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John Ortman
By John Ortman | 1/7/2015
Representatives adopted a rule change Jan. 6 that directs Congress’ legislative analysts — the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office — to incorporate the economic effects of major legislation into their official cost estimates of proposed legislation, including future tax...
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By John Ortman | 1/6/2015
Okay, so it’s definitely too early in the new year to designate the coolest new web thingy of 2015. But if we’re compiling candidates, the “Build Your Own Public Pension Plan” online simulator just unveiled by the Urban Institute gets to be first on the list. The simulator, or calculator, or...
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By John Ortman | 12/30/2014
For the last three years, a NASA satellite has been tracking the spread of Christmas lighting from 512 miles up. According to the orbital images, nighttime lights around many major U.S. cities shine 20% to 50% brighter during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s. The images were taken by the...
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By John Ortman | 12/29/2014
‘Tis the season for a lot of things: mistletoe, eggnog, ugly holiday sweaters and overproduced halftime shows, to name just a few. Also predictions for next year and beyond. Here are a handful you may have missed while you were otherwise occupied: How Small Business 401(k) Plans Will Look...
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By John Ortman | 12/23/2014
For nearly 30 years, singer Darlene Love helped bring the holiday spirit to the Late Show with David Letterman by singing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," a modern holiday classic she first sang on Phil Spector’s iconic 1963 album, A Christmas Gift for You. With Letterman’s retirement set for...
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By John Ortman | 12/12/2014
The Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a rule that would require advisors to have a business continuity plan for business disruptions, such as when when they leave the firm or become incapacitated. SEC Chairman Mary Jo White noted the agency’s effort in a Dec. 11 speech in New York...
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By John Ortman | 11/25/2014
NAPA Net will be dark on Thanksgiving Day and on Friday. Look for your next NAPA Net Daily on Monday, Dec. 1. Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation, issued in 1863, set the precedent for the permanent observance of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. The impetus may have come from Sarah...
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By John Ortman | 11/7/2014
As many readers found yesterday, we're experiencing difficulties with our servers that are causing the NAPA Net portal to go off-line intermittently. We're working to resolve the situation. If you were unable to connect to the posts in yesterday's Daily, the links should work now. And you can...
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By John Ortman | 10/29/2014
Advisors seeking to capture IRA rollovers face a "four-part harmonization" of regulatory and other government entities -- that is, SEC, DOL, FINRA and GAO -- in the words of ERISA attorney Fred Reish. Speaking at a workshop session at the 2014 ASPPA Annual Conference Oct. 28, the Drinker Biddle...
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By John Ortman | 10/28/2014
Despite lacking any regulatory authority to do so, the Department of Labor has made an issue of fiduciary training over the last few years. The reason, according to Bryan Cave's Sheldon H. Smith: The DOL views fiduciary training as a critical element of good governance, and looks for evidence of a...
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By John Ortman | 10/13/2014
Morningstar announced Oct. 13 that its analysts have changed the ratings of five PIMCO funds, upgrading one and downgrading four, including the PIMCO Total Return fund. On Sept. 26, Morningstar placed all 39 analyst-rated PIMCO funds under review following the departure of Bill Gross. As of...
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By John Ortman | 9/30/2014
As the debate on Capitol Hill over retirement policy moves forward, it must be bipartisan and based on facts, not ideology, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told the delegates to the second annual NAPA DC Fly-In Forum Sept. 30.Hatch, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, traced the...
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By John Ortman | 9/26/2014
Did you read the August jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics? Me neither. But buried deep in the report, a recent Fiscal Times article noted, was a bad-news milestone that bodes ill for young Boomers and members of “Generation Z” — the next generation following the Millennials....
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By John Ortman | 9/26/2014
Did you read the August jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics? Me neither. But buried deep in the report, a recent Fiscal Times article noted, was a bad-news milestone that bodes ill for young Boomers and members of “Generation Z” — the next generation following the Millennials....
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By John Ortman | 9/4/2014
If the scheme being pushed by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and others to impose a new user fee to pay for an expansion of the SEC’s investment advisor exam program is adopted, the average annual cost per SEC-registered firm would be $27,013, RIA consultant RIA in a Box estimates. The total...
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By John Ortman | 8/19/2014
MassMutual’s Retirement Services division has added seven regional sales directors to support sales of defined contribution retirement plans in the emerging market — typically retirement plans with less than $15 million in assets — raising the firm’s total number of sales representatives for both...
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By John Ortman | 8/18/2014
The list of the top five most-read posts on NAPA Net last week includes a report on the settlement of a lawsuit against Fidelity brought by the firm’s employees, Fred Barstein’s take on the future of dabblers in the DC market, a survey finding that a third of DC plan participants have never...
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By John Ortman | 8/4/2014
So this year’s estimate of when the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) trust fund will run out of money is 2033, the Social Security trustees reported July 28 — roughly the same as last year’s estimate. There’s just one problem: There is no such thing as an OASDI trust fund....
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By John Ortman | 8/1/2014
As the DC market matures, a power struggle is emerging between record keepers and advisors. As the advisor world moves toward fee-based fiduciary plan advisors who are forming teams, some providers are adjusting. But others are stuck in a pre-Great Recession world — even as all signs are pointing...
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By John Ortman | 7/28/2014
Is there good reason to fear robo-advisors? While Vanguard is getting traction with their $13 billion Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, and Schwab is preparing to step up to the plate, so far most robo-advisor startups haven’t exactly made the case that they possess the knowledge or experience to...
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