Practice management

Invesco has launched the PlanForward Consulting Series, aimed at helping 401(k) advisors and consultants “build a compelling value proposition and enhance their brand recognition.”

GuidedChoice has created a retirement plan “reality check” for participants to see how well prepared they are for retirement and how much income their savings will produce. The program also guides them to save more and offers access to professional advice.

PNC has launched the PNC Wealth Insight tool to allow high-net-worth clients see an aggregated, enhanced view of their assets.

President Obama announces a sweeping long-term deficit reduction plan that includes a proposal calling on federal employees to shoulder more of the burden of funding their retirement plans.

Citi Private Bank has formed a new group to expand its work with Asian clients in North America and named current Managing Director Ida Liu to head the group.

Investment advisor advocates are breathing easier after the Department of Labor announced Monday that it has pulled its current proposal on the definition of a fiduciary off the table. The agency will take up the issue in early 2012 and repropose a fiduciary definition after more industry input.

Around the time they turn 50, many people unconsciously begin to ratchet up their spending. Instead, prominent retirement planning scholar Alice P. Munnell thinks financial planners need to wage a campaign to get their clients to hit the pause button at this crucial midpoint in their lives.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.