Editor's Letter: Wealth Management with a Personal Touch

As we all know, the U.S. population is hurtling into its golden years as legions of baby boomers hit retirement. The very idea of retirement has been turned on its head. Modern medicine is not only bestowing longevity to more and more people, it is also offering a better quality of life.

With those changes come the challenges now confronting the financial advisory industry. How do financial advisors help their clients plan for a longer, post-main-career life? How do they handle 401(k) plans? Should they? How do they help clients plan for the health care problems that will undoubtedly crop up and, of course, all the myriad estate planning dilemmas? These are just a handful of questions, related not just to retirement, but to the entire well-being of your clients. At On Wall Street, we've come to the realization that your job is to make wealth management personal.

This month, our cover story, written by Managing Editor Lorie Konish, shows how one firm helps its advisors offer that more personal touch to clients. We take you through a day of the "By Invitation Only" advice and art tour that Raymond James reserves for top clients and their advisors. As you read the article, you will see why the advisors there heap praise on this concept as a way to better understand their clients and offer each one a great deal of time and undivided attention.

Our feature on retirement focuses on the difficulty of servicing 401(k) plans. Contributor Elizabeth Wine discovered that many advisors are entering the world of defined contribution and 401(k) plans right now, according to Cerulli Associates and Morningstar. But it does come with a price, as she recounts in "The Retirement Plan Specialist."

We also found a surprising study about how retirees are looking at their children. In "Baby Boomers' Tough Love," Associate Editor Mason Braswell writes that the older generation may be giving more to charity instead of their sons and daughters. As always, we want to get your opinion on what is in this and every issue of On Wall Street.

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