Practice

Using a LifeBio Event can help financial advisors strengthen client bonds and connect with their heirs. Here is how one advisor created a “Norman Rockwell” experience for his very best clients and their special guests. It’s a smart way to build bridges and engage the next generation while positioning yourself as the advisor of choice. You can do it too.

Retirement planning used to be easy. Ten years ago it was a simple mathematical calculation that you could apply across the board to just about everyone. But today, with so many different visions, versions and variables impacting each client, retirement planning has become both a financial planning puzzle and an emotional minefield.

Vanguard has announced it will pursue the small 401(k) market, i.e. plans with less than $20 million in assets and fewer than 1,000 employees, with low-cost, bundled plans administered by Ascensus.

Managing the growth of a small financial advisory firm is tricky but important as planners face decisions about growing the client roster, adding staff and maintaining work-life balance.

Planners can prove their worth if they find ways to lessen the chance that their clients will not outlive their retirement funds. David Blanchett, director of consulting and investment research for the Retirement Plan consulting Group of Unified Trust in Lexington, Ken., on Friday detailed how planners can implement sustainable withdrawal strategies so that retirement income works for their clients.

With an increasing number of countries now banning commissions for planners, many practitioners impacted by the changes are finding fee-only services actually benefit their businesses -- if they structure fees to match their strengths, according to panelists at FPA's annual conference in San Diego.

“The referral whisperer,” aka Michael Brizz, held a group of 100 financial planners rapt today in San Diego when he insisted that “there are literally thousands of referrals in your client database today. Clearly the opportunity is huge.”

Our discussion boards have been pretty heated over the past week, as readers have debated whether or not moving up the Wall Street corporate ladder is harder for women than for men.

Vanguard has announced it will pursue the small 401(k) market, i.e. plans with less than $20 million in assets and fewer than 1,000 employees, with low-cost, bundled plans administered by Ascensus.

SAN DIEGO--The FPA Experience 2011 annual conference here this week had one of the most colorful Americans in recent history as its first keynote speaker: Frank Abagnale Jr., the notorious imposter and check counterfeiter featured in the hit film, "Catch Me If You Can."