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Cover Stories

Sounds Like a Plan

by Kerry Pechter

Sounds Like a Plan

Wed, Jan 25, 2012

A directory of 27 software tools accompanies this overview of the rapidly evolving financial planning technology industry.

Lion's Share

by Kerry Pechter

Lion's Share

Wed, Jan 18, 2012

ING U.S. Retirement will combine its own target date funds with the AllianceBernstein three-insurer annuity platform to offer a lifetime income option to its 52,000 small and mid-sized plans.

The Outer Limits of Outsourcing

by David Lindorff

The Outer Limits of Outsourcing

Tue, Jan 10, 2012

Advisors can’t do everything themselves. But they need to be careful in choosing what to hand off to a software tool, a vendor or an assistant.

Four Income Planning Tools

by Joel Bruckenstein

Four Income Planning Tools

Tue, Jan 03, 2012

Here are brief reviews of four noteworthy but not-widely-known retirement income planning software tools, provided by the publisher of Virtual Office News and the T3 Newsletter. Mr. Bruckenstein is also a CFP.

Columns : Guest Column

The Red (Ink) Peril

The Red (Ink) Peril

by Robert Skidelsky

A British Lord, professor emeritus and biographer of John Maynard Keynes explains why government debt is a misused scare tactic.

News

New York Life resolves itself to a duo

Tue, Jan 24, 2012

The company reorganized itself into two basic divisions, an Insurance Group run by Chris Blunt and an Investments Group run by John Y. Kim. Kim will succeed Blunt as head of the Retirement Income Security (RIS) business.

January rally led by institutional investors: TrimTabs

Mon, Jan 23, 2012

Much of the year-to-date gain in U.S. stocks has occurred in overnight futures trading, said Trim Tabs executive vice president David Santschi.

RMB seen as third reserve currency, after dollar and euro

RMB seen as third reserve currency, after dollar and euro

Mon, Jan 23, 2012

Holding RMB is important for investors who have global aggregate portfolios or diversified global bond portfolios, said Jim McCaughan, CEO of Principal Global Investors.

What’s in an advisor’s title? Still not much, says Cerulli

Mon, Jan 23, 2012

Many advisor practices “offer some of the basic elements of financial planning, but focus their efforts nearly exclusively on asset accumulation strategies,” Cerulli said in a release.

The Bucket

The Bucket

Mon, Jan 23, 2012

Brief or late-breaking items from Milliman, the Insured Retirement Institute, the Financial Planning Association, the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, Fidelity, Swiss Re, Putnam Investments, DTCC, the American Academy of Actuaries, the Society for Human Resource Management, and Ameriprise Financial.