AdviceIQ Articles

  • Why Pick on Apple?

    Submitted by Jonathan DeYoe on Fri, 05/24/2013 - 3:00pm

    Despite the drubbing Congress gave it over not paying U.S. corporate tax on billions of overseas income, Apple actually has generated a lot of domestic tax, and American-based jobs that generate them. Besides, Congress set up the tax breaks that Apple used.

  • State Taxes & Retirement

    Submitted by Sterling Raskie on Fri, 05/24/2013 - 12:00pm

    Do you live in a state that doesn’t tax retirement income? Then you save on taxes if you fund your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored plan instead of a Roth individual retirement account. If you plan on relocating when you quit working, look at how your new home state treats retiree income.

  • Pensions vs. 401(k)s

    Submitted by Blair Hodgson D... on Fri, 05/24/2013 - 9:00am

    Since the late 1970s, many companies changed retirement plans from traditional pensions to 401(k)s and other plans that don’t guarantee a fixed payout. But many believe that 401(k)s actually fail to help Americans effectively save for retirement.

  • Living With Higher Taxes?

    Submitted by Joseph A. Clark on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 3:00pm

    Federal taxes are up. So are some state taxes. Yet in response, opposition is rising, especially on the state level. With luck, the tax burden might recede.

    But meanwhile, brace yourself. Years ago, I received valuable insight into Internal Revenue Service practices. The IRS was auditing a client of mine, who was late on his returns. The fines he faced were daunting. My argument was that the client, a small businessman, was taxed too heavily to stay in business.

  • Boomers: Keep Working

    Submitted by Brenda P. Wenning on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 12:00pm

    If baby boomers postpone retirement, it may not solve all of the country’s economic problems, but it can ease some of them.

    So it’s good news that a growing number of boomers are working past the traditional retirement age. Today, almost 18% of people older than 65 are still at work and the number is climbing. In 1993, only 11% of them were still at their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

  • How Fees Devour 401(k)s

    Submitted by Walid L Petiri on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 9:00am

    Saving money in 401(k)s comes with a few strings attached – fees. The fees in retirement accounts are probably the biggest obstacles to saving successfully for retirement, and many of these fees are undetectable to the untrained eye.

    The good news is that new regulations mandate that the fees be better disclosed. Pay attention to the information. If you are an employer, the rules impose new requirements on you.

    Let’s look at how fees nibble away at your returns and how the new disclosures can help:

  • Solutions for the Uninsurable

    Submitted by Jeff Rose on Wed, 05/22/2013 - 3:00pm

    A no-brainer: Participating in high-risk activities makes getting cheap life insurance very hard. Yet insurers don’t just penalize base jumpers, skydivers or deep-water scuba divers. They also define high risk as elevated blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea or a host of other medical conditions. If that describes you, how can you get insured?

  • When Health Affects Wealth

    Submitted by Lewis J. Walker on Wed, 05/22/2013 - 12:00pm

    What good is wealth without health? Too many people don’t realize that taking care of themselves physically leads to better financial tomorrows.

    Planning for retirement should start in your early twenties, if not before. Why? Because you develop good health habits early and health governs the quality of life long before retirement, and certainly after.

  • A Bad Sign: Margin Buying

    Submitted by Adam D. Koos on Wed, 05/22/2013 - 9:00am

    Once again, investors are so bullish on stocks that they borrow record amounts against their own portfolios of money to buy. This as an alarming sign that a major correction is on its way soon.

  • The Anti-Wealth Manager

    Submitted by Vincent Trivett on Tue, 05/21/2013 - 3:00pm

    When H. Robert Bradley and his partners founded NorthLanding Financial Partners, an independent registered investment advisory firm in Rochester, N.Y., they chose the name of the firm very carefully. The last thing they wanted to do was to call their firm a “wealth manager.”

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SMART ADVICE

 

A Tragic Mistake: ‘I Don’t Need Help Handling my Money’

 

By Larry Light, Editor-in-Chief

May 1, 2013

 

We all like to think we’re smart and self-sufficient. A lot of folks believe they can manage their financial lives by themselves. These do-it-yourselfers are woefully wrong.

 

AdviceIQ is about giving the world the wisdom of smart, honest (none can have any regulatory infractions) advisors. Are we blindly pro-advisor? No, we are clear-eyed about being pro-good advisor. Everyone, even the financial cognoscenti, should have such a helper to sort out life’s perplexities.

 

Lamentably, the financial crisis and the Bernard Madoff scandal convinced many to steer clear of advisors. According to a Deloitte consulting firm study, 57% of those polled say they’re more comfortable handling their retirement planning on their own. Plus, 38% contend they need no professional advice to plan.

 

Really? A story from Paul Sullivan shows how wrong-headed they are. Sullivan is enormously well-versed in personal finance, which he writes about for the New York Times. But it turns out that even he could use some help with his portfolio. One day he went before Tiger 21, an investment club of very wealthy (with at least $10 million in net worth) types who assessed his financial situation. To Sullivan’s surprise and dismay, the group found major holes: He and his wife didn’t have enough insurance, they carried an unneeded vacation home and spent too much.

 

The blasé DIY attitude vexes Edmond Walters, founder and chief executive of eMoney Advisor, which provides support services to advisors. He watches discount broker TV ads that promise you can direct your investments by yourself, without paying an advisor. “It’s dangerous,” he says. “The ads say you can come home after work and spend a couple of hours trading a month. But the professionals have a lot more information than you.” Result: You get slammed.

 

As the Times’ Sullivan attests, it’s good to have a more knowledgeable someone guiding you, an expert who keeps up with all the arcane changes in the financial arena. Do you know how much disability coverage you need? Are you saving adequately for your kids’ education? How much money are you wasting for no good reason? Will your investments support you through your retirement?

 

Walters spent almost two decades as an advisor before he started his current company. “But,” he says, “even I have an advisor.”

 

 

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