Entries from December 2010
The Lowdown on Tax Cuts
What does the new tax legislation mean to you?
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The darkness behind the problems
Is it possible that many global meltdowns and persistent social problems come from a single source?
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MEDIA REVIEWS - December 16-23, 2010
If you're helping small businesses create and manage their qualified plans, then make sure you look up BrightScope, which may, according to Andy Gluck, offer the best marketing tool you are likely to find anywhere. This issue of Financial Advisor also contains an interesting article on real estate investment opportunities. Interesting? I never imagined that Jerry Reinsdorf of Balcor would return to the financial marketplace.
Meanwhile, Joel Bruckenstein offers a detailed review of the new features in Tamarac Version 10, and Roy Diliberto's column should be closely studied by anybody who thinks that asking your clients personal questions is just a bunch of hooey.
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Meanwhile, Joel Bruckenstein offers a detailed review of the new features in Tamarac Version 10, and Roy Diliberto's column should be closely studied by anybody who thinks that asking your clients personal questions is just a bunch of hooey.
[Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - December 8-15, 2010
The cover article of this month's Investment Advisor, as you'll see below, interviewed an interestingly eclectic group of observers and members of the financial planning community. You will stop short when you read that Dan Ariely, the behavioral economist and keynote speaker du jour this past year, believes that advisors should recognize that"the benefit they are providing their clients, in terms of balancing their portfolio, cannot justify the amount they are charging for the service." Wow! Later, Shlomo Bernartzi, an economist with Allianz Global Investors, says that advisors are too heavily focused on selling past performance and picking mutual funds. Dick Wagner believes that financial planning is still too linked to selling product. Look at yourself in this mirror and you can almost see your knuckles dragging on the ground.
In his column, Mark Tibergien talks about merger negotiations and the sticking point of equity; Bob Clark says that advisors are not yet sophisticated enough to recruit wirehouse brokers, and Angie Herbers offers a fascinating poll of her current and former clients, which conclusively proves, to her, that revenue-based bonuses are the most motivating type of compensation you can offer your key staff members. Dan Skiles and Tom Giachetti offer good information as usual.
I wanted to let everybody know that I just sent out some Client Articles, one on the outlines of the new tax compromise (including details on the estate tax "fix" that you probably haven't read anywhere); another offering a tour of a presentation by a Fed economist on the visible economic recovery in the U.S. I also sent out a review of the proposals for debt reform recently released by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a more prosaic article in identity theft.
If you have subscribed to Client Articles and didn't find them in your e-mailbox, go to my web site and pull them down. If you haven't subscribed to Client Articles, well, the cost is $298 a year to supplement your current client communications, and one advisor recently worried that, with the articles she has been sending out lately, her clients might be getting spoiled. [Read more »]
In his column, Mark Tibergien talks about merger negotiations and the sticking point of equity; Bob Clark says that advisors are not yet sophisticated enough to recruit wirehouse brokers, and Angie Herbers offers a fascinating poll of her current and former clients, which conclusively proves, to her, that revenue-based bonuses are the most motivating type of compensation you can offer your key staff members. Dan Skiles and Tom Giachetti offer good information as usual.
I wanted to let everybody know that I just sent out some Client Articles, one on the outlines of the new tax compromise (including details on the estate tax "fix" that you probably haven't read anywhere); another offering a tour of a presentation by a Fed economist on the visible economic recovery in the U.S. I also sent out a review of the proposals for debt reform recently released by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a more prosaic article in identity theft.
If you have subscribed to Client Articles and didn't find them in your e-mailbox, go to my web site and pull them down. If you haven't subscribed to Client Articles, well, the cost is $298 a year to supplement your current client communications, and one advisor recently worried that, with the articles she has been sending out lately, her clients might be getting spoiled. [Read more »]
Compromise on Taxes?
What does the new tax deal mean for our 2011 tax planning?
[Read more »]
View from the Fed
Here's how Fed economists see the (slowly) recovering U.S. economy.
[Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - December 1-7, 2010
If you're busy, feel free to skip the first review, where I wonder aloud, and in some detail, whether the FPA's research staff is adding value or, alternatively, is comically uninformed about the basics of financial planning. Maybe they know a lot and are really sophisticated, but if so, they did not put their best foot forward here.
Much better is the contribution by Wade Pfau, who points out that all of our retirement sufficiency analyses have come from analyzing historical returns from one country--the U.S.--and that during a time period when the American economy was growing to dominance and preeminence in the world. Is it possible that this is not the typical case? Performing retirement sufficiency analyses using returns from 17 other developed nations, it appears that we have been using a skewed sample. The problem is: are THOSE also skewed samples--since they include the breakdown of markets or foreign occupation during World War I and World War II? The article raises a lot of interesting questions.
Meanwhile, The Economist looks at aging populations in the developing world, the risks they cause to economies and some possible solutions. And it examines the Irish debt problem--and the much greater risk that the contagion will spread to the much larger economy of Spain. It paints a cautiously optimistic picture, but bond buyers apparently aren't buying it. [Read more »]
Much better is the contribution by Wade Pfau, who points out that all of our retirement sufficiency analyses have come from analyzing historical returns from one country--the U.S.--and that during a time period when the American economy was growing to dominance and preeminence in the world. Is it possible that this is not the typical case? Performing retirement sufficiency analyses using returns from 17 other developed nations, it appears that we have been using a skewed sample. The problem is: are THOSE also skewed samples--since they include the breakdown of markets or foreign occupation during World War I and World War II? The article raises a lot of interesting questions.
Meanwhile, The Economist looks at aging populations in the developing world, the risks they cause to economies and some possible solutions. And it examines the Irish debt problem--and the much greater risk that the contagion will spread to the much larger economy of Spain. It paints a cautiously optimistic picture, but bond buyers apparently aren't buying it. [Read more »]
REAL Debt Reform
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility has offered us some tough choices on lowering the federal debt.
[Read more »]
Successful Successions
Solo practices have the hardest time with their succession plans. Here are two that worked.
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Rocky Succession
This is a succession planning story seen through the successor's eyes.
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The Levels of Delegation
ActiFi has created a way make the whole confusing process of delegation clear and simple.
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Tools in Practice
Listen to Rick Kahler share how he's incorporated various life planning toolkits into his practice.
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WORTHLESS ON WALL STREET
It may be time to rethink whether Wall Street offers any tangible benefits to the global economic system.
[Read more »]
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