Allianz, a large international insurance carrier conducts an annual retirement surveys. There latest survey shows some interesting results. None of these are a surprise to our advisors because we meet every day with clients and prospects who voice similar outlooks. What the study showed: 1. 58% of baby-boomers fear outliving their money more than death! Death being better than living without money. 2. 76% of baby boomers would rather have a 4% guaranteed »

There has been a tremendous buzz about the recent changes to the estate tax changes for 2011 and 2012.  The simple version is that if you die in 2011 or 2012 a total of $5 million in estate value is exempt from federal estate taxes. This has very little client impact except for those dealing with a terminal illness. More  impactful is the change that currently allows for $5 million of assets to be transferred out of an individual’s estate »

That’s a picture of the oldest message in a bottle. It spent 92 years 229 days at sea according to the Guinness Book of World Records. A bottom drift bottle, numbered 423B, was released at 60º 50′N 00º 38′W on 25 April 1914 and recovered by fisherman, Mark Anderson of Bixter, Shetland, UK, at 60º 50′N 00º 37′W on December 10, 2006. But in the 21st Century, the bottle numbered 401(k)/403(b) with the message inside »

The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 permits in-plan rollovers to a Roth account effective for all distributions made after Sept. 27, 2010. Prior to this law, Participants had to roll money out of their retirement plan to a Roth IRA to invest after-tax. In 2010 only, a one-time special tax rule allows a rollover from a taxable account to a Roth Account completed in 2010 can be included in income in 2011 and 2012. Because of this unique opportunity, »