Boomer Market Advisor February 2009
Cover Story
Are you really comprehensive?
"We step back and take a holistic, 10,000-foot view when approaching our clients' financial plans." Can't say how often we've heard that phrase, and in the...
Features
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10 Questions for Susan Voss, Iowa Insurance Commissioner, on the EIA Regulation 151a controversy
Love 'em or hate 'em, the case for equity-indexed annuities is playing out before our eyes. With downside protection paramount in the current meltdown (especially...
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Boomer tax strategies in a bear market
There are times to stay the course and there are times when it's simply not an option. For advisors like Benjamin Tobias, CFP, last year...
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Retirement's health care fail-safe
If you are not on the HSA bandwagon yet, you better hurry. Health Savings Accounts are hot. They aren't going to earn you the highest...
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Building boomer business with life insurance and long term care riders
Baby boomers are a generation meant to stay young forever. So why in the world would any of its members need Long Term Care Insurance,...
Columns
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Good time for a Roth? Do the numbers
As 2010 approaches, advisors wonder if the numbers make sense for their clients to convert to a Roth IRA. This may be an opportunity to...
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Regain boomer balance
Advisors frequently say their clients have been "frozen" by their equity losses. These clients have not rebalanced and, often, the advisors have not pushed them...
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Tech tips for better business efficiency
Despite investor losses in the market meltdown, you as an advisor have never been more valued. Clients need your guidance through these difficult times. How...
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What Madoff means to independent advisors
Bernard Madoff. Once a name revered on Wall Street now reviled. For decades, access to his firm was a prize for advisors and registered reps....
Departments
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Danger, Will Robinson
A famous faux-commercial from "Saturday Night Live" has Sam Waterston as pitchman for Old Glory Insurance. Waterston, star of NBC's "Law & Order," warns of...
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Treasury and IRS issue more flexibility for 529 plans
We're sure this is one of many revised regulations we will see this year as a direct result of the financial crisis. The IRS and...
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Public opinion: Boomers in foreclosure shouldn't receive a federal bailout
By September last year, about 700,000 boomers had homes in foreclosure, according to AARP. The number represented more than a quarter of the total number...
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Retirement is 'severely' off-target
Financial advisors say the economic crisis has not just crippled, but "severely jeopardized" their clients' retirement security. According to Brinker Capital's Retirement Indicator, 88 percent...
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Boomers can't afford health care
A recent AARP survey indicates boomers believe they will fare much better in 2009 than they did in 2008 -- that is, if they don't...
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Younger boomers want to break from generation
Pundits point to greedy boomers as the root of the nation's spiraling economy. The generation has gotten such a bad rap lately that no one...
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Law helps same-sex boomer couples
Whether former President Bush realized it or not, he helped out gay and lesbian boomers nearing retirement when he passed the Worker, Retiree and Employer...
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Boomers still top spending habits
Even in a recession, boomers dominate in spending power. According to recent data from the Hallmark Channel and The Nielsen Company, baby boomers account for...
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To plan or not to plan for retirement -- does it make any difference?
Before 2008's market meltdown, pre-retirees making diversified investments beyond savings vehicles like bonds and CDs were in a seemingly better spot than those who were...
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Boomers boost hiring
Hard to believe but some job markets are still hot. And boomers are stoking the flames. CNNMoney.com looked at which industries are thriving: Education - Layoffs,...
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401(k) investors stay the course
Going forward in a rocky market, 401(k) investors say they are staying the course and won't change their retirement plan. "Workers want to keep the...
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Minimize boomer family risk
The current economic environment reinforces the importance of a comprehensive and repeatable process to address challenges your boomer clients face. Whether your clients' wealth is...
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Retirement assets total $16.9 trillion in second quarter 2008
Of course, this was before the collapse in mid-September, but we'll take any good news we can get. American savers held $16.9 trillion in retirement...
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Congress suspends required minimum distributions for retirees
In case you missed it (not sure how you could, but with the holidays and all) Congress passed a bill before the Christmas break suspending...
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Just so we're clear ... Financial services industry in trouble
The Financial Services Fact Book ensures it's all on the record: "In 2008 massive mortgage and real estate investment losses led to an upheaval in the...
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Bernie Madoff and Social Security
Holman Jenkins, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has a novel solution to the Madoff affair: [Madoff] may have been casual from the start about what...
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A boomer boom that wasn't
Several years ago, the first wave of baby boomer retirements triggered speculation about the unprecedented wealth transfer that was to come. Some projected $20 trillion...
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A boomer fund product to bank on
Is today a good day to invest? Who knows? Timing a recovery or picking a bottom is a loser's game. It's like playing the lottery....
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Common insurance and financial planning mistakes
If they seem obvious, ask yourself why so many clients (and too many advisors) continue to make the same insurance and financial planning mistakes over...
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