The Financial Procast

The CFP board is struggling with how it wants to define “Fee Only” financial planning. It's a bit of a quandary–and that is how do we define this term? What is fee only? Who has the right to use that label to describe themselves? Over the last couple of years this debate has been heating ... Keep Reading

There is a worrying trend that we are seeing in the financial services industry recently. That trend involves selling indexed universal life insurance to people that have previously purchased fixed indexed annuities with some sort of guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit (GMWB) or lifetime income rider. Now that isn't necessarily a problem as one could certainly ... Keep Reading

Are millennials making a big mistake by not investing enough of their retirement funds in stocks? Well, someone over at the Motley Fool seems to think so and today we're going to tell you what we think about their (the Motley Fool) opinion. It turns out that Millennials are pretty good at saving money. However, ... Keep Reading

Today we're discussing the other “i” word–illustration. We are diving into how illustrations are manipulated to sell the sizzle and not so much about focusing on the substance. It seems that far too many of the people working in the marketing department feel that they need to really “push the envelope” in terms of illustrating ... Keep Reading

We’ve talked about a lot of scary financial concepts on the Insurance Pro Blog in the past and it seems as though few economic topics strike more fear in the hearts of Americans than unrelenting ‘i’ word. We are, of course, talking about inflation. But what is this seemingly cryptic topic all about and why ... Keep Reading

Today we are discussing one of our favorite financial products…the 401k. We really wish you could see the red hot glow of the sarcasm light in our studio. If you've been listening to the Financial Procast for any length of time, you will surely be familiar with our disdain for the 401k. It's not necessarily that we ... Keep Reading

The Certified Financial Planner designation stands as a testament of one’s dedication to excellence and superiority in the world of financial planning. Or at least that’s what the CFP Board and the designees want you to believe. And they’ve done a good job convincing the world that CFP® holders are the wise wizards of the ... Keep Reading

Well the Dow was at 17,000, but this week certainly hasn’t been very generous to American equities. Ignoring that ugly truth for a minute, we wanted to take a minute to look at last week’s awesome new highs and discuss what it really means for the real return of the stock market. 17,581.9 Who Remembers ... Keep Reading

When it comes to Gen X and Retirement all is not well with the MTV Generation. But this despair doesn’t seem to be rooted in a systemic lack of effort—one of the core flaws often noted by its preceding generation—rather it originates from a demoralizing late-in-life shift in world view coupled with a struggle to ... Keep Reading

“We want to let everyone know that life insurance is like that guy on the TV selling his little oven thingy…you just set it and forget it!” That was the utterance of a Friday morning sales meeting I once labored through when I was a relatively new agent at one of the big mutuals. The ... Keep Reading

Recent announcements have surfaced saying that both Amazon and Google are kicking around the idea to sell life insurance. Are we worried that this going to bring some stiff competition to the life insurance market? Do agents (like us) have to worry? We think not. They both will focus on selling term life insurance policies ... Keep Reading

In this episode of the Financial Procast we're discussing the tendency that some people have to obsess over details of a financial product purchase that don't really matter. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how much benefit you derive from the product that you purchase. All the stuff that ... Keep Reading

We bet you didn’t know that June is annuity awareness month.  In fact, we didn’t realize it until yesterday. And since we did an episode in May to honor Disability Awareness month, we figured we should give equal time to Annuity Awareness month. Of course we assume that you are all aware that annuities exist ... Keep Reading

Diversification is everyone's favorite topic in the world of personal finance. Too bad it's so often misunderstood and watered down. Today's episode is all about why you, as an individual, cannot replicate what an institutional money manager does. And this discussion goes far beyond just selecting investments. Why not just go out on your own? ... Keep Reading

Today we are here to cast a few stones at the so-called financial experts and financial bloggers that spring up all over ye olde interwebs. if you're wondering we do have a hate mail folder. What stones are we casting? Well, we're going to talk about the dispensing of advice and information as it relates to ... Keep Reading