Creative Financial Professionals

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Welcome to our research center! We've put together a library of information on important financial topics that we believe you'll find helpful.

Simply click on one of the general financial topics below and you'll find a selection of easy-to-understand information sheets about related financial concepts and strategies. This information is updated regularly to reflect the latest facts, figures, legislation, and economic trends.

Personal Finance

What Is Term Life Insurance?

Term life insurance differs from permanent forms of life insurance in that it offers temporary protection.

Personal Finance

What Is Whole Life Insurance?

Some of the pros and cons of whole life insurance.

Personal Finance

What Is Universal Life Insurance?

Consider a universal life insurance policy if you want the flexibility to change your premium or death benefit.

Personal Finance

What Is Variable Life Insurance?

Variable life insurance gives you the control to allocate your account value among a variety of investment options.

Personal Finance

How Do I Make a Property Insurance Claim?

When it is time to make an insurance claim, it helps if you are familiar with your policies and the steps you should take to file a claim.

Personal Finance

How Can I Maximize My Insurance Benefits?

Several factors could undermine the financial security provided by the proceeds of your life insurance policy.

Personal Finance

How Can I Insure My Future?

To help you choose insurance wisely, determine how much coverage and what kind of policy is best for your situation.

Personal Finance

Do I Need Disability Income Insurance?

Knowing the basics of a disability income insurance policy is a good first step toward protecting your family.

Personal Finance

How Can I Determine the Financial Strength of My Insurance Company?

Using a financially sound insurance company is an important part of ensuring your family’s financial security.

Personal Finance

What Does Medicare Cover?

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for those persons age 65 and over. But what does it cover?

Personal Finance

What Are Some Tips for Managing My Money?

A sound cash management program uses a disciplined approach: accounting, analysis, allocation, and adjustment.

Personal Finance

How Long Will It Take to Double My Money?

Before making investment decisions, it is helpful to determine the real rate of return on the investment.

Personal Finance

What Cash Management Tools Are Available?

Short-term cash management instruments can help you establish a sound cash management program.

Personal Finance

How Do Money Market Mutual Funds Work?

Money market funds can be a highly liquid and effective cash management tool.

Personal Finance

How Can I Better Manage My Short-Term Cash?

There are numerous investment alternatives available to help provide liquidity.

Personal Finance

What Advantages Does a Biweekly Mortgage Offer?

Biweekly mortgage payments can have a dramatic effect on the amount of interest homeowners have to pay.

Personal Finance

What Is a Reverse Mortgage?

There are techniques that can enable older homeowners to use their property to finance their lifestyle.

Personal Finance

What Are Some Smart Ways to Refinance?

Here are some smart ways to refinance your home.

Personal Finance

What About Financial Aid for College?

It's important to understand the options, such as financial aid grant programs, when having to pay for college.

Personal Finance

What Savings Alternatives Are Available?

There are a number of savings alternatives that could help you earn a reasonable rate of return.

Personal Finance

How Does Inflation Affect Me?

Historically, one of the best ways to fight the effects of inflation has been to utilize growth-oriented investments.

Personal Finance

Is a Home Equity Loan or Line of Credit Right for Me?

Shifting some debt to a home equity loan, which typically allows interest payments to be tax deductible, could have its advantages.

Investment Planning

What Is Diversification?

An important element to successful investing is to manage investment risk while maintaining the potential for growth.

Investment Planning

What Types of Bonds Are Available?

Bonds are issued by many entities and share many characteristics, each type of bond has certain benefits and risks.

Investment Planning

What Is a Bond?

A bond is simply evidence of a debt from a government entity or a corporation and represents a long-term IOU.

Investment Planning

What Do Bond Ratings Mean?

Bond ratings gauge a bond issuer’s financial ability to repay its promised principal and interest payments.

Investment Planning

What Is a Stock Index?

Stock market indexes can be useful benchmarks for gauging the performance of an investment portfolio over time.

Investment Planning

How Do Mutual Funds and Stocks Differ?

The difference between purchasing an individual stock versus shares in a mutual fund to potentially earn dividends.

