Senior Market Advisor January 01, 2008

Free Product Information

Feature

  • Top dogs' top traits

    By Mike Werling

    The cream of the crop. People hear that phrase and they know it signifies the best. Individuals and organizations tagged as the cream of the crop stand out from the rest. The designation doesn't come easy. Professional sports provide a good

  • Life of the estate planning party

    By David Port

    Advisor Joel Javer, CFP, has a message for people who think their estate planning worries will suddenly evaporate come 2010 when the federal estate tax is scheduled for full repeal: Think again. Javer, principal at the Sharkey, Howes & Javer

  • The distinguished FIA

    By Joseph Finora

    Today, in addition to linking to a major index to enhance returns, other client-helpful features are frequently becoming standard, indicating that the fixed index annuity is a product that is continuously in a state of evolution. In addition to a

  • Building strategic LTCI alliances

    By David Lewis

    Advisors who sell long term care insurance sometimes sound like evangelists for change who are frankly tired of crying in the wilderness. The wilderness in this case is LTCI sales, which dropped each year since 2000, until this year. Now

  • How to pick an online lead service

    By Staff Writer

    Insurance agents are like any other salespeople - they want great leads that they can turn into more sales. In the old, purely offline days of 10 years ago, the best customers tended to be the ones who were serious enough to seek out help first, not

Up Front

  • A new year, a new Advisor of the Year

    By Brian Anderson

    With the new year comes the opening up of nominations for Senior Market Advisor's 2008 Advisor of the Year. As of Jan. 1, the official nomination form is "live" online at www.smaadvisorofyear.com. If you or an advisor you know deserves to be

That's Life

  • Weaving stronger baskets

    By Philip E. Harriman

    "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."--Old English Proverb Stockbrokers, bankers, money managers and other financial professionals are quite talented at helping clients maximize their financial assets. While they may know enough to help their

Coach's Corner

  • Do your homework to discover client needs

    By Kelly Shaw

    Happy New Year. I hope you all had a fantastic 2007. It's now time to kick off 2008. There's no better way to kick it off than to continue our sales program and talk about more ways to help our clients. The next step in creating help for the

Profitable Practice

  • From art to business science

    By Norm Trainor

    What does it take to go from being a good advisor to a great one? For Don Leitzell, it was the ability to combine art and business science. Don became an independent financial advisor in 1987. Twenty years later, his financial advisory firm,

LTCI Insider

  • Preparing yourself for partnership policies

    By Margie Barrie

    Q. I'm in a state where LTC partnership policies will be soon introduced. What information and advice can you provide about who should buy these policies, who needs to take the training and other important details? A. If you have not been hearing

Annuity Advisor

  • Want financial success? Quit reading.

    By Jack Marrion

    I was going through some old magazines I had saved for one reason or another when I came across an article in the Aug. 14, 2000 issue of Fortune, entitled "10 stocks to last the decade." The timing of the article was interesting. We were five months

Marketing Playbook

  • Designing surveys as marketing tools

    By Jeffrey Dobkin

    Surveys are useful for gathering all kinds of marketing data, and when they're completed they make great birdcage liners. Oh, did you want clients to provide you with useful data? Forget it -- that's not what they're good for. Unless you mail a

Practice Management

  • Understanding succession planning fundamentals

    By Andrew J. Sherman

    Many entrepreneurs who have family owned or closely held businesses say their most difficult challenges are deciding who will succeed the current generation and how to preserve and build the company's value by providing for a smooth transition of

Ethics in Action

  • 2008 and beyond: Serve and grow rich

    By Steven McCarty

    As the new year arrives, so does the impulse to make resolutions. However, rather than resolve for the umpteenth time to quit smoking, lose weight or get along with the in-laws, how about we give up resolutions entirely. Instead, let's reflect on

The Motivated Seller

  • The power of positive affirmation

    By John Boe

    In 1957, Earl Nightingale, speaker, author and cofounder of the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, recorded his classic motivational record, "The Strangest Secret." The recording sold over one million copies and made history in the recording

Compliance Watch

The Close

  • Feed your mind, improve your practice

    By Dean Zayed

    Happy New Year! My first word of advice for 2008 is to not let that New Year's hangover linger too long. We have lots of work to do and there's no time like the New Year to rededicate ourselves to those things in life that we love and care for...

Feedback

  • AAHSA pushing for Medicare expenditures bill

    By Staff Writer

    The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging commend the Senate Special Committee on Aging for examining the commitment to transparency and quality improvement in America's nursing homes.Quality should be an automatic public

Seniors Speak Out

Vitals

  • Life insurance industry forecast positive

    By Staff Writer

    "Overall," says Terence Martin, senior analyst at Conning Research, "the industry should continue to sustain historically strong margins, even in the face of lower investment returns and the need to support a growing capital base."Those words

  • Health cost growth slows

    By Staff Writer

    Health care spending for Americans over the age of 65 is growing more slowly than spending for people under 65. Per person spending, however, is higher for older people than for younger ones. Nursing home costs have been rising more slowly than

  • Boost the retirement income portfolio

    By Staff Writer

    Asset allocation is a hot topic in retirement planning. Stocks. Bonds. Annuities? Yes, annuities, according to a MassMutual study that sought to find what role fixed income annuities can play in boosting Americans' retirement income portfolios.

  • Boomers' LTC knowledge lacking

    By Staff Writer

    Long term care costs threaten to swamp the federal budget and bankrupt publicly financed health programs, and a survey from America's Health Insurance Plans finds that the problem may not get better anytime soon - if baby boomers don't get their

  • Standards bodies promote global principles

    By Staff Writer

    The certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has entered into a membership agreement with the Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd., the international organization that owns the CFP marks outside the United States. As part of that

  • Retirement issues on voters' minds

    By Staff Writer

    American politicians will do well to concern themselves with retirement issues if the want to retain or gain office, according to the results of a poll from Americans for Secure Retirement.ASR, which advocates tax breaks for annuity owners, found

New Products

  • New global equity funds available

    By Staff Writer

    Safety is the name of the game when it comes to preserving seniors' money. But not all seniors are created equal. Some still want the thrill the uncertainty of the market offers - at least with some of their money. Principal Funds recognizes that,

  • Service helps seniors find benefits

    By Staff Writer

    More than 4.5 million seniors will soon have access to a program that may be able to find them more benefits and resources for which they are eligible. Seniors who are members of Humana's Medicare program have access to the National Council on

  • Company releases new UL product

    By Staff Writer

    Senior advisors looking for a universal life product to round out a client's portfolio have a new choice. National Life Insurance Co. introduced its latest insurance policy, NaviStar, a flexible premium, flexible death benefit contract that can

Red Flag Reminder

  • NASAA updates investment advisor best practices

    By Staff Writer

    The North American Securities Administrators Association has issued an updated set of best practices to help investment advisors stay in compliance.NASAA President and North Dakota Securities Commissioner Karen Tyler said the best practices were