Practice

Long-term-care insurance is not a very popular product. It can require many years of expensive premium payments, and any care that is provided may not occur until very late in life. While the easy choice may be to not buy insurance, that may not be the best choice.

The Financial Planning Association, anxious to build its cache of student chapters at colleges across the country, set aside time at the organization’s annual conference in San Diego this week to instruct young attendees how to start their own chapters.

“It’s hard to approach someone" — a prospective employer, for example — and say, ‘I want to be an owner,’” confessed Brett Spencer, a 23-year-old masters student in financial planning from Texas Tech University.

Raymond James & Associates has hired a four-member financial advisor team that was previously producing more than $3.6 million in annual fees and commissions at Robert W. Baird & Co.

First-time attendees of the FPA Experience 2011 annual conference were eager to learn about new events this year centered around the concept of "communities" -- groups of planners of similar ages or specialties. The communities are meant to help attendees glean the most appropriate information for their practices and to better network with their peers.

PALM DESERT, CALIF.—As investors have fled equity funds, the industry’s move into alternative investments has become one of the biggest concerns of directors of the board.

Mortgage real-estate investment trusts have been exempt from the Investment Act of 1940, which regulates the fees that can be charged to investors and limits the amount of leverage a fund can use. But the Securities and Exchange Commission said last month that it had initiated a review of that exemption, as mortgage REITs are beginning to look more like mutual funds.

Upping the ante in advisory firms’ technology integration battles, TD Ameritrade is touting an “open platform” as a differentiator ahead of an October launch of its Salesforce product for advisors.

A recent survey of 3,300 working Americans conducted by Putnam Investments disclosed that American households are on track to replace only about 64% of their current income in retirement -- significantly less than the 75% of income that most financial professionals recommend.

Crime lore has it that when the prolific stick-up artist Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he glibly responded, "Because that's where the money is." And in the 21st century, Sutton's maxim is alive and well in the cyber realm.