To make a “qualified” withdrawal from a Roth 401(k) account, the account holder must have been contributing to the account for at least the previous five years and be either 59 1/2 years old, deceased, or completely and permanently disabled.

You have a great business idea, a detailed business plan and the guts to take the leap — but where are you going to get the money to make it happen?

The differences between a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) are many, but comes down to the fact that a CFP works with individual clients to achieve their personal financial goals while a CFA focuses on investing in large-scale corporate situations.

According to historical records, the average annual return for the S&P 500 since its inception in 1928 through 2016 is approximately 10%. However, that number can be very misleading. If an investor thinks that translates to just putting money in the S&P 500 Index and watching it double about every 10 years, he is likely in for a rather big disappointment. Accurate calculations of average returns, taking all significant factors into account, can be challenging.

As any good leader knows, keeping your employees motivated is the surest path to success. Yet, as the holiday season winds down, employees may start to dip in energy and productivity. One of the key traits of effective financial advisors is in engaging the client, and that certainly cannot be achieved if advisors are half-asleep themselves.

An equity-indexed annuity is an alternative investment to a traditional fixed rate or variable rate annuity, and it may be appealing to moderately conservative investors. Equity-indexed annuities are distinguished by the interest yield return being partially based on an equities index, such as the S&P 500 index.