We all know we're going to die, but who wants to face mortality? Yet living in denial and avoiding estate planning can cost a client a lot of money in taxes. That's where a financial adviser can help--spotting...
You know the old saying, "Mother knows best." In Jane Stein's case, it was true.When Stein was in college, her mother went through a divorce and was forced to learn about investing. After college, Stein moved to...
In June, a couple in their early 80s met with Jim Barnash, regional director of financial planning for Lincoln Financial Advisors in Rosemont, Ill., who specializes in estate planning. This couple had stalled on their...
The College for Financial Planning in Denver last year surveyed 365 financial planners about clients' financial knowledge. It turns out clients are least smart about estate planning.The planners rated clients on the...
BOOKS"Estate and Retirement Planning Answer Book," by William Mitchell, (ISBN 1567063217, Aspen Publishers, 118)"Estate Planning and Taxation 1999," by John Bost, (ISBN 0787249823, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 63.95)...
Four years ago, when Brian Orton left banking to become a broker with D.A. Davidson & Co. in Redmond, Wash., he worked with an attorney who was a guardian for people with disabilities. "He had a need for investments...
Do you find yourself daydreaming about spending the day golfing, walking along the ocean or traveling to Europe on a whim? Such mental wanderings are an indication that it may be time for you to ride off into the...
If you think that potential clients obtain a list of brokers, devise a slate of questions and go on a round of interviews, think again.The reality of how clients hook up with brokers is much more disorganized. They...
As Gail Perry Mason observed her investment club of 11- to 14-year-old boys, she thought to herself, "One day, they will own their own companies or sit on the board of publicly traded companies," she says. And she's...
John Stark is special counsel for Internet projects at the Securities and Exchange Commission. An eight-year commission veteran, Stark heads the Internet program, which includes prosecution, surveillance, self...