J. K. Lasser Pro Advising Mature Clients: The New Science of Wealth Span Planning

Book Description

FINANCIAL PLANNING FOR THE CHANGING NEEDS OF AN AGING SOCIETY

"Cutler has hit a financial literacy home run. He has done an outstanding job of educating the professional working with the mature market about the psychology and complexity of the Wealth Span and about the financial issues and products that figure prominently in executing a successful strategy for older clients and families. This book is about as comprehensive as you can get for understanding the nuances of financial planning for mature consumers. It is filled with information, insight, resources, and (thankfully!) humor!"
-John N. Migliaccio, PhD, President, Maturity Mark Services Co.

"Learning across disciplines will be the way of the future. Dr. Cutler is in the unique position to authoritatively discuss advising mature clients from both the gerontological and financial planning perspectives. This latest in the Lasser Pro Series is sure to be a must for anyone who wants to do holistic financial planning for older clients."
-Kenn Beam Tacchino, JD, LLM, Professor of Taxation and Financial Planning, Widener University; Editor, Journal of Financial Service Professionals

"Dr. Cutler has written a cutting-edge guide for the myriad professionals who advise mature clients and adult children of older parents. His book is timely, much needed, and will undoubtedly become the definitive reference for practitioners and students of aging and the economics of aging."
-Lois A. Vitt, PhD, Director, Institute for Socio-Financial Studies; Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Financial Gerontology

"Dr. Cutler has provided a valuable resource to those of us in the financial industry. He has provided clear, concise commentary on the issues facing our aging population with actionable suggestions for the financial advisor. I highly recommend it to my fellow professionals."
-Kelly B. Auslander, CFP, President, American Financial Advisors, Inc.

Please visit our Web site at www.jklasser.com

Customer Reviews:

Excellent reference for both advisors and their clients.......2002-04-29

As an attorney-at-law, I found that "Advising Mature Clients" by Dr. Neal E. Cutler has given me a new perspective on analyzing, and on advising older clients about, the increasingly complex series of decisions we all seem to face as we age.

On a personal level, I found the book to be filled with information that is easy to understand and is well-indexed for use by the advisor as well as by those whom he/she advises. Its multi-disciplinary focus gives one an easy depth of understanding of the breadth of Gernontology, and financial & social issues that need to be considered, in just a few hours of study of the clear, concise tables, facts, and figures, which are presented in logical fashion.

The chapter on costs and financial benefits of Long Term Care Insurance alone is worth the price of the book. Strategies and alternatives to pay for Long Term Care Insurance are set forth, along with the sobering financial burden long term care imposes, and the alarming rate of increase in long term care costs, compared to the more affordable insurance premiums.

This book should be kept as a desk reference and ready authoritative source of information, to share with clients who have questions or concerns on any aspect of the topics of Wealth Span Planning and Financial Gerontology.

Excellent reference for both advisors and their clients.......2002-04-29

Book Description

As organizations struggle to create and sustain shareholder value, executives are continually challenged to deliver effective business processes. Increasingly today's market requires companies to standardize operations in order to remain competitive. And, an effective way of keeping costs down and improving efficiency is by moving certain functions to one central location.

An increasingly popular and effective way of meeting this challenge is to establish a shared service centre. This briefing explains how and why more and more organizations are turning to shared services solutions. It explains how organizations can tap into the wealth of opportunities that shared services provides by clearly outlining processes for evaluation, planning and implementation. It examines the structural diversity of shared service centres and the role that good centre design plays in the quest for really effective shared services.

Shared Service Centres considers the face of shared services today and tomorrow - and looks at the challenges posed by the market place, increased outsourcing, and the consulting boom. Providing practical, experience-driven examples and offering sample presentations, tools and templates for immediate use, this briefing offers expert advice on the process, tools, design and implementation of shared service centres.

