Already being experienced by consumers and financial planners, it seems that the economic downturn has arrived on the doorstep of the Financial Planning Association as well. In the past week, the FPA national organization has slashed their staff by approximately 12%, and the price of their upcoming conference by over 70%!
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In a message board thread on financial-planning.com, initiated by Harold Evensky, there is an interesting discussion of the fact that apparently State Farm has directed all of their agents to voluntarily relinquish their CFP marks. It appears that an overarching fiduciary standard is "not conductive to [their] business model."
After nearly a decade of ongoing complaints about the poor communication with respect to the CFP Board and changes/initiatives that it launches, it appears the organization, under the guidance of its "new" CEO Kevin Keller, has turned over a new leaf for 2009. Or at least, it's off to a good start.
Noted financial planning writer and commentator Bob Veres has initiated an entry on Change.org, entitled "Fix the financial regulators by imposing a fiduciary standard on all who offer financial advice." Will this be a new way to make the call for fiduciary standards better heard in Washington?Read More...
Under the existing rules for 529 plans, account owners can only make investment selection adjustments once per year (or when there is a change in beneficiaries). Under the new relief just released from the IRS for 2009, 529 plan account owners will now be eligible to make changes... twice.Read More...
Yesterday, President Bush signed into law H.R. 7327, the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA), which included certain provisions designed to suspend so-called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) for the upcoming 2009 tax year. But will that really do much to help our clients? Probably not in most cases.Read More...
