With Medicare set to hit insolvency in 2018 or 2019, according to most predictions, and doctors’ fees and insurance premiums escalating to new highs, healthcare is perhaps the most important issue on the American agenda today. Research conducted by Hartford, Connecticut-based Hartford Financial Services in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) AgeLab show that it is also the greatest worry for retirees and pre-retirees.

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

If employers want to hold onto their employees, they have a narrow window of up to two years in which they may be able to change retiring workers’ decisions by offering them a “toolkit” of incentives to remain with the company, according to results of a recent survey of the aerospace and defense industries released by the Washington, D.C.-based Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Assets in annuities will jump to $2.9 trillion by 2012—a compound annual growth rate of 7.9%—sparked by demographic trends and product development that addresses both guaranteed income and principal protection, according to recent research by Cerulli Associates. Combined net assets of variable annuity contracts saw continued growth in 2007, with net assets at year’s end of nearly $1.5 trillion, an 8% increase over net assets in 2006, according to NAVA, the variable annuity trade group.

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DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sometimes no news is bad news, though the findings of a recent study on women and retirement suggest that there remains an educational opportunity for many advisors when it comes to raising awareness among their female clients on preparing for retirement. It seems the confidence gap of women—the chasm between knowing something and doing something—has prevented this group from a secure financial future.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

A go-to guy in Washington for retirement plan policy, Brian Graff has been at the helm of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) for a dozen years now, and he says he is happy to preside over the retirement industry as marketplace demand for more information continues to pour in. But he is also cognizant of the challenges for employees’ savings plans in the current market environment.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Mitch Politzer, senior VP of Lincoln, Nebraska-based Ameritas Advisor Services (a unit of Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., New York), had a hunch that financial advisors might not be as prepared as they should be to lead Americans toward a secure retirement. He therefore teamed up with Chicago-based market research firm Spectrem Group and put together a survey aimed at testing advisor know-how and opinion on the kinds of investment products available on the market today

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

In a wide-ranging discussion on the markets and the economy on June 5, former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the top domestic issue facing the United States is finding a fix for the Medicare funding issue. Speaking to some 2,00 attendees on the second day of the Pershing Insite 2008 conference in Hollywood, Florida, Dr. Greenspan said that finding a funding solution for “Social Security is relatively minor in comparison.”

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Mike Henkel, former president of Ibbotson Associates, was recently tapped to be the managing director of Envestnet Asset Management’s newly established Retirement Services Group. A pioneer in the 401(k) business, Henkel helped to spearhead Ibbotson’s 401(k) advice offering, growing revenue from $3.6 million in 1993 to $40 million in 2006.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

As the level of responsibility an individual has in saving for retirement increases, combined with a boost in longevity, especially for the well off, and healthcare expenses eating up a bigger-than-anticipated chunk of those savings in retirement, the troubled markets of 2008 may drive clients into a frenzy, anxious about how they are supposed to save for retirement while there’s less money to go around.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Laurie Hasso has changed her way of doing business since 1985, and not just in moving the financial planning firm she owns with her husband, Steve, out of her living room so many years ago. A battle with breast cancer that kept her from her practice from March 2005 until March 2007 led her to re-examine her approach to her clients, resulting in a decision to emphasize quality over quantity.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

While the introduction of Qualified Default Investment Alternatives (QDIA) to defined contribution plans has enabled sponsors to help participants accumulate retirement savings, a new study released by Richmond, Virginia-based Genworth Financial during the company’s 2008 Retirement Symposium in May has revealed that adding guaranteed income to a QDIA offers even greater upside to individuals.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

With its recent acquisition of CitiStreet LLC, one of the largest providers of retirement plans and benefit services in the U.S., ING Group is set to become a heavyweight in the retirement services industry—an area that Rick Mason, the president of ING U.S. Wealth Management’s retirement services market, believes is set for great growth going forward.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

The government and policymakers must work together if the 401(k) plan is going to remain the dominant private-sector device for retirement savings, said Paul Schott Stevens, president of the Investment Company Institute (ICI), at the ICI’s 50th annual conference May 7.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

In a story as poignant as it is telling, an Illinois wealth manager related that he and his two sisters must now provide for their retired parents’ financial security. “My parents’ case is what inspired me to get into this business,” said 42-year-old Joseph Guin of Guin Financial in Vernon Hills, Illinois, who advises nearly 100 clients, each with a minimum $1 million in investable assets.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com