Retirement planning

LPL Financial is promoting one of its own. Bill Chetney is slated to become president of LPL Retirement Partners, where he currently serves as executive vice president.

The largest publicly traded U.S. auto insurer, said pension obligations will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by $100 million to $125 million on costs tied to lump-sum payments for retiring staff.

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. faces a worker backlash over pay and working conditions, Swedish retailer Ikea Group is stepping up rewards to keep staff happy

The IRS has issued guidance on rollovers within a retirement plan to designated Roth IRAs in the same plan.

For both Roth conversions and required minimum distribution purposes, be sure that the value placed on your investment is one that would pass IRS scrutiny.

The number one Social Security strategy is maximizing both spouses’ benefits. Here are two ways to help clients do this.

Spousal benefits are the meat and potatoes of Social Security planning. Have you helped your clients maximize their situation?

Less than two weeks after Illinois lawmakers broke through decades of gridlock and passed a bill to bolster the worst-funded U.S. state pension system, taxpayers are already seeing the benefits.

Activist investor Carl Icahn’s attempt to get Apple Inc. to return money to shareholders was criticized by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension.

Rules, as they say, are made to be broken. Yet as financial planning has grown as a profession, collective thinking has coalesced around a few solid pieces of advice. A panel at the Morningstar Investment Conference on Friday set out to debunk some of those rules and establish new guidelines. Here are a few of the biggest myths they tackled.

Almost half of the advisors in a new FPA study say they don't have a retirement plan; even more fail on business and succession plans.

The enhanced site allows advisors to alter certain components of their profiles at will -- though not their disciplinary history.

Funds specializing in insurance- linked risks such as catastrophe bonds are benefiting as the $30 trillion pension industry increases bets in a market that hasn’t posted an annual loss.

Investment advisors will play a critical role in helping the nearly 80 million baby boomers and future generations develop a sustainable plan for retirement, a pair of senators said on Wednesday.

Detroit pension officials should consider accepting benefit reductions that fall hardest on retirees collecting the biggest checks, city emergency manager Kevyn Orr said.

Advisors who add corporate services such as deferred compensation, executive benefit programs and defined contribution or benefit plans to their menu of services, serve business owners and executives better. They also differentiate themselves and boost revenue.

A quarter of households aged 50-59 are "advice opportunity" households, a new study by Cerulli Associates shows.

Efforts to curb public-employee power in states such as Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, may embolden other municipalities, leave workers more vulnerable and prompt unions to new tactics of opposition.

CEO Laurence D. Fink, who last year said he would invest 100% of his personal wealth in equities, said pension funds won't meet their liabilities unless they put more money in stocks.

Congress decided that the program could use only one investment option, U.S. Treasury Securities which, last I checked, were still considered one of the safest, lowest-risk investments in the world.