- A Conversation With Neil Sprackling
Digital Ecosystems
by P.E. Kelley
Ecosystems are the new market. And as consumers embrace a new power, one that they wield in the palm of their hands, every typical business-to-consumer relationship has become summarily disrupted. Retail markets are in free-fall, as brick and mortar evaporates into the cloud and distribution becomes reinvented in a new digital space.
read more - A Conversation With Aimee Johnson
Women, Money & Power
by P. E. Kelley
The idea of the ‘empowerment of women’ would seem by now embedded in our culture, having germinated in protest in the 1960’s and becoming gradually codified into the consciousness of society, and ultimately into the fabric of the lives of so many. But how engrained is it? Just how confident are women today in the…
read more - A Conversation With Neil Sprackling
Next-Gen Underwriting
by P.E.Kelley
There was a time in the very early days of life-insurance underwriting, somewhere in the 1700s, when the only useful and predictive piece of data was age. And it affected a simple equation: as the certainty of death approached year by year, so was risk duly assessed.
read more - A Conversation With Melissa Cowan
The ‘Women in Pensions Network’
by P.E. Kelley
Melissa Cowan, head of Business Development for Corporate Retirement Services at Morgan Stanley, is the president of the Women in Pensions Network (WiPN). This group, a 501©6 non-profit, was formed in 2009 with a fairly direct aim: to enhance networking among professional women in the retirement planning space.
read more - A Conversation With Joe Gaynor
The ABCs of RMDs
by P.E. Kelley
Many investors who turned 70½ last year may have missed the December 31 deadline to take their first required minimum distribution (RMD) from a retirement account like an IRA or 401(k). Fortunately, the IRS gives some extra time to those taking their first RMD...
read more - A Conversation With Craig Hawley
Advising The Affluent
by P.E. Kelley
Nationwide Advisory Solutions’ 2018 Advisor Authority study surveyed more than 1,700 RIAs, fee-based advisors and individual investors. It’s recent special report on “Winning the High Net Worth: Unlock Greater Growth Serving More Affluent Investors” zeroed in on the unique attributes and needs of the High Net Worth (HNW) – with investable financial assets ranging from…
read more - A Conversation With Laurinda Ferreira
Failure not an option
by PE Kelley
The essential value-proposition for success in financial services has always been deceptively simple. From debit-agents working their neighborhoods, families and friends to today’s retirement planners constructing complex income-strategies, the only job requirement, at the outset at least, was a desire to succeed.
read more - A Conversation with Chris Dyrhaug
What’s In A Name?
by P.E. Kelley
The financial services industry has always focused careful and concentrated attention on how it communicates to its consumers, while purposefully managing how its message is ultimately perceived. The connection between any industry and its constituency today, however, is seeing by a blurring of these lines, where the delivery of its message and products is being…
read more - A Conversation With Bryan W. Adams
Critical Mass
by P.E.Kelley
The ever-evolving distribution equation continues to be of critical concern to the players involved, especially those working in the senior market space. From manufacturers with a sharp eye on the effective flow of products, to agency owners with a keener eye on profitability and succession, the delivery chain requires, more than ever, viability and cost-efficiency.
read more - A Conversation With Axel Merk
Bitcoin: Cryptic Currency?
by P.E. Kelley
What is Crypto-Currency? It may depend on whom you ask. The Securities & Exchange Commission considers it a security. The Internal Revenue Service accounts for it as property. And the Treasury says it’s a currency. And they may all be correct, which is perhaps the crucial takeaway, at least if you are considering investing money…
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