Essential reading for those considering implementing SSCs, as well as those interested in revamping existing SSC operations. This briefing will help you to:

understand the shared services approach "
explore the strategic issues that inform the SSC decision "
become familiar with the management, technological, and process challenges "
develop a unique methodology or framework to support SSC deployment "
deploy a shared services culture which supports sustainable value creation "
employ best practice processes and systems "
investigate the opportunities for e-shared services and business process outsourcing

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SHARED SERVICE CENTRES DELIVERING VALUE FROM EFFECTIVE FINANCE AND BUSINESS PROCESSES
ANDREW FAHY, MARTIN KRIS
Manufacturer: Financial Times Management
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQRLFW

Book Description

The LUBILOSA Program was initiated in 1989 and has been successful in developing a bioinsecticide for the biological control of locusts and grasshoppers. The efficacy of the product named Green Muscle has been clearly demonstrated in Africa, and it provides an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical insecticides. Although it predates the Convention on Biological Diversity, LUBILOSA has been conducted in accordance with the benefit-sharing and related provisions of the Convention.

Book Description

Mindful of Butterflies is a butterfly book with a difference, combining a natural history of the butterfly, its lifecycle and preservation with a detailed guide on creating an ecological niche for these creatures in your own garden. The guide is applicable to either North America or the UK. Written by Bernard Jackson, former curator of the Newfoundland Botanic Garden, it aims to get us to encourage some of our most endangered and beautiful butterflies to return to our backyards.

Complemented by exquisite illustrations by award-winning botanical British artist Valerie Baines (twice awarded the Silver Gilt Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Book Description

These notes are the contents of a lecture course given to third year physics undergraduates at the Imperial College who are taking the theoretical physics option. The subject of "Algebra and Groups'' is of considerable importance in a number of branches of modern theoretical physics, and therefore one major objective of the course is to introduce the students to the basic ideas on the subject, bearing in mind the potential applications to quantum theory. However, another equally important aim of the course is to introduce the student to the art of genuine "mathematical'' thinking. The notes are therefore written in a more precise mathematical style than is usually the case in courses aimed at physics students. Quite apart from the general educational value of such an exposure to abstract thinking, it is also the case that much modern theoretical physics draws on sophisticated ideas from pure mathematics and therefore it is most important that a perspective graduate student can approach these subjects without experiencing a total culture shock! The course is divided into three parts. The first is a short introduction to general group theory, with particular emphasis being placed on the matrix Lie groups that play such a crucial role in modern theoretical physics. The second part deals with the theory of vector spaces, with particular attention being paid to the theory of Hilbert spaces and the basic analytical techniques that are needed to handle the infinite dimensional situation. The final part of the course is a short introduction to the theory of group representations and the associated theory of characters.

Customer Reviews:

EXCELENT INTRO to general group theory for physicists.......2005-04-13

The book has 3 parts: 50 pages of basic introduction to general group theory including matrix Lie groups, 50 pages on vector spaces including infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces, and 50 pages on group representations and characters. Also there are 40 problems (at the necessary beginner level to help you digest the new concepts) with detailed solutions. The material was selected as a preparation to group theory in Quantum Mechanics. It is NOT a discussion of the usage of groups in QM and Elementary Particles.

Amazingly, the book combines rigor (almost all theorems are proven, also you are asked to construct proofs in the exercises) with a human-language motivation of the definitions. Thus, the typical dryness of a mathbook or the typical hand-waving of a physics book have been avoided.

Before reading that book, I have had a one quarter course in group theory that covered approximately the same topics. Compared to the course, the book not only gives you the definitions but also makes you understand why a concept is important, thus beating the hell out of the course.

If you learned about Hilbert spaces from a Quantum Mechanics course and you think you know everything about them - you are deeply wrong - read and see ...

You can read that slim book and solve all the problems in a reasonable pace for one month - 3 times faster than a course and you will know the same material at better level.

I am amazed that nobody has written a review on that book before but as usually happens good things are not necessarily well known.

Book Description

Winner of the Carolina Novel Award, this is the story of Maggie Sweet, whose great ambition has always been to style hair. But her husband won't hear of it -- and now he's spent all their vacation savings on side-by-side cemetery plots. Maggie decides she'd better do some living before it's too late.

