Deals & People July 29, 2014

NFP Integrates 401(k) Advisors' Tools and Services

NFP Advisor Services (NFPAS), a National Financial Partners Corp. (NFP) business group, has integrated the retirement plan adviser tools and support services of 401(k) Advisors.
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As registered representatives of NFP Advisor Services’ broker/dealer, NFP Securities, Inc., 401(k) Advisors founders Vince Giovinazzo and Nick Della Vedova will team with NFPAS leadership to continue to enhance retirement solutions development efforts.

James Poer, president of NFP Advisor Services, says his firm hopes to leverage Giovinazzo’s and Della Vedova’s substantial collective experience to “strengthen NFP Advisor Services’ longstanding commitment to the retirement space.”

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By combining 401(k) Advisors’ retirement solutions with NFP Advisor Services’ adviser workstation, AdvisorComplete, the firms’ adviser clients will gain access to integrated tools to support their entire practice, according to NFP.

Giovinazzo and Della Vedova also founded and manage Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG), an independent retirement plan consulting group. RPAG works with some 475 member firms, serving approximately 28,000 plans with $150 billion in assets under advisement. Both 401(k) Advisors and RPAG will continue to operate independently of NFP, though they have been a wholly-owned subsidiary of NFP since 2006.

“RPAG’s relationship with NFPAS is not new,” explains Giovinazzo. “There were already 50 or more RPAG members with NFP Advisor Services. However, this announcement solidifies a deeper strategic partnership between RPAG and NFPAS.”

RPAG will also continue to work with 30 or more different broker/dealers, Giovinazzo says. “We support RPAG members with virtually any broker/dealer that is not a direct competitor of RPAG,” he explains.

This new partnership allows NFP’s advisers and representatives to fully leverage the experience and systems of 401(k) Advisors, comments Mike Goldman, chief operating officer of NFP.

More information is available at www.nfp.com.

Data & Research July 29, 2014

Affording Retirement, Health Care Among Financial Worries

Financial worries are keeping people up at night, according to a Harris Poll.
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Those worries include having money for retirement or health care expenses. More than two-thirds of Americans (68%) who are employed themselves or have a spouse who is employed say they are worried they will not have enough money for retirement, while almost as many (63%) worry they will have health care costs they cannot afford. Two in five (40%) employed Americans say they are worried they or their spouse will have to take on a second job to make ends meet.

The poll also shows that more than half of all Americans (55%) are worried they will have to work later in life than they want because they will not be able to afford to retire. This includes people who may already have their eyes on retirement. Among the younger generations, almost two-thirds of Millennials (64%) and three-quarters of Generation Xers (74%) are worried about this.

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Being a parent comes with additional concerns about finances. Among those with children younger than 18, more than three in five (63%) are worried they will not have enough money for one or more of their children to go to college. More than one-third of parents of children of all ages (36%) are worried their children will have to move back in with them because they will not be able to afford housing.

Poll results indicate that people overall are concerned about housing-related finances. Twenty-three percent of those with a mortgage are worried that they will lose their home because they cannot afford the mortgage payments. This fear increases to 32% with Millennials who own a home and have a mortgage. Among those who are not yet home owners, 61% are worried they will not be able to afford to buy a home. More than two-thirds of Gen Xers who do not own a home (68%) and two-thirds of non-home-owning Millennials (66%) are worried they will not be able to afford to buy a home.

Respondents also express concern about affording basic necessities. Forty-one percent are worried they will not have enough money for basic necessities such as food, housing, clothes and transportation, and more than half of Americans (51%) are worried they will not be able to afford anything more than the basic necessities.

The poll surveyed 2,306 American adults online between July 16 and 21.

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