Financial planning

Why your awesome 401(k) is still not as good as cash; Ignore this savings plan at your peril; Will benefits continue to increase if you wait past 70?

Advisors can add up to 0.75% of additional return for clients annually with proper strategies. But active and index funds should get different treatment.

After listening to advisors pitch their businesses, a panel of investors explained what works. Advisor and consultant Ron Carson shares the most important takeaways.

Stocks with significant yields can offer upside potential plus tax advantages at all ages and income levels.

The CFP Board is seeking to position itself as a guidepost to advance varied efforts to even out the gender gap in a profession in which men hold a substantial majority of positions and dramatically out-earn their female colleagues.

Student debt threatens safety net for elderly Americans; Accessing retirement income for small business owners; When stock and real estate bubbles collide

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said brokerage regulation needs a “major re-examination” to prevent funding shortfalls during a crisis and that brokers should have higher capital requirements.

When and how your clients elect Medicare coverage can have a big effect on their overall budget.

A Merrill Lynch team managing $800 million in assets went over to HighTower, RBC recruited an advisor managing $245 million in assets and Wells Fargo scooped up advisors managing more than $700 million in assets. See the latest hires, moves and promotions among wirehouse advisors.

Advisors need to take a more active role in engaging with college and university programs to help bring more students into the workforce, said industry officials at the CFP Board's recent academic conference.

The pitches are persuasive. Workers who leave jobs with the federal government transferred $10 billion last year out of the Thrift Savings Plan.

Though it can often pay to wait, advisors should help clients determine when it makes sense to file earlier for spousal benefits.

Customize your income-replacement rate; options for required IRA distributions; finding an identity beyond the workplace

Planners can help clients and build family loyalty by having difficult conversations about late-in-life options, says a speaker at LPL Focus.

'Our main objective is organic growth,' says Larry Roth, chief executive of Cetera Financial Group.

As programs struggle, Kevin Keller says new Washington planning center will help academic financial planning programs.

HighTower recruited a Merrill Lynch advisor team managing $800 million in assets.

Planners should consider hiring younger staff, and then encouraging -- or even requiring -- junior associates to study and sit for the CFP exam and complete their experience requirements, the CFP Board says.

Advisors still are not tapping into the Gen Y market, a study from Principal Financial Group shows.

Variable annuities held by clients might not need to be annuitized to deliver cash flow.