May 19

Boomer Demand Triggers 40l(k) Advice

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The huge baby boom generation has had an impact on society at every stage of its evolution. Do you think it’s coincidence that contact lenses and Lasik surgery became affordable just as boomers started to need help with their eyesight? Or that hip and knee replacements came about just as boomers started needing those medical services? Think about it.

Now the boomers are facing retirement. And the financial advice business is evolving quickly to provide needed services. The Investment Company Institute says total U.S. retirement assets now total more than $24.7 trillion at year-end 2014. The greatest amount is in baby boomer’s accounts.

They’re searching for personalized, sophisticated advice on how to invest their retirement money — and how to make it last their lifetime. And, just in time for the boomers (and younger savers), technology is making it easier to provide personalized investment and financial planning advice.

Targeting Your Retirement

The 40l(k) industry has come a long way from its inception in 1978. One of the most enticing changes was the “safe harbor” offering of Retirement Target Date funds, which took the responsibility for diversification and investment choice off the shoulders of the employee. These funds promised to adjust the asset allocation appropriately to become more conservative as retirement age approached.

Today, according to Morningstar, there is $706 billion in Target Date funds, and they accounted for more than 30 percent of mutual fund inflows in 2014.

But an employee with a low income and a relatively small amount of savings may not have the same investment goals as a more highly paid corporate executive of the same age, who also has stock options and savings outside the plan. Why, then, should they find themselves in the same target date fund?

Answering that question has motivated two new trends in the investment advice industry. Both trends use technology to create individualized investment advice based on a wider assessment than just retirement plan assets.

Personalized Advice from Mutual Fund Companies

For many years, well-known mutual fund companies like Fidelity, Vanguard, and T. Rowe Price have offered individual investment advice and retirement withdrawal planning for those with significant assets in their funds. They pioneered the use of Monte Carlo modeling formulas that use a range of historical returns to create an individualized, sophisticated investment and withdrawal strategy for those approaching, and during, retirement.

Now Vanguard has stepped up that competition, recently announcing it would offer Vanguard Personal Advisor Services to clients with investable assets of just $50,000. The cost will be only 0.30% of assets under management ($150 on a $50,000 portfolio) annually. Plus, the recommended investments will be in low-cost Vanguard funds.

Clients will work with an individual Vanguard advisor, rebalancing and altering strategies as conditions change. The technology powering this advice is Vanguard’s proprietary Capital Markets Model, using Monte Carlo modeling simulations. The combination of personal advisoes, sophisticated yet individualized technology, and low costs gives a value proposition that was previously unavailable to “small investors.”

Individualized 40l(k) Participant Advice

Technology is impacting investment advice both inside and outside retirement plans. I’ve written before about retail-focused “robo-advisors” – firms that give online, personalized investment advice using sophisticated algorithms. Betterment, Wealthfront, and PersonalCapital are among the better known names.

But, there are also a growing number of low-cost advisory services ready to give individualized investment advice to 40l(k) retirement plan participants. No longer must employees choose between target date retirement funds and guesswork. Many plan sponsors are offering “managed accounts” within 40l(k) plans – individualized advice in choosing among plan options.

Financial Engines led the way in this process a decade ago . Morningstar offers managed account advice to 40l(k) plan participants, as well. And Schwab offers both Morningstar and GuidedChoice managed accounts for plan participants.

Now there is a new offering by NextCapital — a leading personalized planning and portfolio management service. NextCapital seeks to disrupt the retirement Target Date Fund industry by providing automated, personalized retirement advisory services to 40l(k) participants — at a cost not much more than Target Date Funds. They are expected to partner with several major advice providers in 2015. If you see their service arrive inside your 40l(k) plan, take advantage of it.

Competition is increasing the breadth of the advice offered to employees, and cutting the costs. So, if you’re one of the millions of Americans who have seen their savings grow over the years in retirement plans, don’t despair over finding sophisticated, personalized advice on how to invest. Advice is on its way, and just in time. That’s the Savage Truth.

