It stands to reason that unless a financial planner was born with a very big silver spoon, particularly in light of the expense to operate a business, no one is going to practice financial planning with the liability attached to it, put the hours into a proper analysis to develop a well thought out set of recommendations, “for the love of mankind.” Our society is just not structured in such a way that would allow this form of existence for long. No more than you would expect your physician to...

An area that confounds even the professionals in the industry that probably had more to do with the birth of financial planning than any other single group is the life insurance business. Many of the methods that have now been refined into the process of financial planning were spawned as techniques used in the sale of life insurance. The needs approach, the estate planning approach, the educational plan approach, and the retirement planning approach were all separate markets that agents would specialize in, all using a similar version of...

Financial planning has gone through many changes to date. The question of whether it survives as a profession lies with the people that represent themselves as part of that movement. Their interaction with the public plays an obvious, important role. The development of community perception depends on the individual experiences of people with financial planners. What types of experiences occur? A lot of good. Take the family that had a very good income, but had absolutely no fiscal responsibility, and that you were able to convert into ardent savers....

A reader asks: About 15 years ago, I co-signed with my brother on a mortgage loan. The loan is paid off now. He would like me to withdraw my name so he can put his wife’s name on the house. I have no objection to that, but I worry about the tax consequences. I have no interest in his home nor did I put up any money for the mortgage or payments. Does the IRS consider the removal of my name from the house as a sale on my...