Elizabeth D. Festa

About the Author

Elizabeth D. Festa

Elizabeth Festa, Regulatory & Compliance News Editor for LifeHealthPro.com, is a longtime financial and regulatory affairs journalist with a background in insurance, securities, the investment advisor space and telecomm deregulation, both in Washington and New York. She has worked at everything from old-school newsletter sheets punched into binders to an international wire service to a hyper-local blog, and has free-lanced for major and regional newspapers and magazines on a variety for features, real estate and lifestyle stories. She found herself covering insurance when all her colleagues covered banking, and figured an actuary could talk circles around a banker and stay in a Rolodex (she still uses one) a lot longer. Elizabeth learned insurance regulatory issues on the back of the demutualization/investment bank movement and Glass Steagall reform efforts in the late 1990s and went religiously to four NAIC meetings a year, sitting in the cheap seats in back with the skeptical accountants, heckling consultants and the pacing consumer advocates. Fast forward, after a decade of real estate and Internet company boom and bust, and she is back on the beat again, covering insurance modernization, which is an evolving process, she has learned, not a destination. Festa can be reached at efesta@sbmedia.com or on Twitter@LHPro_Reg.

• Graff's Goal at ASPPA: Closing the Gap

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  July 1, 2008

  A go-to guy in Washington for retirement plan policy, Brian Graff has been at the helm of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries...

• Emphasizing Quality Over Quantity

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  June 1, 2008

  Laurie Hasso has changed her way of doing business since 1985, and not just in moving the financial planning firm she owns with her husband,...

• Making Volatility a Retiree's Friend

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  May 1, 2008

  J. Michael Martin's goal for his clients, about 80% of whom are retirees or those getting ready to retire, is not to have a negative...

• FINRA and SEC Look to Build Bridges

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  April 1, 2008

  Keeping the lines of communication open between broker firms and the regulating agencies of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission...

• Positioning for the Great Wealth Transfer

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  April 1, 2008

  With trillions of dollars in liquid assets coming out of retirement accounts or transferred to the next generation in the coming years, many advisors are...

• Helping Hollywood Types Plan Ahead

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  March 1, 2008

  Jeffrey fishman has some clients that may not even have an income this year. Or next, if things get rough. Fishman is an advisor to...

• Big Years Ahead for Auto Enrollment

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  February 1, 2008

  Ask David Wray, president of the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America, what the retirement landscape will look like in 2008, and he's quick to point...

• Fighting the Good Fight on 401(k)s

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  December 1, 2007

  David Loeper's MISSION is to keep 401(k) plan participants from getting ripped off. In his new book, Stop the 401(k) Rip Off, (Bridgeway Books, 2007),...

• Institutional Approach for Individuals

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  November 1, 2007

  As senior financial advisor at Anchor Capital Management Group, Inc., in Irvine, California, Leon James applies the quantitative analysis and strategic asset allocation used with...

• Singles and Special-Needs Clients

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  October 1, 2007

  Micki Pitch runs a two-generation practice in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, with her eldest son, Joe. They specialize in serving the investment and retirement needs...