Financial Planning

Raymond James Financial Inc. announced an initiative that would require the restructuring of variable annuities offered through financial advisors at the firm's broker/dealer subsidiaries, Raymond James Financial Services and Raymond James & Associates.President and chief operating officer Chet Helck said that beginning in August, Raymond James will require all approved annuity providers to offer an alternative pricing structure that reduces client costs without impacting standard or optional benefits. The changes are designed to lower policy fees, create consistent commissions and reduce opportunities for confusion by simplifying offerings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the North American Securities Administrators Association have announced a national initiative designed to protect seniors from investment fraud and sales of unsuitable securities.The initiative, which builds on the success of cooperative efforts between the SEC and Florida regulators, in conjunction with the NASD, to crack down on senior investment fraud, will include targeted examinations to detect abusive sales tactics, aggressive enforcement of securities laws in cases of fraud against seniors, and active investor education.

Outside of tax preparation, few facets of accounting are as complicated and change as frequently as retirement and estate planning. Partly that is because of the enormous implications of taxes on these two areas. But it is also due to the changing demands of clients with each new generation of retirees.At this, the outset of the Baby Boomer generation, it is clear that clients are less responsive to complex reports and more interested in simple processes which they can participate in and understand via their own computers or over the Internet. Vendors of retirement and estate planning systems have responded to this need with a host of new collaboration tools and a dramatic improvement in comprehension for both the process and its reports.

A plan participant sometimes wants to provide a survivor annuity for a non-spouse beneficiary who is a child or other close relative of the participant, or a significant other who is not a spouse.Caution: If the participant has a spouse, a survivor annuity for a non-spouse beneficiary can be provided only if the spouse consents.

TRADING FUTURES ON DEBT SECURITIES: The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have jointly proposed rules that would permit trading of futures on debt indexes in an effort to create a new class of tradable derivatives contracts.Futures contracts on debt indices that are allowed under the proposed rules would trade on futures exchanges subject to regulation by the CFTC. Securities futures on debt securities could be traded on futures exchanges and securities exchanges subject to regulation by the CFTC and the SEC. Under current regulations, trading futures on debt indices is essentially prohibited.

The Heroes Earned Retirement Opportunities Act has passed through Congress and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush. The bill would allow excluded combat pay to be treated as compensation under IRA contribution rules.

More than 80 percent of financial planners who hold the CFP certification have a high level of career satisfaction, though the profession's 2005 reported median earnings of $232,995 revealed a noticeable drop-off from the previous year.

I have dealt with many tax acts in the 30-plus years that I have been in professional publishing. When I worked at a tax publisher, I know tax legislation meant an awful lot of work. In one way or another, I would be involved in assembling the Code-as-amended, analyzing the effective dates, excerpting legislative committee reports, and writing or reviewing analyses. Besides the work, the legislation would almost always seemed to come down at a bad time, usually at the end of the year as Congress was about to adjourn. It was a real pain.

The Internal Revenue Service announced that it has reached an agreement with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards to offer continuing education credits at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums scheduled for this summer.

A growing number of Americans recognize that they're not saving as much as they should for retirement, a shift in attitudes that experts hope will lead to improved saving practices in the future.