Retirement

Historically there has been a two-track approach to retirement income planning. One track focuses on the accumulation of assets—save enough money and your nest egg will spin off sufficient income to support your lifestyle. You might recall Lee Eisenberg’s 2006 book, “The Number: What Do You Need for the Rest of Your Life and What Will … Read more

Six in ten financial service professionals say their clients are in or near retirement, but the advisors take different approaches to designing sustainable retirement plan. Russell Investments discloses this finding in latest Financial Professional Outlook, a quarterly survey of U.S. financial advisors. In addition to topics regularly covered in the survey, the new report examines … Read more

One of the most common questions clients ask about Roth IRAs is “Should I make a Roth conversion?” If the answer is yes, the next question is “When should I convert?” While Roth conversions can make sense at any age, depending on your clients’ particular circumstances, generally speaking, the younger a client is, the more it … Read more

Plan sponsors are increasingly showing a willingness to incorporate new, more complex approaches to help their employees better prepare for retirement. But there’s at least one new plan design idea that remains largely unfamiliar to many of their advisors:  The addition of health saving accounts, which are used to set aside dollars for medical expenses … Read more

With the stock market near all-time highs and interest rates at record lows, investment advice prospects aren’t easy to find.  And they are even harder to move. Solution around this current prospecting problem: prospect individual company 401(k) retirement plan participants who work at the same companies as your current clients. Every investment advisor has clients who interact with … Read more

Those worried about hidden fees in their retirement accounts might want to investigate FeeX, a service that was launched in the U.S. this spring. Free at the moment, eventually the company plans to introduce optional premium services for which it will charge.  Founders Yoav Zurel, David Weisz, Eyal Halahmi and Uri Levine — Levine being the cofounder … Read more

Health savings accounts could help generate huge sums to offset health care costs in retirement, at least for some Americans, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute.  Contributing the maximum amount to an HSA for 40 years, without withdrawing savings, would accumulate $360,000 at a rate of return of 2.5 percent, $600,000 at 5 percent, … Read more

The life insurance industry has the best IRS-approved retirement savings plan today—and most investors know nothing about it. This retirement savings vehicle is not a company-sponsored, pre-tax qualified, 401(k)-type plan. It’s also not a Roth. It’s not an annuity or whole life. Despite sales of well over $1 Billion in 2011 for the top 39 … Read more

The volume of retirement assets rolling out of defined contribution plans has gotten the Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Committee’s attention.  IRAs, along with other investment vehicles that fall outside the jurisdiction of ERISA’s oversight, are growing more popular as boomers retire and move their retirement savings out of employer-sponsored plans.  In response, the ERISA Advisory Council this week … Read more