The Challenge Social Security benefits are key to most Americans’ quality of life during retirement. Yet, an alarming number of clients approaching retirement do not have a basic understanding of Social Security benefits. Twelve fundamental questions were posed to 1,5001 pre-retirees to gauge their Social Security knowledge. Take the same true/false survey quiz below to…

One of the great benefits of the CFP® Certification is the number of doors it opens in terms of a career path. While the traditional financial planner is what most people associate with a CFP® Certificant, there are many jobs in the financial services industry you’ll see certificants working in. Below we’ve listed a few…

A major decision in retirement planning is identifying when to begin withdrawing Social Security retirement benefits. If you begin receiving benefits before your normal retirement age, you receive a smaller monthly benefit, but with a longer life expectancy (resulting in more benefit checks received); if you delay until after normal retirement age, you get larger…

Roth IRAs are one of the best retirement accumulation vehicles available because they offer tax-free accumulation, tax-free distributions, and no required minimum distributions. In addition, accessibility to the funds is hassle-free and withdrawals of contributions are always tax-free. One Roth IRA income tax benefit is not talked about enough – the income tax effect of…

Here are a couple of rules-of-thumb regarding estate planning: It doesn’t exist if it’s not in writing. It is especially important to put a written plan in place in a second marriage where children are involved. Verbal understandings among family members, especially when a second marriage between one or two parents takes place, tend to…

Getting old isn’t easy.  Neither is entering retirement.   Many clients between the ages of 62 and 70 will be filing for the first time for Social Security benefits and those reaching age 65 this year will be filing for Medicare Insurance.  As a financial advisor or financial planner, you need to be versed on both…

The eleventh survey in the Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor polling series reveals dramatic changes are taking place in the retirement planning landscape due to the recession. As a result, near retirees (age 50+) expect to retire six years later than those who have already retired and 68% expect to work during retirement, up dramatically from…

A lot of people ask me how the new CFP Board Certification Education requirements will impact the actual exam. And the answer is that the new Financial Plan Development course requirement and the changes to the CFP Board exam are two separate events. How could the CFP Board possibly give a test in March 2012…

Financial planners should take note that the IRS recently announced inflation adjustments for 2012. In addition to increasing personal exemptions, standard deductions, and widening the tax brackets for income taxes, this will also raise the estate tax applicable exclusion amount to $5,120,000 (up from $5,000,000). The annual exclusion for gifts, however, will remain unchanged at…

The University of Georgia, one of our excellent CFP® Certification Education Program partners, was recently profiled in an article by Financial Planning magazine!  The article is about the top 10 CFP® Education programs in the country and we’re honored to be listed with the other UGA programs.  This demonstrates that the hard work put in…