Investment Planning

What Is a Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is a collection of stocks, bonds, and other securities with certain benefits and risks.

Investment Planning

What Is a Closed-End Fund?

With closed-end funds, investors pool their money together to purchase a professionally managed portfolio of stocks and/or bonds.

Investment Planning

What Is a Mutual Fund Load?

It’s important to understand mutual fund loads, or sales charges, and exactly what they entail so you can make informed investing decisions.

Investment Planning

What Is an Annuity?

An annuity is a flexible financial vehicle that can help protect against the risk of living a long time because it provides an option for a lifetime income.

Investment Planning

What Is the Difference Between a Fixed Annuity and a Variable Annuity?

Both fixed and variable annuities could be appropriate options for an individual interested in purchasing an annuity.

Investment Planning

What Investment Risks Should I Know About?

Understanding different types of investment risk can help investors manage their money more effectively.

Investment Planning

What Are the Different Classes of Assets?

There are five broad asset classes that you should take into consideration when constructing your investment portfolio.

Investment Planning

What Is Asset Allocation?

Asset allocation is a method used to help manage investment risk; it does not guarantee a profit or protect against investment loss.

Investment Planning

How Can I Save for My Child’s College Education?

There are several funding methods for a child's college education including mutual funds and Section 529 plans.

Investment Planning

What College Investment Options Do I Have?

Starting to invest early for college and remaining consistent can help investors reach their goals.

Investment Planning

What Stock and Bond Investing Alternatives Do I Have?

There are other ways to invest in stocks and bonds besides owning individual shares or bonds.

Investment Planning

What Is Dollar-Cost Averaging?

Dollar-cost averaging involves investing a set amount of money on a regular basis, regardless of market conditions.

Tax Planning

What Is Tax Deferral?

There can be a substantial benefit to deferring taxes as long as possible.

Tax Planning

How Can I Benefit from Tax-Advantaged Investments?

Many traditional tax-advantaged investment strategies have gone away, but there are still some alternatives.

Tax Planning

What Tax-Advantaged Alternatives Are Available?

While stable, CDs can create an income tax bill. Fixed annuities and municipal bonds can offer tax advantages.

Tax Planning

What Is the Most Tax-Efficient Way to Take a Distribution From a Retirement Plan

Consider a trustee-to-trustee transfer to an IRA versus a lump-sum distribution from a workplace retirement plan.

Tax Planning

Is There Such a Thing as a Tax-Free Investment?

It's important to understand tax-exempt vehicles when establishing a comprehensive tax planning strategy.

Tax Planning

How Can I Keep More of My Mutual Fund Profits?

Want to keep more of your mutual fund profits? You may be interested in strategies to help lower your tax liability.

Tax Planning

How Can I Upgrade My Insurance — Tax-Free?

A 1035 exchange allows you to exchange your life insurance policy for one from another company without tax liability.

Retirement Planning

What Are My Retirement Planning Options?

There are a variety of retirement planning options that could help meet your needs. Here are some of the most popular.

Retirement Planning

Will Social Security Retire Before You Do?

Greater demand is being placed on the Social Security system as the baby boom generation has begun to retire.

Retirement Planning

How Can I Estimate My Future Social Security Benefits?

The Social Security Administration’s retirement estimator gives estimates of your future benefits based on your actual Social Security earnings record.

Retirement Planning

What Is a Self-Employed Retirement Plan?

Tax-deferred retirement plans for self-employed individuals have higher contribution limits than IRAs.

Retirement Planning

What Is an Indexed Annuity?

An indexed annuity may provide some upside potential and downside protection.

Retirement Planning

What Are My Retirement Plan Distribution Options?

When receiving money accumulated in your employer-sponsored retirement plan, you have two options: lump sum or annuity.

Retirement Planning

What Is a Traditional IRA?

If you do not participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, you might consider a traditional IRA.

Retirement Planning

What Is a 401(k) Plan?

401(k) employer-sponsored retirement plans have many benefits, including that the funds accumulate tax-deferred.

Retirement Planning

How Should I Manage My Retirement Plan?

