Legacy Estates – Leaving the Most to Your KidsMost Americans struggle to fund an adequate retirement reserve, but a small percentage manage to accumulate more wealth that they will spend during their lifetime. Many of this group, mostly executives, business owners and professionals loose thousands of dollars to taxes and asset mismanagement mistakes because they […]

Anyone who has worked with both a stock broker and an insurance agent has noticed a basic conflict in the way they approach financial planning. This can be disconcerting to the consumer of financial services. Understanding the roots of this disparity puts it into perspective.

Over the last two decades’ employers have been quietly replacing their defined benefit plans with defined contribution plans, which shifts the burden of funding an adequate retirement entirely to the employee.

The glitterati are often the most popular people at a party, but when you want your computer fixed you call a geek.  Retirement planning is much the same way.  People tend to buy financial products from the sales person that maximizes their social comfort.  However, the guy in the corner with the pocket protector who is […]

Consumer’s often get conflicting retirement advice from insurance agents and stock brokers.  Each has a unique perspective on capital accumulation, that is largely colored by where they collect their paychecks.  The reality of retirement planning is that most of us need both investments and savings. With an investment, the consumer accepts the entire market risk […]

There is an advice war going on and you, as a current or future retiree, need to be alerted.  It’s not an out in the open conflict, but rather an underground war played out with verbal snipes, biased product adds and tainted retirement advice.  Most stock brokers and insurance agents are part of this subtle […]

Unless they have a very large nest egg, most married retirees will eventually face the ‘Survivor Dilemma’.  This is a choice that takes some serious thought and arises from the need to supply retirement income for not one, but two people.  You and your spouse.Employer sponsored pensions and profit sharing plans have certain government rules […]

My grandfather was fond of saying ‘the ‘right tool for the right job’. He was into building and fixing things around the farm.  However, that is also a good rule for financial and retirement planning, except it should be modified to ‘the right tool for the right time’.Retirement planners have a lot of financial gizmos […]

The more things change the more they stay the same.  During the 1970’s and 1980’s market timing was a popular pursuit on wall street.  The concept was simple, move money to safety when the market was about to decline and move it back into stocks to catch the next upswing.  The public put millions on […]