Financial Planning

The American College, based here, and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors have partnered to create the Financial Services Specialist designation, a new financial planning credential.

Employers and their advisors are still trying to puzzle through the creation of health savings accounts.

Sherman Hanna is a professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State University. He is also the co-author of a new measure that he says is a better way to calculate how much risk people are willing to take in their investments. It has an interesting twist.

FIDELITY, AICPA EXTEND PARTNERSHIP PACT: Financial services conglomerate Fidelity Investments has extended its partnership with the American Institute of CPAs to assist CPAs in establishing investment advisory practices.

CPAs advertising their services used to be against the rules, until regulators began loosening those restrictions about 25 years ago.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to allow brokers to offer fee-based advisory accounts without being regulated as investment advisors. The new rule would allow brokers to continue offering fee-based accounts without coming under regulation as advisors, provided that they meet certain requirements. According to reports, clients in such accounts must be given explicit disclosure that they are brokerage accounts, not advisory accounts, and that the brokers' interests may not be the same as their clients' interests. Brokers also must offer clients information on whom to contact at the brokerage firm if they have questions on the differences between these accounts. The commission also ordered a 90-day study into whether any changes are required regarding how brokers and advisors are regulated.

Nearly three-fourths of workers participating in a retirement savings poll said that employers' matching contributions of up to 5 percent of their salaries would greatly influence their decision to join a savings plan at work. In its 15th annual Retirement Confidence Survey, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that, in addition to matching employer funds, 65 percent of workers were more likely to join a company-sponsored retirement plan if the plan offered an investment option that automatically provided workers with a more conservative allocation as their retirement date approached, while 56 percent said that they would join up if the plan contained a provision that raised employee contributions by a fixed percentage when they received a pay raise. The annual study measures attitudes of workers and retirees toward saving, retirement planning and financial security. A majority of those polled admitted to being behind in their retirement savings, yet confident that they'll reach their savings goal by retirement. Some 69 percent indicated that they or their spouse had accrued some savings for retirement -- the survey's highest level in more than 10 years.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that creditors cannot seize individual retirement accounts in a bankruptcy filing, thereby classing them with pensions, 401(k)s and Social Security, which are afforded protection under bankruptcy law. The case before the court involved a bankrupt couple from Arkansas who were fighting to keep more than $55,000 in retirement savings. Last year, more than 1.6 million people filed for personal bankruptcy, versus 875,000 a decade earlier. Experts say that much of that is being driven by people 55 and older who lose their jobs and can't pay off debts.

The strain on the financial advisory business is starting to show.

* HENSSLER ENTERS ACCOUNTING JOINT VENTURE: The Henssler Financial Group, a Kennesaw, Ga.-based concern, has formed a joint venture with the Atlanta-area accounting firm of Dickinson & DiLuzio to form a new accounting division of the firm - Dickinson, DiLuzio & Henssler LLC.The new entity will provide financial consulting services for both individual and institutional clients. This partnership expands Henssler to two offices and a staff of more than 55.