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May 19

Meg From Across the Street Remembers Her David Letterman Days

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Meg Parsont, an occasional guest star on David Letterman’s original NBC program, is momentarily stumped when asked how she’d advise the talk-show host to fill his retirement years after his last late-night show airs on CBS on Wednesday. “I don’t know … get a pair of binoculars and take up bird-watching?” she suggests, laughing.

Perhaps birds sprang to mind because, in 1992, Letterman arranged to have a hawk fly through her window and into Parsont’s midtown Manhattan office. By then, Parsont had made cameos on Late Night with David Letterman for two years. As head writer Steve O’Donnell told People Magazine in 1991, while looking for “dumb ways to kill network time,” he realized he could see into the offices in the high-rise building across the street from Letterman’s studio on West 49th Street. A list of phone numbers was procured and Letterman dialed randomly. The first person to pick up was Parsont, a young publicist for Pocket Books.

“At first, I did assume it was a phony phone call. That’s the cynical New Yorker in me,” she remembers. “But Dave said, ‘Turn around and look out the window and you’ll see all our colleagues in the NBC building waving at you,’ and there were many, many people waving in their windows.”

Parsont estimates that she appeared on the show — mostly via phone, but occasionally in the studio — 30 times over three years. “I never knew in advance when they were going to call. It was truly spontaneous,” she says. Her colleagues, however, would sometimes be tipped off because Letterman staffers would come over ahead of the call. “They’d be standing outside in the hallway equipped with whatever props were on the ticket for that day and we would start our conversation and next thing I knew, they would come in with bags and bags of Nerf balls” to be thrown out her window, Parsont says. She also tossed beach balls, flower petals and water balloons from the 14th floor for Letterman’s cameras… “only soft things.”

“They had to let in a live turkey once because, Larry ‘Bud’ Melman [real name Calvin DeForest] was sent over dressed as a Pilgrim and he was with a farmer who had brought a live turkey. I had the Harlem Boys Choir in my office, I had [actor] Billy Dee Williams in my office,” Parsont recalls. “The time that he would call was 5:30. It really didn’t cut into the work day,” she says with another laugh. “I want make that clear!”

Letterman and Parsont would also chitchat on air. He would inquire about her then-boyfriend Tony, though he insisted on calling him Timmy. On the day of the hawk flight, Letterman suggested that presidential candidate Paul Tsongas was guilty of “weenie behavior,” and Parsont exclaimed, “I think they’re all guilty of weenie behavior!”

When Letterman moved to CBS and a new studio in 1993 — and Late Night became Late Show with David Letterman — the calls and stunts came to an end. Parsont says she didn’t miss her bit of fame. “It really was fun, but I never thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the life for me.'”

Parsont still lives in Manhattan, working as a publicist for publishers including Abrams and Phaidon. She has something of a specialty in coffee-table books. A favorite in recent years was a photo retrospective on the career of another funny man, “Weird” Al Yankovic, whom she describes as “a lovely person, not that weird at all.” She’s been married to actor/singer/lawyer (“in that order,” she specifies) Daniel Katz for nearly 13 years; they met while playing softball. Katz is a great gift-giver, Parsont says, but it’s hard to top the time that Letterman got a city permit to stop traffic in order to send a marching band down 49th Street for Parsont’s birthday.

“My husband has tried and he’s done very well,” Parsont says with a certain understatement that endeared her to Letterman and his viewers. “But that was kind of big deal.”

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May 19

Rumer Willis And Val Chmerkovskiy Win Season 20 Of 'Dancing With The Stars'

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It was a celebratory night on “Dancing with the Stars” Tuesday as the final three couples found out who would take home the Mirror Ball trophy and be crowned the winners of Season 20.

Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen the finale of “DWTS,” continue reading at your own risk.

Rumer Willis and her dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy were announced the winners, while Riker Lynch and Allison Holker nabbed second place and Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess took third.

rumer willis val

Willis’ famous parents, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, as well as her stepmom Emma Heming and sisters, Tallulah and Scout, cheered her on throughout the season and were there to celebrate the big win with her.

