New Social Media Guidelines by the SEC, With Amy McIlwain, Financial Social Media, Denver, Colorado

The SEC made some major changes in their guidelines regarding third party review sites, such as Yelp, Google and Bing.  If the advisor has no ability to filter out the positive vs. negative reviews, an advisor can promote these reviews on their social media, as long as they're not guiding them to a particular review, rather just the site itself to see all reviews, says Amy McIlwain, of Financial Social Media in Denver, Colorado.

Reviews on Linked In are still not allowed because you have a choice whether to view them and the fear is that advisors will show only favorable reviews, says McIlwain.  The new guideliens also give further clarification about the ability to list various skills, such as hobbies or charitable affiliations on Linked In, she adds.

This creates a new opportunity for advisors to increase their branding and marketing and also to take advantage of sharing their positive experiences, McIlwain explains.  "Advisors need to manage social media as their online reputation is more important now than ever," she says.

Amy McIlwain

President, Financial Social Media, Denver, Colorado

Source: financialsocialmedia.com

Amy McIlwain is with Financial Social Media in Denver, Colorado.  She spoke with Retirement News Today, providing online, on-demand retirement news video content.  Retirement News Today is a featured network of Sequence Media Group.

Health Savings Accounts, With John Bull, Alegeus Technologies

Health Savings Accounts, or HSA's, offer a triple-tax advantage, according to John Bull, of Alegeus Technologies.  The money put in is tax-free, the money taken out for qualified expenses is tax-free and any interest or earnings are tax-free, making HSA's a very attractive vehicle that should be looked at as a savings vehicle, not a spending vehicle.

An HSA is set up to pay for healthcare costs and if one did accumulate money over time, they can pay themselves back in retirement as long as they have history and receipts to substantiate the expenses.  If they have expenses they haven't used their HSA for, there's a tax penalty similar to taking money early of out a 401k, Bull says.

John Bull

Alegeus Technologies

Source: http://www.alegeus.com/about-alegeus/speakers-bureau/12-about-alegeus/48-john-bull-profile

In contrast to an HSA, an FSA, or Flexible Savings Account has a cap on annual contributions to a flexible spending account and is part of an employer offering.  Money is set aside from your paycheck and if you leave that employer and haven't spent that money, you lose those funds, Bull says.  He adds that the IRS has put a new program in where $500 will remain at the end of the year to be rolled over from year to year if you stay with that employer.

The main difference between and HSA and FSA is that if you leave your employer, with an HSA, that money stay with you and there's no rollover, because an HSA is yours, similar to a checking or savings account.

As an employer, HSA's are attractive so they can offer program that can save an employee money but also gives ways for an individual to compensate for any additional expenses incurred.  Additionally, the money that goes into an HSA or FSA through payroll deductions is done is taxable income, which is then reduced, so the employer benefits as well.

John Bull is with Alegeus Technologies and spoke with Retirement News Today, providing online, on-demand, retirement news video content.  Retirement News Today is a featured network of Sequence Media Group.

Annuity Sales on the Rise, With Andrew Simonelli, Insured Retirement Institute

A study by the Insured Retirement Institute shows that annuity sales are on the rise, which is good news.  Sales across the board are on the rise, says Andrew Simonelli, the Director of Communications of the Insured Retirement Institute.

Fixed annuities rose 5% from the third quarter of 2013 and closed out the quarter with an almost 17% increase.  All fixed annuities found an increase in sales in 2013 and a large part of that was indexed and income annuities, says Simonelli.  For income annuities, sales have never been higher and for the first time, they were above 3 billion and for fixed annuities, sales jumped 17% from quarter three.

Baby boomers are looking for more certainty, given the fact that they're living longer these days than previous generations.  Baby boomers are "starting to wrap their warms around the concept of needing guaranteed income each month," Simonelli says and that this "really bodes well for the annuity industry."  He adds that when comparing products in the market, even against low-interest rate CD's from a bank, annuities still stand out.

Andrew Simonelli is the Director of Communications of the Insured Retirement Institute.  For more information on the annuity study, click here.  He spoke with Retirement News Today, providing online, on-demand retirement news video content.  Retirement News Today is a featured network of Sequence Media Group.