Employer-sponsored retirement plans are more important than ever, but managing the assets can be confusing.

Retirement Planning

Save Now or Save Later?

If you start saving for retirement sooner, the more money you are likely to accumulate and possibly retire sooner.

Retirement Planning

What Is a Roth IRA?

Qualified Roth IRA distributions in retirement are free of federal income tax and aren’t included in gross income.

Transferring Wealth

What Key Estate Planning Tools Should I Know About?

Wills and trusts allow you to spell out how you would like your property distributed, but they also go beyond that.

Transferring Wealth

How Can a Living Trust Help Me Control My Estate?

A living trust can help control the distribution of your estate upon death.

Transferring Wealth

What Are the Pitfalls of Probate?

The probate process can be lengthy and complex. There are strategies you can use to help avoid the probate process.

Transferring Wealth

How Can My Gift Benefit Me and the Charity?

To retain the tax advantages associated with charitable giving, your gift must be made to a qualified organization.

Transferring Wealth

How Can I Control the Distribution of My Estate?

If you haven't taken steps already, consider planning now for the distribution of the assets of your estate.

Transferring Wealth

How Will I Pay Estate Taxes?

If you believe your estate will be subject to estate taxes, consider how your heirs will pay the bill.

Transferring Wealth

Can I Benefit from an A-B Trust?

An A-B trust can be an effective way to help reduce estate taxes and preserve family assets for heirs.

Transferring Wealth

What Gifting Strategies Are Available to Me?

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of different gifting strategies available for planned giving.

Transferring Wealth

How Can I Benefit from a Charitable Lead Trust?

Charitable lead trusts are designed for people who would like to benefit a charity now rather than later.

Transferring Wealth

How Can I Benefit from a Charitable Remainder Trust?

A designated income beneficiary could receive payment of a specified amount from a charitable remainder trust.

Transferring Wealth

How Can I Benefit from a Wealth Replacement Trust?

A wealth replacement trust could be used to gift appreciated assets to a charity as well as provide for heirs.

Transferring Wealth

Could My Family Benefit from a Family Limited Partnership?

One estate planning strategy that families with closely held businesses could consider is the family limited partnership.

Transferring Wealth

What Is the Best Form of Property Ownership for Me?

Sole ownership, joint tenancy, tenancy in common, and community property have special benefits for property owners.

Investment Planning

529 Lesson Plan: High Scores for 529 Plans

529 plans are tax-advantaged savings plans that generally allow people of any income level to contribute.

Transferring Wealth

What Is the History of the Federal Estate Tax?

Careful estate planning is still one of the most important ways to manage and protect your assets for your heirs.

Investment Planning

What Is an Exchange-Traded Fund?

ETFs have unique attributes and attempt to track all types of indexes, industries, or commodities.

Investment Planning

How Are Growth and Value Stocks Different?

The labels growth and value reflect different approaches that can be used when making investment decisions.

Retirement Planning

How Much Do I Need to Save?

Many realize it’s important to save for retirement, but knowing exactly how much to save is another issue altogether.

Retirement Planning

What Is a Roth 401(k)?

A Roth 401(k) is funded with after-tax money, and allows for tax- and penalty-free withdrawal of earnings if requirements are met.

Retirement Planning

What Is a 403(b) Plan?

A 403(b) plan is a tax-deferred retirement savings plan that can only be offered by a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity.

Retirement Planning

Why Do People Buy Annuities?

Annuities, an insurance-based financial vehicle, can provide many benefits that retirement investors might want.

Personal Finance

Why Are Annuities Considered an Insurance Product?

An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company to pay you future income in exchange for premiums you pay.

Personal Finance

What Is Life Insurance for Business Owners?

Company-owned life insurance is one way to help protect a business from financial problems caused by the death of a key employee.

Personal Finance

What Is Last-Survivor Life Insurance?

Couples who want to help protect their legacy from estate taxes could consider last-survivor life insurance.

Personal Finance

What Are the Basic Types of Life Insurance?

When selecting a life insurance policy, examine all your options, as well as the positives and negatives of each type.