Advisers: Meet the 'client whisperer'

You've heard of the movie, The Horse Whisperer, and you are probably familiar with TV personality Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. Well, think of me as The Client Whisperer. Over the past 13 years as a senior editor with Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and editor of Kiplinger's annual Retirement Planning Guide, readers have asked me questions that they were afraid to ask their financial adviser---or they turned to me because they didn't have an adviser of their own to consult. They wanted to know how to allocate their retirement investments and how to turn those savings into retirement income streams. They had questions about immediate fixed annuities. Although they liked the idea of guaranteed income, they worried about low interest rates and giving up control of their money. They were intrigued by some deferred variable annuities, but concerned about high fees. They wanted to know which Medigap policy to choose and the best age to claim Social Security to maximize their benefits. They wondered whether they should relocate to a low-tax state in retirement, consider a reverse mortgage or contemplate selling their life insurance policy for cash. They worried about losing their jobs, their pensions, their health care—and just about everything else they had worked so hard to accumulate over two, or three, or four decades as they watch much of it disappear during the Great Recession. Welcome to Retirement 2.0. The post-meltdown economy is a whole new world and Americans need your help more than ever. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to interview some of the finest minds in the business, along with leading edge researchers and forward-thinking policy experts. My goal in writing this blog is to share tips, insights and observations about the latest thinking in retirement planning and retirement distribution strategies. I invite you to join the conversation, share your experiences and help build a dynamic forum where we can swap ideas and perhaps develop some creative solutions in this new age of retirement. You can post your comments publicly or e-mail me directly at [email protected]. Let's get started!