It’s fair to say that the final fiduciary rule from the Department of Labor has stirred up a lot of emotion among retirement plan advisers and service providers, both positive and negative. In that sense the events of the past week present advisers with an opportunity to think about the pivotal role emotion can plan in client decisionmaking—and not just during the downturns. Collected below are some of PLANADVISER’s recent stories on the impact of emotion on financial services.
An analytical approach to financial wellness is helpful for some retirement plan participants, but “it’s often emotion that puts retirement money in motion.”
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Three-quarters of wealthy families fail to discuss money and inheritance in ways that avoid misunderstandings and unintended consequences, according to a survey from Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group.
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Parents are worried about their independence as they age; kids are worried about their aging parents’ quality of life; parents are worried about their kids’ health and finances; and around it goes.
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Americans may be increasingly eager to save according to some measures, but that doesn’t mean they’re excited about earmarking dollars for retirement, or that people are widely committed to the long-term side of savings.
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Despite a market “teeming with better-performing alternatives,” the plaintiffs say, Walgreen selected the Northern Trust Funds, which already had a history of poor performance.
Low and middle-income Americans struggling to save for retirement are depending on the U.S. Senate to pass the SECURE Act, advocates say. At present, one roadblock seems to the law’s treatment of “stretch IRAs.”
Washington insiders say Senator Ted Cruz is probably the biggest roadblock to the SECURE Act being passed in the near-term under unanimous consent; among other issues, he wants the bill to allow people to use tax-advantaged 529 college savings accounts to pay for home school expenses.
A new IRS private letter ruling essentially conforms the tax treatment of properly structured advisory fees from non-qualified annuity contracts to those paid out of qualified accounts, which typically are not treated as taxable distributions.
There is precious little time remaining for the proposal and adoption of any new advisory industry conflict of interest rules that the DOL hopes to make effective during this presidential administration.
