Annuity

To make money, one must constantly evaluate the state of the economy. It is always changing and when you adapt, you can create advantages for yourself. The latest change in the financial advising industry will benefit you as a consumer, but you will have to take more responsibility for educating yourself.

Instead of depending on an advisor to sell one product or another, consumers will investigate different products, make their decisions, and then rely on their financial counselor to help manage their money after that, perhaps with guidance on the investment markets, tax strategies and similar information.

The cost of services will go down because consumers will be doing more of the work. And confidence in the integrity of the service will increase because consumers will be better-educated and brokers won’t be allowed to advocate only for products on which they make a commission. More

You might have seen the recent news flurry about rules adopted by the Department of Labor that govern how financial professionals give advice with respect to qualified savings and IRAs. The changes are important because they would benefit everyday investors who are trying to build up and distribute their retirement savings.

I find this development especially satisfying because from the start of my career I have been working to create investments in the retirement and annuity space, emphasizing products that are easy to understand and put in place. These new rules would require financial advisers to abide by a “fiduciary” standard that puts their clients’ best interests before their own profits. They would have to disclose all fees and would not be allowed to push products only from companies they represent.

Registered investment advisors are already classified as fiduciaries that must put investors’ interests first. Brokers and insurance agents now fall under that category too, which means individual investors will get more information about the true costs of products, including fees and charges that can be difficult to find and understand. More