Medicare Confusion

I was listening to a local Atlanta show today that stated 70% of Americans don’t understand Medicare.

Then came the nugget of gold: UnitedHealthcare has been working to make all the ins & outs of the program easier to understand.

Maybe you know just the client that could benefit from this easy to comprehend FREE resource.

Check out the “Show Me Guide” from UnitedHealthcare at MedicareMadeClear.com or by clicking HERE.

Eating Bacon will help you reach Age 116?

Susannah Mushatt Jones just turned 116 and is now the world’s oldest woman!

bacon-small

The Secret Ingredient to Living Longer?

At age 116, she says that she eats  a steady diet of bacon, eggs and grits for breakfast. A sign in her kitchen reads: “Bacon makes everything better.”

She was born in 1899!

If you or your spouse live to be 116, will you be able to afford it?  Or will you be stuck on a “fixed income”?

Consider running some numbers using the RetirementView program.  You can download a free demo version from our website at: http://www.torrid-tech.com

Read the full article about Susannah at this location:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/06/worlds-oldest-woman-116-eats-bacon-everyday/73444660/

October Advisor Newsletter

Check out our Tech Talk Newsletter by clicking below.

You’ll find:

  • Tim’s article on Marketing
  • A free resource on Medicare that might help your clients with any confusion
  • An AWESOME offer for a free copy of No B.S. Direct Marketing
  • And more!

October FA

Retirement Calculator Paints Clearer Picture For People Looking To Retire Says Torrid Technologies

Miji Pearse, a spokesperson for the company Torrid Technologies, Inc., announced that their proprietary Retirement Calculator can help to paint a clearer picture for people that are thinking about retiring.

She said that too many people take a decision to retire, and then later regret the timing of that decision. She added that the reason for this is because they don’t consider the right factors. Torrid Technologies, Inc. said that the number one priority for people to consider is “when” they take their Social Security. Taking it too early could leave them in a financial shambles.

The company explains it with the following example, “Taking it early at 62 can reduce your benefits by thousands of dollars over your lifetime and that of your spouse. For each year that you delay taking Social Security you will receive 7 to 8% higher benefits. If one spouse dies, the other spouse can continue the higher benefit. Thus, extending the lifetime benefit of delaying taking Social Security.” Another factor to consider is the likelihood of being able to delay retirement. If a person owns their own business, there shouldn’t be any problem, as long as they stay in good health. However, if the company they work for has a mandatory retirement age, the employee has no final say in the matter, regardless of how healthy they are. Miji added that with people living past the age of 90 these days, there is a higher need to retire closer to the age of 70 then 60 in order to continue living a lifestyle they’re accustomed to.

Tim Turner, attorney and founder of Torrid Technologies says, “Determining the best age to retire requires analyzing many factors including healthcare, expenses, defined benefits like Social Security and Pensions, investment management, annuities, where you will live, longevity, inflation, and many other factors. When to retire is a big decision not to be made lightly.” Tim Turner explains that this is the reason why basic planning is critical for people to build their retirement. He said that a lot of people rely on hope, which is not a strategy. Instead, by having a good understanding of their retirement picture and knowing what they will need in order to make it possible is a better approach.

Torrid Technologies, Inc. said that their Retirement Calculator is a good tool to help people get a clearer picture. It does this by taking into account the income from Social Security, defined benefits, pensions, other cash infusions, and unlimited investments that are tax-deferred and taxable. They added that the retirement calculator can be used for people who are planning for their retirement and those who are already retired.

For over 20 years Torrid Technologies, Inc. has been providing easy to use financial planning software for websites, consumers, financial advisors as well as companies that need custom web calculators to showcase on their sites. Those who are interested in finding out more about the Retirement Calculator from Torrid Technologies are encouraged to visit the company’s website.

What? Retire Earlier?

You hear many conflicting ideas about when is the best time to retire: As soon as I’m able? On your 62nd birthday and get those early retirement benefits? At the full benefit time- 66-67 or should you just wait till age 70 or later? To whom should you listen?

A recent survey conducted by New York Life Insurance Company shows that retirees themselves wish that they had retired sooner…an average of 4 years sooner.  Why? They wanted the time to enjoy retirement life while their health was still good.

The survey showed that the people who responded in this way did have some moderate retirement savings. The problem is that many boomer who participated in the study, report having far less savings than that of the generation prior.

