Editor's Letter
An advisor told me a few years back she was into behavioral economics "before it was cool." She said it in such a flippant way it suggested she thought the whole concept passé. Not anymore. As an investing public, we're seriously screwing ourselves. Even normally sober George Will says we have a lot more to fear than fear itself (actually sober doesn't do Will justice. Dry as a potato chip is more like it.)...
Forward Motion
In last month's Boomer Market Advisor, we revealed 20 percent of boomers won't be able to afford health care this year. Good thing they're feeling great, according to Energizer's "Live Healthy....
While it remains to be seen what account holders will do with their savings through this recession, new research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute indicates an increasing amount of account holders have been taking steps to preserve their retirement assets....
The economy is making it harder for boomers to keep the faith in their financial relationships.
"When boomers reach the empty nest stage, they discover that they no longer need all of the financial relationships that they have accumulated over 40 years of homebuilding and career development....
Although boomers are financially panicked, they aren't exactly basing their meaning of existence on money, according to a new Metlife Mature Market Institute study....
The past 12 months have been hard on boomers, to say the least. AARP breaks down the damage:...
Analysts at Focalyst and Millward Brown have identified at least 28 other countries that have a 50-plus age segment. In the U.S., we call them boomers. Here's how some other countries refer to them....
Broker/Dealer Playbook
Your shelves are littered with books and CDs from business coaches. Your budget is stretched by attending seminars and conferences that promise to improve your business. Yet you're still at the same production level as you were a year ago. The reason? You might be a coaching addict....
For years, variable annuities got a bad rap: too-high fees for benefits consumers would never use. Why pay an insurance company for minimum-return guarantees, critics asked, when stocks in the long run always rise? So writes Leslie Scism recently in the Wall Street Journal....
Talk about extreme value investing. At least he practices what he preaches. Despite the kick to the groin he's taken in his financial stock portfolio (Goldman Sachs and American Express, among others), Warren Buffett isn't backing away....
The Fund Watch
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the consumer-discretionary sector currently offers attractive investment opportunities.
Yes, consumers are in a wary, cash hoarding mode, and are likely to stay that way for a while. The sector as a whole isn't poised for a breakout. But smart, careful, research-based stock selection can reveal absolute gems that can be had at bargain prices. We believe these are investments that have a strong potential to pay off handsomely over a three- to five-year span....
Now that actual legislation has been drafted, top hedge funds have been "skittish" about their initial support of government oversight and more transparency. Dan Molinski and Joseph Checkler for Dow Jones Newswires report that shortly after Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Carl Levin, D-Mich, introduced a bill requiring hedge funds to register with the SEC, top hedge funds offered no comment, weren't available or questioned the bill's efficacy....
Who cares about fund performance, right? Cogent Research's 2009 Investor Brandscape indicates combined perceptions of a firm's financial stability and range of products is a more significant driver of customer loyalty than perceptions about short- and mid- term, as well as consistency of investment performance....
Two-thirds of IRA-owning households were headed by boomers in 2008...
An improvement over last month, but still nothing to get all the excited about. ...
CheckList
Any good psychiatrist will tell you recognizing destructive behavior is the first step in correcting it. In a slight departure from the normal Checklist format, we highlight seminal works on the topic of irrational investing; behavior that can kill a portfolio. Courtesy Jonah Lehrer of the Wall Street Journal, you'd be wise to recommend them to your boomer clients - and to read them yourselves....