More By This Author  Current Issue  Current Issue  Posted:
November 01, 2009  Wealth Management: Incentives and mandates
Small-business owners, wealth planners weigh Obama's proposals
By David Lewis  From the investor's standpoint, the Obama
administration's tweaks, plans and proposals for changes to
wealth management/financial planning/savings might seem a tad
tepid.  From the entrepreneur's point of view, the potential
voluntary measures also appear non-dramatic. The
administration's proposed mandates, however, seem designed to
make small businesspeople mad, as in angry, and also mad, as in
crazed.   Over here, we have a background of a still-troubled
financial sector, crumbled 401(k)s and IRAs, rising
unemployment, the looming disintegration of Social Security,
Medicare and Medicaid, and an on-the-books federal deficit the
size of the Orion Nebula.  Over there, we have a foreground of a
few likely additions to the financial planning repertoire:
giving >> businesses the option of making 401(k) contributio