My Comments: Every year, many BILLIONs of dollars flow from the pockets of Americans into a financial contract called an "annuity”. Originally, the idea was to give an insurance company some of your money, and they would agree to send it back to you, with interest, over time. Over the years, the sophistication of these …
Tag: financial planner
A Major Surge in Atmospheric Warming Is Probably Coming in the Next Five Years
My Comments: I claim no technical expertise regarding meteorological events. But I do get alarmed when certain people get put in critical decision making roles who have less expertise than I do. People like the Senator from Oklahoma who is now the leading advocate in the US Congress regarding what to do about climate change. …
Continue reading A Major Surge in Atmospheric Warming Is Probably Coming in the Next Five Years
Long-Term Care and Who Will Pay For It
My Comments: Selling long-term care insurance has been a tough sell for me. It’s less appealing than life insurance and statistically, it’s less likely to happen than death. It’s an emotionally charged issue that’s hard to deal with rationally. The major player in the long-term care insurance policy world is Genworth Financial. They’re on the …
A Stand-in For The Fiduciary Standard?
My Comments: I apologize for continuing to push this issue. But as a fiduciary, I’m bound to give advice that results in what is best for the client, legally, morally and ethically. That Wall Street firms resist this is not in your best interest. Meanwhile, I received an angry call this week from a group …
GOP Lawmaker Hopes To Halt Fiduciary Push
My Comment: This push by the GOP is, in my opinion, more smoke and mirrors from those beholden to the lobbyists from Wall Street. The crux of this issue is that the people who run Wall Street firms do not want their rank and file representatives, the ones who work with people like you and …
Yellen’s problem with US felons
My Comments: We are a nation of approximately 316 million people, of which roughly 30% are “youth dependent” and 20% are “elderly dependent”. This leads me to assume that roughly half of us are capable of employment of some kind. The next assumption is that if the employable number of people is about 158 million, …
The Glass Ceiling on Rates
My Comments: I’ve recently shared this chart with you that shows the historical ups and downs on interest rates in this country going back 224 years. They have been trending down since 1981, a long time. Right now they are nearly zero. When this happened in the past, they began an upward climb until they …
Medical Identity Theft Rising Fast
My Comments: If ever there was a 21st century crime, this is it. We’ve all read about what happened to Target Stores and others where customer information was stolen. What we don’t often think about in this context are our own medical records, scattered across the health care landscape which we inhabit. I’ve been aware …
When Underperforming the S&P 500 Is a Good Thing
My Comments: I’ve spent time recently with clients talking about our mutual frustration with the performance of their investment portfolios over the past 18 months. They want their accounts to grow aggressively and I want them to grow aggressively, if for no other reason than it makes me look smart. We can argue that the …
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7 Social Security Mistakes to Avoid
My Comments: Social Security payments are a critical financial component of many lives these days. When it began in 1935, there was much gnashing of teeth among the political parties since it represented a recognition by the government that some people needed help. This was in a world recovering from the Great Depression and watching …
Helping Define Your Financial Future 