Customer Reviews:

southern as bluebell icecream.......2006-11-28

The book is short and "sweet" but definitely a fun read. While "Maggie Sweet" will never be confused with Southern literature such as Faulkner, or even Lee Smith, Stacy does an excellent job with making us laugh and earning our sympathy by the third chapter. Fans of Fannie Flagg and Adriana Trigiani will love this book. Maggie is a "desperate housewife" of a sort, and her struggle to have her childhood dreams is what propels this story along. With the obvious cliches scattered through the whole book,this is forgivable and you won't be disappointed. The characters are like those in your own community. If this book is intended to be the first of a series, it is a striking and stirring beginning. Funny, memorable, and unpretentious.

What a great read!.......2006-10-30

I couldn't put this book down once I began reading it. It was such a fun read! Maggie Sweet is a great wife, mother, daughter, etc. and had thought that she was happy doing all of the things that "good 'ole Maggie Sweet" should do. (A description she overhears her husband tell one of his historian society friends.) Her 20th high school reunion is coming up and she begins to question her life as she is living it. Will she ever get to realize her life long dream of becoming a hair stylist? Or, will she continue to live the life her husband expects her to live? The characters that Ms. Stacy has created in this book are delightful! I can't wait to read her next book!

Way To Go Maggie Sweet!!!!.......2005-11-02

I absolutely loved this book! Maggie Sweet sure stood up for herself and took charge in the end! I just can't believe that she stayed with that awful husband of hers as long as she did.

This is the story of Maggie Sweet...a woman in a crappy marriage to a man years older than her (he was one of her teachers in high school), who finally gets to the point that she's had enough. Especially when the high school love of her life, Jerry, returns home after his divorce with his wife.

Will Jerry and Maggie live happily ever after? Will the kids ever forgive her for her final decision? And will Maggie finally get to have a successful career doing hair?...I'm not sure, but I'm really hoping the next book gives us a look into the new life Maggie has planned for herself.

I definitely recommend this as a great southern read. There's tons of gossip, drama, and sweet tea! I'm gonna read the next installment the second I get my hands on a copy!

Absolutely adorable!.......2004-12-09

I loved this book from cover to cover. I love our main character Maggie Sweet. I identified with her very well. Although, I was hoping that things would have turned out better for her and her husband, I hope that she finds true love wherever she may end up. I can't wait to read the next installment! I would have loved the other characters to have more of a female closeness but this book still delighted me!

Great femme fiction!.......2004-08-07

Any bored houswife or middle-aged-crazy dame will identify with Maggie, the dedicated wife and mother who spends all her time meeting everyone's needs but her own, until at last given the chance to break free and do something for herself. An excellent addition to women's fiction.

Average customer rating:

Interesting...but

My Laundry List is More Interesting.

A Superfluous Bit of Flotsam

The steely eyed Spitfire pilot tossed away his fag, then climbed . . .

A Mixed Blessing

The Longest Night: The Bombing of London on May 10, 1941

Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

London 1945: Life in the Debris of War

Blitz: The Story of December 29, 1940

London's War: A Traveler's Guide to World War II

The Blitz: London's Longest Night

Walking the London Blitz

ASIN: B000H2N51C

Book Description

The first in-depth account of the WWII raid that almost defeated England.

Seven months after the Nazi Blitz began in September 1940, London remained the center of the free world's resistance to Hitler's Germany. But-contrary to popular belief-the city's "all-in-together" camaraderie was disintegrating after two devastating Luftwaffe raids. Civil Defenses were chronically short of volunteers and newspapers reported looting, petty crime, and price-gouging.

But there was reason for optimism. Churchill remained steadfast, rallying the English. London hadn't been bombed in three weeks, while the RAF shot down 90 German bombers over Britain. It began to appear that the worst could be over.

