Want some insurance with that managed account? Or how about wrapped around your target-date mutual fund? A number of companies are rolling out new hybrid products that wrap a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit around such managed investment...

Few things in the tax code are clearer than this: A surviving spouse named as the beneficiary of retirement plan death benefits of a deceased spouse can roll those death benefits into her own individual retirement accounts (IRA). But one...

In a move that generated considerable joy and surprise,1 the Internal Revenue Service announced in Notice 2008-30 that beginning this year, a decedent's qualified retirement account can be directly rolled over into a Roth individual retirement...

Given a choice, most of your clients would rather pay for their kids' college education from accumulated savings or an overabundance of current income (if not a full ride based on the child's expertise at Guitar Hero). But when those sources of...

It is a delicious bit of irony that the high-income earners who usually foot a disproportionate share of the federal income-tax bill are also (by definition) precluded from funding a Roth IRA. Therefore, their income-tax rate during retirement may...

The 97.5 million viewers who tuned into this year's Super Bowl got a little dose of retirement reality from AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, which spent its entire broadcast advertising budget for 2007 and 2008 on the sports event. In the...

The Roth IRA turns 10 years old in 2008, and chances are that some of your clients are among the 17 million Roth IRA owners who would happily celebrate if a birthday party of sorts were thrown. But you probably have an equal number of clients who...

With 77 million baby boomers approaching retirement, advisors are surely looking for ways to win their business. One way? Financial gerontology. That's according to a recent survey by Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking, whose study specifically addresses...

A generation ago, retiring clients usually had most of their money locked up in certificates of deposit at the local bank. Simplicity, predictability, and the double-digit yields of the time provided a nice compliment to Social Security or pension...

Now may be the time to get your clients more life insurance: In 2008, life-insurance premiums will be 11 percent lower than they were two years ago and half of what they were a decade ago, according to the Insurance Information Institute...