Before the finale, Willis, 26, took to Instagram to share a sweet photo of her competitors, Lynch and Galloway, writing that she is “so proud to have danced beside such great guys.”

This was also the first win for Chmerkovskiy, who made it to the finals three previous times with Kelly Monaco (Season 15), Zendaya (Season 16) and Janel Parrish (Season 19), but had yet to nab the Mirror Ball trophy.

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May 19

First Nighter: Neil LaBute's "The Way We Get By" Doesn't Get By, Simon Callow Transgenders in "Tuesday at Tesco's"

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The 36 Goldberg variations on the Bach harpsichord tune are copious, but apparently Neil LaBute wants to give those spins on a theme stiff competition. His theme: the battle of the sexes–only with The Way We Get By, at Second Stage Theatre, he doesn’t so much involve a man and a woman battling as he sets Doug (Thomas Sadoski, a favorite LaBute player) and Beth (Amanda Seyfried) bickering.

These young Bickersons have just had great sex at the apartment she shares with the unseen but compulsively organized Kim. He’s alone and restlessly pacing the living room floor, guzzling direct from a bottle and thinking a few minutes of television might settle him. The noise from the shopping channel he turns on is so loud that he shuts it off instantly but too late not to have awakened her and put their 80-minute contretemps in motion.

The first thing that throws them into conflict is his devotion to a signed Star Trek T-shirt of his she’s wearing. The second is his abruptly calling a halt to a bout of fellatio she’s initiated. She doesn’t understand why, if their initial sexual encounter was so heatedly successful, he wouldn’t want to pursue a second opportunity. He explains that once is for fun but twice suggests a more serious relationship he believes they should think through.

As they follow each other around Neil Patel’s version of a tidily comfortable New York apartment, they have the occasional sympatico lull but mostly they argue–and argue even more intensely when LaBute reveals a connection between them that becomes a potential obstacle for their romantic bonding.

The revelation won’t be explained here, but maybe it’s acceptable to say that it threatens to turn the work into a modern-day update of John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Well, okay, not really. Ford in his grave needn’t resort to rapidly rotating, but he might want to emit a chuckle or two at this contemporary dilution of his bloody tragedy.

The major problem with The Way We Get By–as Doug or Beth might say, it’s major-major–is that they’re so insistently immature. The audience is expected, I think, to root for their getting through to each other. But they’re both so unsophisticated in word and deed that the more appropriate response is wishing they’d listen to themselves and hear how unready either is for any lasting union. What else could anyone think when at a low point, their conversation consists of–I only paraphrase slightly here–“Shut up!” “You shut up!” “Shut up!” “You!” “You!” As the familiar saying goes, “Gimme a break.”

It’s probably not spoiling anyone’s good time to say that Doug and Beth eventually reach an understanding and as a result go on a destructive celebration that, if nothing else does, confirms their need to grow up before they contemplate a genuine adult relationship.

Sadoski and Seyfried are unquestionably a handsome couple, and they give themselves over to the script–including the half-sentences and overlapping utterances LaBute ladles in. Director Leigh Silverman surely does the best she can for them, but the likes of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne couldn’t make this one credible. (Not that the fabled couple would ever have tried.)

At the end of the day, what I resent most is the word “we” in the title. Few patrons attending to this juvenalia would recognize it as their own way of getting by. LaBute does specify that playing it safe is the way we get by, although the title implies that much of their behavior is indicative of generally getting by. The insult to intelligent grown-ups stands. LaBute has often written strong plays about young adults. This isn’t one of them.
**********************
Simon Callow is not only a first-rate actor, he’s an uncommonly practical one–not to mention an excellent author. Read his recent memoir, A Life in Pieces, if it’s outstanding writing about the theater you’re after.

His practicality emerges in the number of solo shows he’s put together to cover times when other theater, film or television work isn’t immediately on the schedule. Dickens, Shakespeare–he’s surely impersonated them to great acclaim.

