Nevin's Data "Points"

For all the fuss about fees, a recent friend of the court filing by the Department of Labor reminds us that it’s not just what you pay, it’s what you get for what you pay. The amicus brief had the DoL once again weighing in on another in the series of revenue-sharing suits that have kept the industry stirred up since the first wave was filed in 2006. Once again, the DoL was expressing its sense that there were real, and triable, issues in the case, this one involving Exelon Corporation (see “ Solis Asks Court to Overturn Exelon Excessive Fee Case Decision ”). The DoL had previously expressed similar concerns about a similar dismissal in the same judicial district in a case involving Deere & Co. (see “ Hecker Fee Case Prompts Exelon Suit Dismissal ”)—a dismissal that was affirmed by the appellate court, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to reconsider. Those concerns weren’t enough to influence the appellate court in the Hecker case, though it did result in a judicial ad...

There are in this--or perhaps any—business certain moments of epiphany that shed light and clarity, Moments where complexity becomes simplicity, where the shining light of comprehension illuminates what had, until that very moment, been hopelessly “confuddled”. On the subject of retirement income, my moment of clarity came at the end of a conversation with my then soon-to-be-retiring father who was trying to sort through his options regarding his various savings programs and distribution options. At the end of what I hoped was an educational and enlightening discussion of his options and trade-offs, their upsides and potential downsides, when I was sure that I had been able to unwind and demystify the maze and presented him with a straightforward presentation of alternatives, there was this long pause—and then, he turned to me and, as politely as he could, said, “I just want to know how much money I’ll have to live on every month.” It’s been many years since that conversation, but, I...

I don’t know if you’ve gotten to this point in your year yet, but we’ve started doing taxes in our household. Now, tax season’s not quite the arduous experience it once was—not since that fateful “encounter” with the AMT a couple of years back, along with a year replete with a variety of “special” events, that finally persuaded me that it was a better use of my time to enlist the services of an expert. Still, there is the process of gathering the requisite information from which that expert can do his thing (aided in no small part by the order in which my better half keeps our financial house), and it provides a good opportunity to get a 30,000 foot perspective on how we spend (and invest) our money. This year—as in most years—I was astounded at how much of our household income is absorbed by various taxes—federal, state, local/property, and, yes, FICA (which I consider a tax—but that’s a subject for another day). Indeed, while I have an opportunity to see most of these reduce my tak...