Financial Planning

As an asset class, real estate is growing in importance to professional advisors and their clients. Not only did the asset class provide high returns in the past few years, but managers kept improving the opportunities for investments. Enthusiasm seems to be growing for the class in general, and for new offerings in particular.The run-up in prices over the last few years grabbed headlines. But from the 30 percent average pace of recent times, advisors expect that performance will drop into a more reasonable range, perhaps in the high single digits.

Are your clients making the maximum allowable tax-deductible contribution to their defined-contribution plans (as much as $49,000 in 2006)? Would they be interested in contributing much more if possible? If the answer is "Yes," they should consider a cash balance plan.A CB plan is a qualified retirement plan established for the owner of a business and his employees. Tax-deductible contributions are made to the plan in the form of managed assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, variable annuities, etc.) with the option of purchasing life insurance inside the plan.

There's a new sheriff in town at the country's investment advisors and broker/dealers.The Securities and Exchange Commission's new rules on the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 require firms to have a chief compliance officer who is held accountable for the firm's compliance with all regulations.

After months of speculation, Google rolled out a beta version of Google Finance on March 21, its own site bringing together pertinent information from across the Web about companies and mutual funds.

CPA and business advisory firm Hill, Barth and King, has merged in Presque Isle Capital Management with its financial planning unit HBK Sorce Advisory LLC.

SEC REQUIRES HEDGE FUND REGISTRATION: The Securities and Exchange Commission now requires hedge funds to register as investment advisors. Under the ruling, hedge funds will not have to register their individual funds. Rather, they have to provide basic information about the firm and are required to hire a chief compliance officer. Also, hedge fund firms are now subject to random inspections.Exceptions to the registration mandate include funds with less than $30 million under management, which will not have to register, although funds with $25 million or more are eligible for registration. Hedge funds that "lock up" their investors' money for two or more years or refuse to take new money can also avoid registration. The two-year loophole was meant to protect private equity and venture capital funds from getting caught up in the rule, but some managers invoked the exception to avoid registration.

In the current age of more stringent ethics codes and increased burdens on compliance officers, the level of compliance awareness in financial advisory firms has ratcheted up to new heights.During 2005, audits revealed that almost 80 percent of firms have some sort of conflict of interest not disclosed fully and fairly, with a majority of those issues centering on compensation streams - how and by whom the financial advisor is compensated.

It's not just the Baby Boom generation that is heating up the markets for financial planning and wealth management. Across the industry, the software is getting tighter, more polished and more capable.Driving these changes are four basic trends:

The Office of Thrift Supervision approved an application from H&R Block Inc. to organize a federal savings bank in Kansas City, Mo.

New York's Attorney General filed a $250 million fraud suit against H&R Block Inc., accusing the tax prep giant of steering hundreds of thousands of clients to investment retirement accounts with costs higher than what they would earn back.