Now, he’s added quite a different piece, at 59E59 Theatres: Tuesday’s at Tesco’s, which he didn’t write–Emmanuel Darley did, and Matthew Hurt and Sarah Vermande translated from the French. How different is it? Plenty, even if it picks up on one of the emerging stories of the year–transgender men and women.

Oh, yes, that’s how smart Callow is. He’s wet a finger to test the zeitgeist and chosen to play Pauline–formerly Paul–who arrives on stage as dressed by set and costume designer Robin Don in modest suit with reddish top and as lighted by Chahine Yavroyan.

The blond Pauline chatters to the audience about the Tuesdays she prods her father, still intent on calling her Paul, to hit the local Tesco’s for the week’s shopping. She discusses the people she runs into and their treatment of her–the checkout man she prefers for his not dissing her when the nearby checkout woman does. She has other observations on herself to pass along, and during the 75 minutes that she unburdens herself, often histrionically, she probably says more than she needs to say to land the harmful details about her difficult life.

Every once in a while, she breaks into a wild dance step. What sets her heels moving is the music played on a stage-left piano by Conor Mitchell. Paying no mind to Pauline at all, Mitchell appears to be composing a piano concerto. His pertinence to the focal subject matter is anyone’s guess.

As reliable as ever under Simon Stokes’s direction, Callow suggests Pauline’s strengths, weaknesses and continual tribulations. In the day of Bruce Jenner’s revelations, Pauline certainly adds provocative thought to the currently improving but not yet settled LGBT discussion.

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May 19

How Did You Become Such a Friggin' Liberal?

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I’m often asked by some family and some friends, “How did you become such a Liberal?” Usually not that nicely, but you can guess the rest. The question comes of course from my right leaning friends and family members, which I surprisingly have quite a few. The question generally has a tone of contempt, disgust, mild superiority, and is accompanied by facial contortions similar to what happens when someone throws up in their mouth or chugs sour milk.

Recently, in the interest of time my response is pretty short. “I’m against anything that kills or harms people and/or destroys the planet.” That seems to work, covers a broad range, and lets them believe that I spend my days hugging trees and meditating in a room full of fuzzy bunnies. In general it shuts them up.

I have a huge collection of lists and articles on my phone with titles like, “Ten True Facts Guaranteed to Short-Circuit Republican Brains” and “A holiday guide to arguing with your right-wing relatives.” I check these regularly and add to them. I even wrote one for the last holiday season when I was going into enemy territory this past Thanksgiving.

On May 16th, one of the editors at The Charlotte Observer, Taylor Batten, wrote a piece about “Honesty Day,” proclaimed by Mayor Dan Clodfelter to be April 30th in Charlotte. As Batten points out, according to Wikipedia, it’s a real day and it’s national: “On this day, anyone participating may ask any question they choose and the opposing person should give a truthful and straightforward answer.”

Batten invited readers to submit what they would ask and to whom they would ask it.

One question, on April 30th was from a reader, David Fry who asked, “Why do you support such a liberal agenda?”

So, Batten answered it. Here is the response. Some of it is particular to Charlotte, NC, but if you’re Liberal you’ll be able to apply it to where you live and if you’re a Republican, Conservative, or a Teabagger, you either won’t care or didn’t get past the first couple of paragraphs before going straight to the comments to insult me.

We believe that everyone is created equal.

We believe that children should not bear responsibility for the sins of their parents.

We believe that prevention is a heck of a lot cheaper than a cure.

We believe people should not be treated as lesser citizens, with fewer rights, because of whom they love.

We believe a thriving city, state and nation rests to a great degree in the quality of its public schools, and that every child deserves a dedicated, dynamic teacher, regardless of what ZIP code that child lives in.

We believe discrimination is wrong in every instance.

We believe in consistency, so if you are going to drug-test recipients of public assistance, drug-test them all, including the corporate chieftains who are the biggest beneficiaries.

We believe that police officers should act professionally, under incredibly difficult circumstances, regardless of a suspect’s race.

We believe taxes should be kept as low as possible while still providing a sound safety net for the neediest, a robust education for all, decent health care for the elderly and the destitute, and other basics.

