent clients in […]
Read more →By Chuck Yanikoski, Founder and President of StillRiver Retirement Planning Software, Inc. Editor’s note: Chuck Yanikoski has contributed this and other articles to Retirement Insight and Trends. You can view a YouTube brief of one of Chuck’s presentations here. You may also choose to take the full length course of one of his presentations to […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® In this new column, we’ll provide links to practical online resources that can help retirement counselors in their one-on-one meetings with clients or seminar/workshop participants. If you know of a resource that will benefit other retirement counselors, send an email with a link to me at info@infre.org. Thank you […]
Read more →By William C. Grossman, ERPA, QPA, APR, Director of Education and Communications, McKay Hochman Co., Inc. Editor’s note: I thought Bill Grossman did a great job succinctly summarizing the final investment advice regulations. This article appears courtesy of McKay Hochman. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recently issued a final regulation to […]
Read more →Center for Retirement Research Issues Brief, June 2012, Number 12-11 By Alicia H. Munnell, Natalia Sergeyevna Orlova, and Anthony Webb* Introduction Financial planners devote considerable energy to advising Americans how to invest their retirement savings. Of course, wise investment of one’s hard-earned money is important. But the fact is that many Americans have saved very […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on recommendations of professionals and choices made by American workers regarding retirement income. For this report, the GAO interviewed officials from the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® I live just west of Dearborn, Michigan where Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing in the early 1900s by creating the assembly line. Cars evolved from luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man. Using innovative production techniques, Ford decreased the production time of a car from […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® The financial industry generally classifies a client’s risk tolerance by their capability to assume investment risk. When retirement planning for the mid-market, retirement counselors need to prioritize a client’s ability to protect against the additional primary risks of inflation, longevity, health and long-term care before they plan for their […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® In early February, The Council of Economic Advisers published a report titled “Supporting Retirement for American Families.” The paper summarized the historical shift from traditional DB to 401(k)-type plans and hybrid DB plans, highlighting the problem of decreasing lifetime retirement benefits for American workers, and the need for employer-sponsored […]
Read more →Editor’s note: the following is an excerpt from the white paper “The Secure Choice Pension” by Hank Kim, Esq., Executive Director of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, published in September, 2011. The views presented in this paper are not necessarily the views of InFRE but are presented here to help retirement counselors […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® The Society of Actuaries’ Committee on Post Retirement Needs and Risks recently completed a significant series of planning briefs to help consumers make more informed retirement decisions. Drawing upon the expertise of prominent retirement professionals, the result is this thought-provoking series of 11 issue briefs written in everyday language […]
Read more →By Kerry Prechter, Editor, Retirement Income Journal A directory of 27 software tools accompanies this overview of the rapidly evolving retirement planning technology industry. “Only the dead know Brooklyn,” a great novelist once wrote. Thomas Wolfe wasn’t referring to zombies; he was just observing that no one alive could possibly know everything there was to […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® For the average mid-market American, home equity is their largest household asset. As retirement counselors, we need to understand options for helping retired clients appropriately use their home equity if their economic situation requires it, such as selling their home/downsizing if access to their equity isn’t feasible, or alternatives if they […]
Read more →By Paula H. Hogan, CFP®, CFA Editor’s note: Being ready for retirement requires having a plan to manage the key retirement risks of longetivity, inflation, medical and long-term care, and market and interest rate risks. Here are some good reminders from a financial planning point of view of what we as retirement couselors need to keep in mind […]
Read more →By Betty Meredith, CFA®, CFP®, CRC® Editor’s note: This is the second half of a two-part article on a retirement income planning process for the mid-market. The first half can be accessed here. Step 4: Identify Options for Addressing Gaps Steps 1, 2, and 3 make up the data collection phase of creating a retirement […]
Read more →The findings in this study are applicable to not only purchase of annuities, but all financial products as well. The more effectively we as professional retirement counselors frame the education and guidance we give consumers and employees, the more receptive, desirous and confident consumers and employees will be to take steps to improve their retirement […]
Read more →Retirement income planning is the most important trend in the financial planning industry today, and it requires a new type of qualified retirement professional who can manage income at the start of and throughout retirement for middle-affluent and middle-mass clients. This article explains a six-step retirement income management process jointly developed by the International Foundation […]
Read more →This is the first of what may become a regular column on issues we all deal with regarding retirement plans. So why rants? Among all the products, people, regulations and results, we all have a few issues to rant about! The goal of this column is not simply for me to shout, but rather to […]
Read more →Retirement-specific training and education programs by leading experts to help advisors and consumers make informed retirement decisions.
This quarterly newsletter is also made available to all retirement professionals seeking the practical application of new retirement readiness, counseling, planning, and income management concepts that build the retirement security of middle-mass and mass-affluent consumers.