A4A Alert On Pending IRA Payout Changes, As Keebler Declares Stretch IRAs Dead!

A4A is a new kind of journalism. To prove it, take a look at how news judgment played into today’s session about changes to IRA rules. 

Bob Keebler, leading educator of accounting and legal professionals for three decades, sent A4A editors the invitation text displayed below on the left.  (See a larger version of that image by clicking on it.) On the right, the edited version reflects the urgency and import to the subject line, headline, and text. This is key in modern communication. Victims to be hardest it financially by the new tax likely to be signed by the end of 2019, are identified in the lead sentence. Bob is a tax genius but not a financial writer trained in news reporting.

In the screencap below, you see the results of Googling, “IRA payout rules,” on Thursday May 23 at 735 p.m. ET. The news media are not reporting that the new bill is crushing financial news to consumers!

To be clear, “Stretch IRAs” are dead! Moreover, the financial media are not reporting the urgency of the problem, action items, or that this is of particular interest to wealthy individuals, especially advisor clients, who were likely candidates for Stretch IRAs.

The stretch IRA story is not mentioned in the coverage as of Thursday evening May 23. It took a reporter to explain the news angle! Not a tax tax guru! Different skills.

When you read this in a day or two, or perhaps months from now, the news angle and analysis reported by A4A may already have made national headlines. Sometimes stories we report are picked up on by the news outlets for a year! Such was the case with A4A’s coverage of inflation by Fritz Meyer, the Will Rogers of  American Economics.

This is what professional journalists do. It’s how A4A presents a new model for journalism professionals. I was taught at NYU and Columbia University’s J-School that reporters almost never should insert themselves in stories. Moreover, in 1981, an editor told me “a journalist is a dead reporter,” and I never again called myself a journalist. So you don’t hear a lot from me in this voice. Abandoning humility and showing you what a reporter does is necessary because A4A members surveyed recently showed little understanding of this important difference between A4A and other continuing profession education courses for CFP, CPA/PFS, CIMA, and retirement income planning professionals.

In a May 2019 survey of A4A members, a question about the quality of A4A’s breaking news coverage compared to other continuing education providers evoked a generally tepid response. A4A members do not seem to even know that A4A CE courses break and Fritz Meyer’s updates with Andy Gluck break news almost every week. Fritz Meyer, Craig Israelsen, and Bob Keebler are feeding me stories all time that are not in the national news media.

Hopefully this illustration help A4A’s members understand that the quality of analysis you rely on from A4A has beaten the national financial media repeatedly and regularly for many years. Our breaking news coverage is not like what you are getting from investment News, FA, Financial Planning or anyplace else. We are not captive to any products or advertisers. It’s journalism. Facts matter!

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