Scary Financial Mistakes: Retirement Planning Errors Could Lead to Frightful Outcomes
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans As we enter the bewitching month of October, it’s natural for thoughts to shift to the beautiful fall foliage and the enjoyment of Halloween, when it’s fun to indulge in scary...
National 401(k) Day Highlights the Importance of Retirement Planning
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Most people have a mental picture of what their retirement years will look like. For some it might include exciting travel destinations or daily golfing excursions, and for...
If You Retire Early, Watch Out for IRS Penalities
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRA's, Retirement & Education Planning If there is one thing that this past year and a half has taught us, it’s that life doesn’t always go according to plan. If you find yourself in a situation where...
Planning for Sustainable Retirement Income
By Eric Estelle, Manager, Financial Planning & Marketing Retirement can be both a joyous occasion and a scary proposition. For many, the thought of no longer having a steady paycheck causes enough anxiety to overshadow the accomplishment of reaching...
Annuity Lifetime Guaranteed Income Gives Confidence
By Dan Schulte, Senior Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance There is little argument that equities have produced impressive returns over a long period of time, but retirees and pre-retirees often begin to ask themselves questions such as,...
Is Your Three-Legged Stool Wobbly?
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President, Manager of IRA's, Retirement & Education Planning The description of the three-legged stool for retirement income has been a staple in planning for a long time. The three components or “legs” of the stool are:...
Healthcare Groups Increasingly Explore Options for Enhancing Workplace Benefits
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans For the initial blog of our series this month on nonprofit entities, we’ll look at the Healthcare marketplace. Healthcare groups have encountered some turbulent times recently,...
Summer Savings: How Much Will it Cost to Eat in Retirement?
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRA's, Retirement & Education Planning Do you know how much it will cost to eat in retirement? Consider this example, at $5.00 per meal, eating three meals a day, 365 days in the year, for a...
Summer Savings: Graduation Marks a New Phase of Financial Responsibility
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans For those who have recently graduated from college – or may be on the verge of doing so – this experience marks a monumental time in your life. The possibilities are unlimited,...
Tax Tip Tuesday: SEP IRAs and Some New Retirement Plan Reminders
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Now that we’re deep into the “dog days” of tax season, this is a time when many business owners are intently seeking ways to limit their tax burden and/or searching for...
Scary Financial Mistakes: Entering Retirement Without Enough Guaranteed Income
By Dan Schulte, Senior Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance In addition to the usual financial risks we have such as inflation risk, market risk, and economic risk; there is another risk to confront in retirement: longevity risk, which is...
Scary Financial Mistakes: Retirement Planning Pitfalls
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans As we get closer to Halloween, it’s natural to think about the things that scare us. For many, it’s something very specific like spiders, ghosts or even clowns! For others, it’s...
Today is National 401(k) Day
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Addressing the Retirement Savings Gap Remains a Focus of National 401(k) Day The month of September is often connected with the celebration of Labor Day, a holiday to honor and...
IRS Provides Potential Relief for Employers on Retirement Plan Costs
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Senior Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding economic downturn has caused many employers to make some tough financial decisions in meeting their operational and payroll...
Lifetime “Stretch” IRA Dies; Life Insurance Lives
By Dan Schulte, Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance The recently passed Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, changes the post-death distribution rules for retirement account owners by requiring most...
Scary Financial Mistakes: Taking Social Security Early
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRAs, Retirement and Education Planning One of the biggest fears most people have about retirement is running out of money. Retirement decisions can be scary because your financial well-being depends on...
Scary Financial Mistakes: Defaulting on a Retirement Plan Loan
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Sometimes just the surprises and uncertainty in our daily lives can be scary! At times, things just don’t work out as planned and events can happen that we didn’t anticipate; like a...
What is “Key Employee” Life Insurance?
By Dan Schulte, Vice President and Manager, Annuities and Insurance All businesses, regardless of their size, have key employees that are invaluable to the success of the company. The death of an individual whose services are important to a business will...
New State-Run Retirement Plans Can Impact Business Owner Decisions
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Business owners have historically viewed employer retirement plans, like 401(k)s, as an effective solution for their own individual retirement savings, a mechanism for attracting and...
National 401(k) Day is a Reminder of the Importance of Helping Workers Stay on Track for Retirement
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans With National 401(k) Day scheduled for this week – September 6th, I started thinking about how 401(k) plans have evolved since their beginning. For example, for years business owners...
Diversify and Modernize Your Income Sources
By Pete Biebel, Senior Vice President Investors who are entering the autumn of their investing career might want to put a little spring into the income side of their portfolios. As investors approach their retirement years they typically de-risk their...
Can I Collect Social Security from My Ex?
By Theresa Fry, Senior Vice President and Manager, IRAs, Retirement and Education Planning Many people find Social Security decisions confusing, but if you are or were previously divorced, understanding what your options are can be even more complicated. ...
Retirement Income Series: How Confident Are You?
By Debbie Placke, Vice President, Manager Financial Planning Tools and Marketing and Nick Frigerio, Associate Vice President, Planning and Research Associate Do you have a plan in place for retirement? Whether you are years away, or retirement is right...
Nonprofit Organizations: Planning for Sustainability
By Nick Frigerio, Planning and Research Associate, Associate Vice President Nonprofits have a core mission at the forefront of everything they do for the communities they serve. They have a unique responsibility to invest funds provided by donors that...
Governmental Entities Strive to Find the ‘Right’ Mix of Benefits for Employees
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Tax-exempt entities share many of the same concerns as other employers in terms of attracting and retaining quality employees. Determining the ‘right’ mix of competitive compensation...
Healthcare Providers Look for Ways to Attract the Best Talent
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Healthcare groups have encountered some turbulent times over the past few years, with particular challenges regarding healthcare reform and staffing shortages. Yet, this market...
When to Consider a Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plan?
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans As an employer, it’s important to have enthusiastic and engaged employees, and one way to impact that is by offering competitive employer-sponsored benefits (i.e. retirement plans,...
Take Action in Attracting and Rewarding Key Employees
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Recruiting and retaining key employees and executive management can be critical to the ongoing success for any employer. Given this, what solutions are available to employers to entice...
Summer Savings Strategies: The Earlier the Better – Graduates Should Start Saving for Retirement Now!
By Edward “Ed” V. O’Neal, Vice President and Manager, Retirement Plans Congratulations college graduates, all your late-night study sessions and frantic essay writing is finally over! Now, welcome to the “real world” as your attention begins to turn to...