Have you made any plans for retirement? Do you have enough to retire a bit sooner? Let RetirementView Software help you see where you stand and what you can do to improve the outlook for your retirement.  Check us out at www.torrid-tech.com and let us help guide you to a more secure retirement.

You can read more of the details of the survey at http://tinyurl.com/lcsajos

Consumers Chasing Fool’s Gold

We’ve all heard a thousand times the old tale about finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  We all know it’s just supposed to be a humorous and interesting “old wives tale”.  But I find that many people are constantly chasing after “Leprechaun gold”.

Get rich quick schemes are everywhere! The internet is full of them. A quick Google search will lead you to more than you could possibly imagine…some legitimate but many not.

How many of you have been approached to invest $100 in your own business and with just a few hours a week you can become a millionaire? Again, some of these businesses are can help you achieve some extra income, some not but most don’t make the returns in their promises.

You can probably name a few more that you’ve come across in your experience, but nothing can quite meet the  good ol’ spend less, save more. If you have the luxury of starting early in life, making wise investments and putting a little away where you can, you will wake up one day and find that your little coins have accumulated into quite a pot of gold.

How can Torrid Technologies help you reach your retirement goals?

We hope that through this newsletter each month, you will find good tips and tricks for saving and investing.

Using our RetirementView Software can help you by looking for the GREEN on your graph. You can play with different scenarios in your plan and see what pays off in your personal plan.

Please let us know how we can assist you or make our product better any time! We don’t want you to leave your retirement security to the “Luck of the Irish”!

Tim Turner  Torrid CEO and Founder

Finding Solutions to Key Challenges of Modern Retirement

In the new book, Falling Short: The Coming Retirement Crisis and What to Do About It, Charles Ellis says that while just 30 years ago, most American workers were able to stop working in their early 60’s and enjoy a long and comfortable retirement, that brief golden age is over!

As responsibility for retirement savings shifts from employer to employee, increasing life expectancy and health care costs are key challenges that retirees today will face. On top of that, Social Security is replacing less of pre-retirement income, traditional pension plans are being exchanged for 401k plans with modest balances and employers are not providing health benefits for their retirees.

Mr. Ellis suggests a couple of changes that need to take place. For one, waiting to retire from age 62 until age 70 provides a 76% increase. He ventures that many of his colleagues in the investing world do not know that. He also points out that if your full retirement age is 66, that collecting benefits at the earliest age of 62 results in a 25% reduction in benefits.

Read much more detail about his research at http://tinyurl.com/qbet8dh.

Why Retirement Security is Often Luck O’ the Draw?

from InvestmentNews.com

Just speaking historically, seniors retiring now are facing a tough environment. At the time of your retirement, for better or worse, the current interest rates can have a dramatic impact on the longevity of your retirement savings.

 

Wade D. Pfau, a professor of retirement income in the Ph.D program in the financial service and retirement planning at the American College in Bryn Mawr, Penn. states that “people who otherwise plan and save in the same responsible way, those born at the right time will be fortunate to sustain a high level of spending over their retirements. Others will live and work at times that will result in less fortunate outcomes. Good fortune is derived from experiencing strong market returns in the years around the retirement date, and we have no control over what these returns will be.”

 

Wealth accumulation is certainly an important part of your retirement planning but even more important is the amount of spending which can be sustained by this wealth.

Dr. Pfau has created an index to help calculate whether or not your client is retiring in a good place or bad.

You can find more about him at his blog: http://wpfau.blogspot.com

 

He estimates that today’s retirees can only safely replace 38.9% of their pre-retirement salary using the accumulated assets in their financial portfolio. Extremely low interest rates, while helpful in some areas, are a problem in this calculation.

 

This replacement rate is down from a high of 105.2% in 2000 and up from a low of 33.1% in 2013.

 

This is definitely a challenging time to enter into retirement. That’s where you as a Financial Planner can truly shine! You can offer a number of ideas and strategies to make your client’s longevity of retirement savings reach it’s full potential!

 

Read more on this article at: http://tinyurl.com/oga49pu

Secrets for Successful Withdrawal

Sustainable income is a key factor in retirement planning.

Statistically, wealthier couples have a 43% chance that one of two spouses will live beyond age 95.
From 1969 to 1999 a portfolio of 60% equities & 40% bonds = avg. return of 11.48%
Unfortunately this comes with almost 0% returns over 12 years and 8% over the next 18 years.

