Planners Demand More from Retirement Planning Software
by Ed McCarthy, CFP®
New research—much of it published in this journal—is changing the ways financial planners calculate their clients' retirement plans. But can the software catch up? Software developers, as well as some financial planners, are taking on the challenge.

Columns

Professional Issues: Solely Incidental Financial Planning
by Duane Thompson
The Securities and Exchange Commission seems to have adopted a don't ask, don't tell policy for broker/dealers. They can provide financial planning services yet avoid registering as investment advisers—as long as they don't call it financial planning.

Retirement: Celestial Navigation and Retirement Planning
by Diane C. Savage, CFP®, CRC®
Our newest retirement columnist ponders whether financial planners, caught up in the celestial numbers of retirement, are missing the invisible Gulf Stream currents that could drag their clients away from their destination.

Insurance: The Mortality Table Is Coming...So?
by Peter C. Katt, CFP®, LIC
The widespread adoption by the insurance industry of the 2001 mortality tables in the coming years generally won't have much of an impact on consumers in lowering premiums—but where it will have an impact, the effect will be negative.

Practices: A Planner's Pyramid of Success
by Vern C. Hayden, CFP®
If it worked for legendary basketball coach John Wooden, it ought to work for financial planners—a pyramid of success for planners that attempts to visually capture in one dynamic image the realities of the business.

Contributions

Decision Rules and Maximum Initial Withdrawal Rates
by Jonathan T. Guyton, CFP®, and William J. Klinger
In a follow-up to the award-winning work of co-author Jonathan Guyton, the authors refine some of the withdrawal rules, develop more flexible new ones, and provide a confidence standard to measure the probability of retirees sustaining their initial withdrawal rate.

Understanding Secular Bear Markets: Concerns and Strategies for Financial Planners
by Kenneth R. Solow, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, and Michael E. Kitces, MSFS, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, REBC, RHU, CASL
Five years of tough markets and the strong possibility of below-average markets for years to come means planners can't rely on the passive investing that did so well during the bull market of 1982–2000. More active investing is called for during a secular bear market.

Calculating Break-Even Ages for Delaying Social Security Beyond Normal Retirement Age
by Robert Muksian, Ph.D.
Expanding on earlier work in this journal, the author looks at different scenarios for determining whether retirees, continuing to work past their full retirement age, should start or delay collecting Social Security benefits until age 70.

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