Articles

• Small Practice Retirement Plans: How Are They Different*?

  Despite the apparent similarities, small practice and large company plans cannot be more different from one another. Understanding how small practice plans are different from large plans is important for small practice owners because most plan providers specialize in working with large companies and they are not capable of addressing the full scope of issues that small practice plans will encounter. Read on

• Why We Don’t Charge Asset-Based (AUM) Fees

  Majority of today's advisers, whether they are fee-only (that is, they are paid only by the client, not by third parties for selling products), or fee-based (having a mix of fees and commissions from product sales) are compensated by charging a percentage of assets under management (AUM) fees. AUM fees can range from about 0.25% to as high as 2%, not including the fees paid for mutual funds and other financial products, which can be as high as 2%. Proponents say that this type of compensation is good for the client because the adviser has 'skin in the game' - that is, the adviser makes more if the clients' portfolio performs, and less if it does not. A closer look, however, shows that the AUM model is not what it is made out to be. Read on

• Long Term Cost of Investment Expenses

  Morningstar's director of mutual fund research, Russel Kinnel, reports in an August 9 article on Morningstar.com, How Expense Ratios and Star Ratings Predict Success: "In every single time period and data point tested, low-cost funds beat high-cost funds." Read on