Guiding Clients Through the Medicare Maze
Medicare counseling can be an excellent marketing tool for advisors, especially those who are positioning themselves as retirement specialists. Just ask Ash Toumayants of State College, Pa.
View ArticleFinancial Engines prepares to roar
Counting on synergy between its institutional managed accounts and its 120 newly-named Financial Engines Advisor Centers, the Silicon Valley managed account giant wants to aggregate all of a...
View ArticlePositive Words about Negative Rates
If Fed chair Janet Yellen had to choose between setting a higher inflation target and forcing short-term interest rates into negative territory in order to lower real rates during the next recession,...
View ArticleLincoln Financial enhances VA income rider
'The 5% rollup starts at purchase and runs for 10 years. It applies only in years when there’s no withdrawal and there’s a hard stop at 10 years from purchase,' said Lincoln Financial's Dan Herr.
View ArticleA.M. Best report defines VA issuers’ dilemma
Qualified VA’s will be affected by the DOL fiduciary rule, which includes more fee disclosures and level compensation structures, said a new report from the ratings agency. About 58% of VA separate...
View ArticleFinancial / Retirement Planning Software Directory
See the detail on financial planning software including vendors, scopes, costs, and contacts.
View ArticleSocial Security Maximizer
The Social Security Maximizer is an integral tool for a retirement planner's comprehensive financial planning calculations.
View ArticleAIG Tops Annuity Sales Chart Again
Eight years after collapsing under the weight of CDS losses and four years after emerging from federal ownership, AIG is again atop the annuity sales charts, with $9.78 billion sold in the first half...
View ArticleThe Essence of Goal-Based Investing
Goal-based investing is more than just mental accounting that assigns labels like “house,” “college” or “retirement” to different pots of money. It's ultimately about risk management, as we learned...
View ArticleGuiding Clients Through the Medicare Maze
Medicare counseling can be an excellent marketing tool for advisors, especially those who are positioning themselves as retirement specialists. Just ask Ash Toumayants of State College, Pa.
View ArticleCould You Be Sued Under the New DOL Rule?
'If you’re trying to get things right, our aim is to help you, and that will be true for some time after December 2017,' said attorney Tim Hauser of the Labor Department regarding enforcement of the...
View ArticleAnecdotal Evidence
In this week's opinion piece: The possibility that the DOL rule will extend to taxable accounts; Vanguard's formula for calculating a safe withdrawal rate; thoughts on recent news coverage of Wells...
View ArticleJackson offers no-load VA for fiduciary era
'In today’s heightened regulatory environment, many of our distribution partners are choosing this type of product to serve their clients who are seeking strategies for retirement planning, a Jackson...
View ArticleMassMutual, Envestnet enhance fiduciary services
Earlier this year, MassMutual and ERS, Envestnet's registered investment advisor, added '3(21)' service to their Fiduciary Assure program. Now they're adding a '3(38)' service.
View ArticleAdvisors to retirees shouldn’t neglect the ‘household balance sheet’
'A complete understanding of the household's requirements and resources is necessary to apply a fiduciary standard effectively in both the accumulation and disbursement phases,' according to...
View ArticleFlight from active equity funds continues: Morningstar
Passive U.S. equity funds persisted in attracting investor money, with an estimated inflow of $16.4 billion in August, but it was only about half of July's $33.8 billion intake.
View ArticleHelicopter Money Is in the Air
Helicopter money comes in two forms: The government could issue each voter or citizen with a smart card worth, say, $1,000. Or helicopter money could be used to finance infrastructure spending, writes...
View ArticleWith eye on DOL, IRI hires Milliman to survey annuity comp
The survey is necessary to establish industry compensation benchmarks because the DOL didn’t define “reasonable” compensation except to say that it should follow 'a market based standard,' the Insured...
View ArticleFinancial / Retirement Planning Software Directory
See the detail on financial planning software including vendors, scopes, costs, and contacts.
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