Welcome to our News Round-Up! Here, we’ll share with you interesting news in interesting ways, giving you a snapshot of a few of this past week’s headlines and events to get you caught up on what’s going on both here and abroad.
May 30, 2015
Quote of the Week:
- “This really is the World Cup of fraud – and today we’re issuing FIFA a red card.” – Richard Weber, IRS representative. This past week saw FIFA, the international governing body for the highest levels of soccer, challenged by its most formidable foe yet: The U.S. government. Weber spoke in no uncertain terms about his agency’s goal to bring FIFA to justice for their long-rumored fraudulent practices.
On Your Business:
- Sell sell sell! Get your succession plan in order. That’s the wisdom to be taken from this article on FA-Mag.com, which paints a bleak picture for advisors looking to sell their business once they’re ready to retire or take a reduced role. With fewer and fewer people taking up the profession, there might not be a market for many baby boomer-owned advisory businesses when it comes time to sell.
On the Industry:
- “Sure I retired! …To a part time job, that is.” A T. Rowe Price study found that 22 percent of recent retirees are jumping back into the work pool, while 9 percent are actively looking for employment. While returning to work is probably not the “feet in the sand” treatment retirees anticipated, the fact that they are planning for a long retirement is encouraging. Advisors can also view this trend as an opportunity to develop a formal withdrawal plan for retired or pre-retiree clients.
On Technology:
- Keep tweeting! Advisors have upped their social game over the last few years, according to a couple of recent surveys. Studies have shown that financial advisors’ clients were on social media–the advisors just needed to follow suit. Looks like they listened. About 72% of advisors are using LinkedIn today, whereas just 39% of advisors were on the site in 2011. Twitter and Facebook also saw jumps in advisor adoption. Advisors are clearly seeing the benefit a social media presence can have on business.
On the Economy:
- Help your clients focus on saving — odds are, they haven’t been. According to a recent survey of people over 45, a quarter of respondents have no retirement savings or pension. This obviously isn’t great news for their futures, and as we mentioned in the Industry section above this may lead to less and less people retiring at all. Reuters.com has the full story.
On the World:
- The plot thickens. In the days since the initial arrests were made in the FIFA corruption case, more and more has been revealed about the extent of fraud committed by FIFA officials. Information on the length of their scheme (24 years), the amount of their profits (150 million), and the implications for the organization (especially its president, the infamous Sepp Blatter) have been leaking out through the press. There is good news for FIFA however; it turns out everyone still loves
football soccer.
