Regulatory conflation between financial advice and investment advice detrimentally impacts how financial services are delivered to our citizens.

SECURE 2.0 contained a provision that gave favorable treatment to partial annuitization. The reason you haven’t heard about this is because those transactions cannot increase commissionable income.

“Verb sales” in retirement income, or in liability minimization, needs regulatory support immediately. By “verbs,” I mean selling services – such as financial planning – rather than “nouns” – such as investment products like annuities.

I examine the benefits of the contingent deferred annuity (CDA), and whether it’s poised to become the next big thing in retirement.

In the current unstable economic environment, producing safe, reliable income over the course of an unknown retirement is a daunting goal for any financial professional. As a result, many Americans sub-optimize their retirement experience.

FINRA interprets “financial advisor” as being usable (on business cards and elsewhere) by any financial professional who holds an RIA affiliation, whether or not the relationship with the client is in fact an advisory one.

Holistic tools are sorely needed to give fiduciary advisors a bridge between investment-oriented income generation and annuity-oriented approaches to retirement income.