by Dow Jones
(Dow Jones) As speculation mounts that U.S. lawmakers will let Bush-era tax cuts on
dividends lapse, some wealth managers are considering revising clients'
portfolios to minimize the tax hit.
U.S. state pensions have insufficient assets to cover benefits,
payouts consuming a growing portion of resources and costs rising twice
as fast as investment gains.
by Alan Lavine
Its new Web site allows advisors to evaluate and buy fixed immediate annuities from a number of insurance companies.
U.S. corporate pension plans are falling behind future payouts to
retirees by the most in a decade amid a slowing economy and the lowest
bond yields on record.
It should be easier for employers to offer annuities in their
retirement plans because Americans are at risk of outliving their
savings, Prudential Financial said at hearing on lifetime income.
by David B. Armstrong
Conducting liability reviews with clients will strengthen your relationships with them.
by Don Schreiber Jr.
Now is the time for advisors and investors to rethink conventional buy and hold-growth-stock focused approaches.
Is it finally time to convert a traditional individual retirement account to a Roth? And if so, how should you do it?
For America's baby boomers, the
longer it takes for the economy to recover, the less money they'll have
to spend in retirement. Also, older workers are finding it harder to get jobs.
Many clients want to control how quickly their children can draw down the retirement accounts they inherit, but setting up trusts can sometimes be a complicated and risky process.
by Alan Lavine
Immediate annuities fit well in retirement income plans.
Financial advisors should take a look at clients' liquidity and
borrowing power, now that the financial crisis has investors more wary, a
Merrill Lynch study found.
by
Eric Rasmussen
Although it was reported that more men than women lost jobs by early 2009, there's no doubt women felt the pain of The Great Recession, too. A study shows many more women expect to work longer.
If your clients are baby boomers, the odds are high they'll exhaust
their retirement savings after ten or 20 years of retirement, according
to a new report.
by Troy Onink and Bernard Whalen
Additional income resulting from a Roth conversion may lower financial aid eligibility and impact use of a federal tax credit for education.
Reverse mortgages might be more appealing to some clients now that fees have fallen substantially in recent months. Borrowing limits have been reduced, however.
Bulking up on charitable donations is one strategy some financial
advisors are recommending this year to clients facing a tax hit from
moving retirement assets to Roth IRAs.
Most people couldn't pick this guy out of a line-up. But this son of a Dead Sea Scroll scholar is the Washington insider figuring out how to boost Americans' retirement savings.