Spending adjustments over time

Lifestyle spending slows between ages 70-84 with costs dropping as much as 30%
Higher inflation necessitates lower spending.

http://tinyurl.com/px4llwf

Torrid Advisory Solutions Helps RIAs Fight Back Against Pure “Robo-Advisors” by Releasing White Label Advisory Platform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Torrid Advisory Solutions Helps RIAs Fight Back Against Pure “Robo-Advisors” by Releasing White Label Advisory Platform

 

Marietta, GA, November 17, 2014 – Torrid Technologies has thrown its hat into the online advisory platform business competing with large financial companies and others using advanced technology integrated with a competing custodian. It is very clear that the online advisory business is growing and here to stay.

 

The Torrid Advisory Solutions SaaS Platform competes with pure electronic “Robo-Advisors” by helping existing advisors extend their practices to the “cloud” with ease.  This new “Cloud-Advisor” model  shines a light on the “Robo-Advisor” shortcomings, which are mainly a lack of human interaction and guidance.

 

The Torrid Advisory Solutions SaaS Platform changes the game for advisors looking to leverage the technologies needed to compete with existing solutions and leap over the competition. The service is immediately available for white labeling by Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and advisory firms.

 

As Tim Turner, CEO of Torrid Technologies shared, “Most robo-advisors are simply low-cost portfolio management solutions that rely totally on computer-based decision making.”  One robo-advisor firm, for example, has gathered over $1 billion in assets since 2012.  Unlike such pure “robo-advisors”, Torrid Advisory Solutions is different because it provides a Financial Advisor or Investment Advisory firm the ability to extend their existing financial practice to the cloud.

Doing business in the cloud shouldn’t represent a reduction in services in order to reduce cost. Torrid Advisory Solutions believes “bringing an Advisor’s business to the cloud” means increasing scalability while increasing efficiency and automation, so that an Advisor can manage a business growing without borders.

 

At the heart of the Torrid Advisory Solutions SaaS Platforms is “video”. Whether it is an Investment Advisor looking to share their portfolio management decisions with investors, or a financial advisor performing a video consultation with a client, integrated video conferencing and video communication makes the cloud feel a little closer. Providing Advisory Services is a consultative business and without integrated video, “Robo-Advisors” are little more than a computer program.

 

Torrid Advisory Solutions SaaS Platform is more than just video. It provides automatic

rebalancing and simplified portfolio management all without the advisor having to do anything to make a trade. But the icing on the cake is the robust client communications layer. Client’s will never feel left out in the cold with the real-time notifications of portfolio changes (including video explanations), and any other pertinent information shared by the advisor. Combined with Social Media integration, clients and advisors can participate in discussion threads that reach the masses with personal interactions.

 

The Torrid Advisory Solutions SaaS Platform competes with pure electronic “Robo-Advisors” by helping existing advisors extend their practices to the “cloud” without much effort. a This new “Cloud-Advisor” model  shines a light on the “Robo-Advisor” shortcomings, which are mainly a lack of human interaction and guidance.

Access a demo and solutions-driven white paper:

www.torrid-tech.com

 

About:

Torrid Technologies RetirementView software is used by thousands of customers including agents, advisors, planners and brokers This top-rated software for both consumers and financial advisors has been seen and reviewed favorably in Forbes, Barron’s, BusinessWeek, Reader’s Digest, USA Today, among many others. Torrid Advisory Solutions is a service of Torrid Technologies, Inc.

A New Opening For Annuities

A New Opening For Annuities

Straight from the IRS:: Under the new IRS guidance, a target date fund may include annuities allowing payments, beginning either immediately after retirement or at a later time, as part of its fixed income investments, even if the funds containing the annuities are limited to employees over a specified age.  The guidance makes clear that plans have the option to offer target date funds that include such annuity contracts either as a default or as a regular investment alternative.

 

The new policy change is another step reflecting the continuing commitment of the Administration to work in a variety of ways to further bolster retirement security and saving.

 

Torrid Tech Explains:  This means that the employer plans have the flexibility to offer the annuity as an option or as a default when employees save into their 401(k) plan.

 

http://blog.insurancenewsnet.com/2014/10/24/new-opening-annuities/#.VFk-2RY_lEs

Afraid you may outlive your savings; tried giving annuity options a try? Share your feedback. We’d love to hear from you!

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