Evan Simonoff

3 weeks ago | fa-mag.com | Evan Simonoff

For more than a decade, there’s been constant chatter about Social Security’s impending shortfall, and people’s fears have intensified in recent months as President Trump’s DOGE committee has cited alarming statistics, some of them false, about waste and mismanagement at the agency. But the DOGE worries might be a red herring. How do the actual experts feel about the prospects for the entitlement program?

3 weeks ago | fa-mag.com | Evan Simonoff

For decades, there were few better proxies for the health of the financial planning business than the independent broker-dealer business. Forty years ago, advisors frustrated by the divergent priorities of giant Wall Street wirehouses and investment banks were able to set up businesses free from proprietary products and other conflicts, thanks to the IBD boom.

3 weeks ago | fa-mag.com | Evan Simonoff

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fired the top regional directors at offices across the country as part of cost-cutting programs that were recommended to the Trump administration, Reuters reported in February. The SEC told “directors across its 10 regional offices that their roles will be eliminated as part of the plan the agency submits next month,” Reuters said.

3 weeks ago | fa-mag.com | Evan Simonoff

Who is more afraid of a 30- or 40-year retirement, advisors or their clients? As trillions have piled up in retirement accounts, a growing body of research has suggested that many retirees are living below their means, even if the evidence is inconclusive. Part of the reason may be the disconnect between the cautious capital market assumptions (CMA) that advisors are plugging into their Monte Carlo simulation models and the actual outsized returns clients are enjoying in the financial markets.

1 month ago | fa-mag.com | Evan Simonoff

In the wake of the SECURE Act, traditional IRAs have become the worst possible asset to own, IRA expert Ed Slott told advisors attending The American College’s Horizons conference in San Diego on Tuesday. Slott and another widely regarded accounting expert, Jeff Levine, opened the event with a brief session entitled, “The Great Debate: Is The Traditional IRA Dead?,” with Slott arguing that that the primary asset accumulation vehicle for millions of Americans was a rotten investment.