Whole-Hearted-Way Logo

Free Financial Advice on January 26th!

During the past three years, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine have teamed up to provide consumers with FREE financial advice.

This is your chance to get free financial advice by telephone from some of the nation’s top financial advisors (including myself). You can call in from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday, January 26th. NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisors will be standing by to answer people’s most pressing retirement questions, from IRAs to estate planning to identifying goals.

The toll-free number is 888-919-2345. Further information can be found in the February 2007 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and at www.NAPFA.org. With more than 1,200 members across the country, NAPFA has become the leading professional association in the United State dedicated to the advancement of Fee-Only comprehensive financial planning.

NAPFA Registered Advisors act as Fiduciaries for their clients and this is a key differentiating element for financial professionals. Why is this so important to you?

See below what the former SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Chair Arthur Levitt said at NAPFA’s 2006 conference:

"When I consider today the lack of knowledge among even the most sophisticated people in terms of investments, it really concerns me. A recent report showed that over 50 percent of Harvard's faculty and staff invests their entire retirement savings in money market accounts. The Los Angeles Times studied what recent Nobel Laureates in Economics did with their money, and said that most of those titans of economics were really terrible investors. One had the bulk of his retirement in a money market account; one spends most of his time on chasing the latest hot investments, from tech stocks to oil stocks; and another spent the entire 1990s with his winnings fully invested in municipal bonds. The fact is that most people don't have the knowledge, the background, or the temperament to manage their own money.

The so-called Merrill Lynch Rule that exempts brokers from the fiduciary requirements of the Investment Act of 1940 only confuses investors. While brokers will counter that that they are under NASD oversight, they are simply not regulated with the consumers’ interest in mind. They are not required to obtain best execution pricing for trades and are allowed to sell to a client more expensive investment vehicles that will generate greater commissions to the broker. There is absolutely no reason why a fiduciary responsibility imposed upon Investment Advisors should not apply to retail brokers with equal coverage. The notion that a retail broker is an order taker is absolute and total fiction."

So- mark your calendars and call in.

Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated! Write to me at
fern@wholeheartedway.com.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
PLEASE FORWARD THIS PUBLICATION to your friends and colleagues. And
invite them to subscribe as well at
http://www.wholeheartedway.com/subscribe.html
<><><><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Fern respects your privacy and DOES NOT give out or sell
subscribers' names and/or e-mail addresses.

January 2007-- this column is produced by Whole-Hearted-Way and the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community, and is provided by Fern Alix LaRocca CFP® EA, a local member of the FPA.