Retirement planning

The Securities and Exchange Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the Labor Department to make permanent the sharing of information to help protect the retirement savings of American workers.

The Social Security Administration unveiled a new online calculator to help people plan for their retirement.

While in India with an accountant and his client, I observed a classic “trusted advisor” moment. The client is the chief executive of one of the largest family-owned businesses in India. As an aside during our meeting, the CEO mentioned to his accountant that he would be going to Tokyo on a Thursday for some negotiations with the company’s most important potential business partner. The CEO would then be returning on Friday morning, little more than 24 hours after his arrival. The accountant listened carefully to the plan and said simply: “No. You will not come home Friday. You will instead spend the weekend in Tokyo with the executives of the other business.”Without hesitation, the CEO lifted his cell phone and said to his secretary: “Please change my return flight to Monday morning.”

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance has introduced SignatureCare 500, a long-term care insurance product that lets consumers customize a policy to meet their needs.

Looking for strong leads to grow your financial planning practice? Try scouring your tax clients.It may seem obvious, but internal marketing within your tax base is the best way to beef up your wealth management clientele, and is often a welcome service offering that can lead to referrals.

The House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee held hearings on bills that would encourage employers to automatically enroll their employees in individual retirement account plans.

Olympic gold medalist Wendy Lansbach Boglioli gave a thought-provoking talk last week at the New York State Society of CPAs’ Personal Financial Planning and Eldercare Conference about the importance of long-term care insurance.

The Internal Revenue Service said that about 5.2 million retirees and disabled veterans who qualify for economic stimulus payments have not filed to claim the payments.

The Treasury Department has introduced a prepaid debit card for Social Security payments and other federal benefits.

The American Institute of CPAs has chosen Paychex as its preferred provider for administering 401(k) plans for members who participate in the AICPA's firm retirement program.

Payroll-processing service Paychex has added an auto-enrollment feature that allows employers to automatically sign up employees to participate in a 401(k) plan.

No matter how much money your client has, it's crucial to have a basic estate plan simply because such a plan will then ensure that the financial goals of the client are met after the client dies.

No matter how much money your client has, it's crucial to have a basic estate plan simply because such a plan will then ensure that the financial goals of the client are met after the client dies.

No matter how much money your client has, it's crucial to have a basic estate plan simply because such a plan will then ensure that the financial goals of the client are met after the client dies.

No matter how much money your client has, it's crucial to have a basic estate plan simply because such a plan will then ensure that the financial goals of the client are met after the client dies.

The American Institute of CPAs found a range of responses when it surveyed Americans on how they intend to use their tax rebates.

With tax season now behind us, accountants can turn their attention to the clients who are on extension and provide advice to other clients to help them save money in the year ahead.

“Keeping Retirement Plans Qualified” in the March issue of Practical Accountant was written just prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision, LaRue v. DeWolff, in which the Court held that a participant in a defined contribution pension plan may sue a fiduciary under ERISA Section 502(a)(2) when claiming that a fiduciary breach caused a loss of plan assets allocated to the participant’s 401(k) plan account. It was pointed out in the article that employee benefit plan audits have now become not only financial statements, but also compliance audits. The Supreme Court opinion is further indication of that.

It is my belief that despite the various newsletters, publications and sections on the AICPA Website, what the AICPA is doing that directly impacts its members can be publicized better by the AICPA.

Grizzled business veterans can pontificate about how successful enterprises are built from strength, character and luck. These elements, they say, together serve as the underpinning of business and of life beyond it. And it can be tempting to believe that earnest effort based on this foundation alone will be rewarded when the time comes.But when company owners look down the highway at the shimmering sale in the distance — the event towards which they have driven for decades — they should put those intangibles behind them. Planning, not fate, is the only real mechanism for ensuring the most value and the smoothest transition when a company changes hands.