We believe politicians of any party should keep their promises, avoid the appearance of personal gain from the public trust, and look out for the general welfare, not that of any one special interest.

We believe there are people of worth beyond our tight circle and there are neighborhoods beyond our own, with different histories, perspectives and needs.

We believe offenders have paid their price when their sentence is up and should be helped to assimilate back into society. And that that’s better for the community than neglecting them and watching them commit another crime.

We believe there are peace-loving Muslims.

We do not believe President Obama was born in Kenya.

We believe in the separation of church and state.

We believe Moore Place, built with public and private money, and its housing-first approach is a model for how to help the chronically homeless.

We believe Charlotte will need effective mass transit to handle its continually swelling population.

We believe if you’re a fan of a politician solely because he has a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ after his name, then you’re not paying attention.

We believe we have only one planet, and we should protect it for our grandchildren.

You can read all of Batton’s article here.

He ends the article with a typically Liberal unapologetic apology, “If that earns us the label ‘liberal’ in your eyes, Mr. Fry, so be it.”

JFK made a similar comment in response to a similar question:

If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”

I’ve always had a difficult time understanding the, “if that makes me a Liberal …,” semi-apology.

I wrote an article after the midterms spelling out everything the GOP had in store for the country. The piece was titled, “The 2015 GOP Clown Car: Bigger, Meaner, and More Dangerous Than Ever,” and I ended it listing nearly all the right-wing plans for the future of the people in America.

It’s a new year though and the clown car about to be sworn in next week is bigger than ever with a majority in both the Senate and the House. A car full of gun loving, poor hating, veteran screwing, climate change denying, Wall Street deregulating, health care repealing, and wealthy old white man loving clowns. Their plans so far include repealing Dodd-Frank, cutting and privatizing social security, cutting pensions, defunding Obamacare, eliminating food stamps and welfare, raising taxes on the middle class and working poor, cutting taxes for the super-rich and corporations, and who knows how many other Benghazi, IRS, and impeachment hearings we’ll have to endure. They have the numbers to do what they want and by this time next year we could be having a completely different conversation in a completely different country.

Liberals are about people. Their welfare, healthcare, well-being, education, financial security and safety. Republicans, Teabaggers, Conservatives, and the GOP are not – they are, for the most part, vehemently for anything that kills or harms people and/or destroys the planet. And if that makes me anti-Republican, then so be it

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May 19

Phree digital pen wants to turn everything into paper

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phree-1Despite the strong beliefs of the late Steve Jobs, the stylus refuses to die. Just ask Samsung, Livescribe, Adonit, Wacom, and a whole host of other manufacturers that bridge the divide between the digital and the analog. Productivity experts will also testify to the psychological and mental benefits of writing by hand. But existing solutions so far have one critical … Continue reading

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May 19

LG creates stick-on OLED TV screen less than 1mm thick

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2015-05-20 34 lg displayLG Display just unveiled a new, ultra-thin television screen that is less than one millimeter thick, at an industry event in its home country, Korea. LG’s current thinnest TV screen is a 55-inch OLED panel that is 4.3 mm thick. So, four of these new screens stacked together are still thinner than LG’s thinnest screen on the market. This new … Continue reading

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May 19

Popcorn Time-like pirate movie streaming comes to the web (for now)

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Popcorn Time’s less-than-legit movie streaming has been available on lots of devices, but the web? Not so much. However, some enterprising developers have seen fit to make that happen in an unofficial capacity. Meet Popcorn in Your Browser, a simple …

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May 19

Android Wear update brings WiFi to select smartwatches

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The latest version of Android Wear that Google promised back in April is finally starting to make its way to devices today. It comes with quite a list of updates, starting with the activation of dormant WiFi chips in the LG Watch Urbane, Moto 360, So…

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May 19

The Internet Of (Some) Things

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IoT In 2015, a modern-day gold rush has taken the technology sector by storm. A recent study discovered that 75 percent of executives surveyed said that Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives are currently underway within their organizations. That said, there’s still one question many companies have failed to answer — is more data always a good thing? Read More

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