Retirement planning

Independently-owned Los Angeles firm RBZ LLP has named three partners to share the firm’s managing partner position.

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report on detailing some of the conclusions gleaned from a recent forum on engaging and retaining older workers.

Everybody knows that taxes are a drag on performance, but I am constantly surprised at the number of investors who blithely pay taxes each year on their investment earnings without considering the impact on accumulation or the alternative strategies that they could employ.It's never a good idea to let the tail wag the dog, of course - a rational investor shouldn't seek tax avoidance, or tax minimization per se. But it makes sense to pursue the highest after-tax return.

Retirement is the No. 1 personal financial planning concern, regardless of age, according to an informal survey at the American Institute of CPAs’ 2007 Personal Financial Planning Conference.The AICPA said that it was a surprised to see that retirement planning is a major concern for career builders -- classified as those between the ages of 25 and 34 -- who also have the seemingly more immediate pressures of education, home buying and debt management following close behind.

Everybody and his dog seem to have checked in with their so-called golden rules for a successful retirement. In fact, some have five key rules; some have 15. If you added all of them up, you would probably find yourself with 65 different rules, a bit much.However, Ron Roberts, founder and president of Roberts Retirement Group based in Jackson, Calif., has come up with an even dozen, 12 if you will, that are most enticing.

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow a lower court ruling to stand -- finding that International Business Machines Corp. did not commit age discrimination when it changed its pension coverage in the late 1990s.While the ruling paves the final legal road for IBM’s switch to a cash-balance pension plan from a defined-benefit pension, regardless, the company announced a year ago that it would eliminate the cash-balance plan as of Jan. 1, 2008, making enhancements to its 401(k) plan instead.