Wealth management

A federal appeals court ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission overstepped its authority in updating rules governing brokers who offer financial advice.

I was raised in a medical family, meaning I was exposed to doctors and hospitals from the get go. It was a nice, comfortable atmosphere where none of the three sons was ever concerned about money. My mother never worked and my father did quite well except for stock investments.But in all those years living at home, I wouldn’t think of asking my father how much money he had or what kind of estate he was considering leaving to us kids, or even my mother. It just wasn’t the topic of any dinnertime conversation and my mother certainly never raised it. Actually, she was smart enough to take a portion of her weekly allowance and put it aside in stocks and bonds, and did quite well. Talk about a self-made woman. Without any formal education, she was just street smart about making sure she had her own protection in the event my father’s latest foray in investments went awry. It did once when he was a principal investor in Tucker automobiles but that’s a story for another time.

I seldom veer off the subject of accounting in this space unless circumstances or events encourage me to do otherwise.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. has released a second exposure draft of proposed changes to its, “Standards of Professional Conduct.”

It has come to my attention that the advisor-client relationship may be sinking and that you need to do something about it.My friends at SEI, a leading global provider of outsourced asset management, investment processing, and investment operations solutions, has done us all a big favor with its latest survey of some 100 clients of the SEI Advisor Network because it reveals that 28 percent of advisors attribute client relationship failures to a lack of understanding. The result is that advisors need to communicate more clearly to avoid straining or losing clients.

Financial planners reported mean gross earnings of $283,079 in 2006, an increase of more than $50,000 from a year ago, according to a recently released survey.

Financial services conglomerate JPMorgan is expanding JPMorgan E-Tax — its Internet-based tax service providing institutional investors with global tax intelligence, rates and breaking news.

Individuals typically transfer assets to family partnerships hoping to achieve large estate tax discounts for the assets that would not otherwise be available if the assets were retained in outright ownership. The discounts, in turn, could result in substantial tax savings. However, in order to achieve the desired results, a number of hurdles must be overcome.The Internal Revenue Service has issued Appeals Settlement Guidelines for family limited partnerships and family limited liability companies. These guidelines can help practitioners overcome some of the hurdles. By carefully examining this document and the pro- and anti-taxpayer cases examined in it, a practitioner should be in a position to craft an FLP or FLLC that will achieve a desired level of discounts for a client's estate.

FIDELITY GIFT FUND HAS RECORD YEARThe Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund reported its largest grant-making year in history, as overall grants to charity surpassed $950 million in 2006, up 13 percent from 2005. Since its inception in 1991, the Gift Fund has granted more than $6.5 billion to over 103,000 nonprofit organizations nationwide, as of Dec. 31, 2006.

The term "financial planning" covers a lot of area. On the high end, it can mean managing millions of dollars in assets, and continuously analyzing the results, yields and needs to determine the best allocation of capital.Financial planning also refers to the accountant or tax preparer who sees or hears from a client once a year, and uses the annual tax preparation appointment as a way of offering planning advice as well.

If you’re like most Americans, debt is a way of life, says Jason Rich. So what separates the rich from the poor? He claims that the wealthy use debt to improve their financial situation -- something he calls “Smart Debt” -- and the poor use debt for instant gratification by which they just keep getting deeper in the hole.Rich is a bestselling author with some 30 books to his credit, including the Wall Street Journal bestseller, "The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online," and, "Job Hunting for the Utterly Confused." He has a new book on the market called "Smart Debt" (Entrepreneur Press), that offers strategies to avoid wasting money on fees and interests as a result of credit cards.

There is no question that most people appear quite serious about preparing an estate plan that can get passed along to future generations. The intention is all there but too many people still seem to find ways to mess it up entirely.

You hear over and over again that your money has to outlive you, even for an hour. When I talk to friends and family about various financial planning aspects, the most feared one is exactly that...outliving money.There is this woman, age 91, that I know. She is a widow, in relatively good health, has a house that is fully paid (no mortgage), has a Social Security check that comes in each month for some $1,800 and a small pension amount from a prior job of about $110 a month. She buys very little food because she goes to a senior center almost every day and they load her up on free food.

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.

ONLY 51% READY FOR FISCAL CRISISResults from the fourth annual "financial fitness" survey conducted by Quicken revealed that only 51 percent of consumers were prepared for a financial emergency or had an emergency fund in the event of accident or illness.

Investment research firm Morningstar Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Standard and Poor’s mutual fund data business for $55 million in cash.

For most of my life, I have been a fairly liberal, loose-swinging person. I generally went against the mainstream and was comfortable seeking my own level and being relatively nonconformist. It served me quite well career wise.

Raymond James Financial will pay $2.75 million to a brokerage firm regulator for poor supervision of its more than 1,100 branch managers who manage their own offices.

The Connecticut Society of CPAs is very, very good at disseminating specific financial planning and tax tips not only to CPAs but also to the general public. Some of those recently caught my eye as being particularly easy to understand and right to the point.The society sent out a notice on its Web site about how the public could get their money matters in order after popping champagne corks, tossing confetti, and making New Year’s resolutions.