The Time to Buy Annuities is Now
With the market so high, more near-retirees should be taking profits and buying lifetime income products. This opportunity won't last forever.
On the Case: A Solution from ‘Retirement NextGen’
Robert Fourman, a colleague of Curtis Cloke at Acuity Financial, uses their Retirement NextGen software to create a retirement income plan for Andrew and Laura, a near-retirement couple with...
Roth 401(k)s Are the People’s Choice
New research suggests that the majority of participants, without doing the math, might actually prefer to get taxes on their savings out of the way today and have the...
On the Case: TIPS Ladder + QLAC + HELOC = Income Security
Mike Lonier, of Lonier Financial Advisory, solved 'Andrew and Laura's' retirement income puzzle with a combination of products. A certified Retirement Management Analyst, he first builds a safe income...
On the Case: Jim Otar Answers Our Income Challenge
'I would not worry too much about complicated strategies,' Otar wrote after reviewing Andrew and Laura’s retirement finances. 'They probably don’t need guaranteed income (annuities), a bucket strategy or...
Dealing with the Contradictions of Financial Advice
'This is not a problem of Truth and Proof,' wrote Francois Gadenne of RIIA in an email and the inconsistencies of advice. “It is a problem of measurement (of...
Curve, Triangle or Rectangle: What Kind of Advisor Are You?
At the Retirement Income Industry Association's 2017 Summer Conference, founder Francois Gadenne asserted that advisors can protect themselves from automation, regulation and commoditization by advising in three dimensions. ...
Symetra Offers Fee-Based Fixed Indexed Annuity
Distribution of the Symetra Advisory Edge and Advisory Income Edge products began in April through Merrill Lynch, Commonwealth and Raymond James.
Has the Fiduciary Rule Lost Its Sting?
'The government is no longer defending the BIC Exemption’s condition restricting class-litigation waivers insofar as it applies to arbitration agreements,” lawyers from the Departments of Labor and Justice wrote...
Vanguard’s New CEO: No Surprises
For at least two decades, it was assumed that Tim Buckley would be Vanguard's CEO someday. And why not? He helped Vanguard grow into the paradoxically transparent yet mysterious...
A High-Tech Challenge for High-Touch Advisors
Wealth management firms know they need next-gen ‘fintech.’ But many of them don’t know exactly which digital tools to buy or where to apply them in their businesses, tech...
T. Rowe Price Reopens the Market for Payout Funds
Managed payout funds haven't gotten much traction in the last decade. But T. Rowe Price hopes that its target-date fund/payout fund hybrid, the Retirement Income 2020 Fund, will help...
Affluent People on Medicaid? It Can Happen
Only six percent of Medicaid recipients use nursing homes, but their bills account for 42% of Medicaid spending. Many of those who receive Medicaid for long-term care expenses are...
Cloudy with a Chance of Lawsuits
If the fiduciary rule and its Best Interest Contract Exemption are here to stay, will they trigger a wave of lawsuits against advisory firms? No one seems to know...
The Tell-Tale Brokerage Statement
Judging by what I saw (and didn't see) in a friend's brokerage IRA statement, class action lawsuits for breach of the DOL Best Interest Contract might be a lot...
This Couple Needs Your Advice
These two people, ages 64 and 63, have a combined net worth of about $2.5 million. They're looking for ways to generate income in retirement. Here are some specifics...
Three Lessons Learned
By my late 20s, life had taught me a few homely but memorable lessons about leadership, entrepreneurship, and cross-cultural relations.
Morningstar Enters the Indexed Age
Just in time for the activation of the DOL fiduciary rule, Morningstar has expanded its Annuity Intelligence resources to include indexed and fixed annuities.
‘Don’t Expect Action By the SEC’
The retirement industry and its legal teams are receiving about as much useful new information from the SEC about the fiduciary rule as Dorothy Gale got from the Scarecrow...
Complex Annuities for a Complex Era
Indexed variable annuities (IVAs) offer a potential solution for paralyzed clients—perhaps for those who feel baffled by a market where both bond and stock prices are at all-time highs....
