As the adage goes, charity begins at home. And I hope that school district administrators and teacher unions will see this dire situation for what it is: an opportunity to take a stand for their colleagues. For too long, teachers have suffered at the hands of salespeople peddling investments with offensively high fees in their 403(b) plans. What is supposed to be a great benefit and a responsible way to prepare for retirement has turned into a deceptive dance, with teachers blissfully unaware Read on...
Break Free
One of the ways to assess how well an investment serves you, is to look at the fees. Yet many investors have no idea what they are paying. When teachers ask me to assess their current 403(b) plan investments, many are horrified to learn they are paying over 2%. How could they be unaware of the fees, you ask? It’s simple. I’ve come across many an investment statement has a line item that says FEES $0 (or a minimal administrative fee, like $30 for the year). Clearly, there Read on...
Living with Money Podcast
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Mullooly, the host of the Living with Money podcast. There are plenty of times when I feel like I'm railing against the system, and that the industry is in need of a fire-hose spray down, but when I speak with fellow advisors who are doing right by investors it lifts me in ways I can't adequately describe. Such is the case with Tim. He and his family have their own fee-only registered advisory firm, Mullooly Asset Management. They built Read on...
Simple Questions, Convoluted Answers
A new client wanted to switch out of an annuity she had bought in her retirement account with a previous adviser. Needless to say, my antenna goes up when I see annuities in a retirement account because it is both unnecessary and expensive to own these insurance products for their tax-deferral benefits, when this feature is "free" to retirement accounts. As I waded through her paperwork, I clearly saw that she would be hit with a $3,000 surrender charge to get out -- and I Read on...