So, when the air raid sirens sounded on the evening of May 10, 1941, Londoners were nonchalant. It soon became clear, however, that this was no ordinary bombing, but a devastating Luftwaffe raid that would eclipse all others.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting...but.......2007-09-27

This is the first account of the bombing of London that I have read. I enjoyed the book and the details it described of that horrific night. Since I'm not a WWII expert, I cannot speak to the accuracy of the details as one reviewer has. My only real criticism of the text is the lack of maps. Not being familiar with street-level detail of London, it was hard to visualize the proximity of the locations to which the author referred.

My Laundry List is More Interesting........2007-01-25

I bought this book having read the book cover where one reviewer talks about Mortimer's "gripping narative". Where?

From beginning to end, it's dull, dull, dull. It reads like a laundry list. Mortimer drearily goes from one person's account of the events of that evening to another person's account, with flat explanations of what happened. And because he doesn't paint a descriptive picture of each person he introduces, I was constantly confused about who was who. And, also, why did I care? I'm sure if I had met those people personally I would really have cared about what happened to them - but, because Mortimer made them all sound so uninteresting, I frankly didn't.

This evening was one of the great events in London's history, but I didn't get that at all from the author's narrative. It reminded me of yet another boring history book I read in school. Not recommended.

A Superfluous Bit of Flotsam.......2006-03-25

This supposedly "untold story" of London's worst air raid of the Second World War contains little useful information not easily available in any number of previous sources. Indeed, a good bit of the book is nothing more than a loosely correlated compendum of tiresome vignettes that highlight a cross section of the people involved (flyers, policemen, firefighters and so on). While the graphic description of some of the destruction inflicted on London makes for a good, quick read, much, like the "exciting" details of a rugby game, is boring and irrelevant. Finally, many of the author's "facts" are just plain wrong. The RAF was neither "bled dry" nor "on its knees" in 1941, having emerged from the Battle of Britain with greater strength than when it entered. And some of the stated losses suffered by the RAF exceed reality by nearly an order of magnitude. Finally, there is not one scintilla of evidence offered to support the conclusion that this raid "almost brought Britain to military collapse."

In short, this is a poorly researched and largely valueless work best ignored in favour of the many better executed histories available.

The steely eyed Spitfire pilot tossed away his fag, then climbed . . . .......2006-02-02

Well, an extraordinary night, and much like the repulsion of the Nazi trops at Stalingrad by the Russians, a teetering point where all was or could have been lost. So clearly an important story telling less about what the Germans did than the resiliance of the British and London populations. Frankly, the Germans threw everything at them and they well could have caved . . . but they didn't.

Like Stalingrad we don't tell the story enough here in our view of history. You know it was other people, before we got involved, the Japanese hadn't attacked yet, 'This Band of Brothers' hadn't started training in Georgia, yet.

So on the one hand the story is important. And we deserve to know about it and ponder it along with Antietam, Gettysburg, Belleau Woods, the fall of Burma, and 911. It's human courage in the face of horrific carnage.

But it reads like a novel, like the script for a Lifetime Channel movie. "She was aware of the eyes of the men upon her tall body as she walked to her 48 hour shift in the Fire barracks." Come on. There were times when sections actually irritated me. One reviewer criticized some of the statistics. Excellent point. If the RAF had suffered the casulties attributed to it at the time, Churchill's government would not have survived a vote of confidence.

I enjoyed the recitation of the courage of the men and women who went into the buildings to defuse and disarm the unexploded German bombs, along with the fire wardens, fire persons, and Air Raid watchers. But parts of the book and the attempt to make the participants as human as our next door neighbors I felt resulted in a novel, a fictionalized "based on an historical event" book.

I was disappointed. Terribly important story. The importance of the story called for a different style of writing. 3 stars. Larry Scantlebury

A Mixed Blessing.......2005-12-09

There's much to recommend this largely anecdotal approach to the story of the bombing of London on May 10, 1941, yet I can't give an unequivocal recommendation of the book. The reason is that while author Mortimer can tell a good story, I get the impression that he skips a bit too lightly over some of the factual ground that must underpin the telling of a story such as this one. For example, on page 5 Mortimer says that "on September 4 (1940) ... the RAF lost nearly 300 aircraft and 100 of its pilots." In fact, on that date Fighter Command lost 17 fighters against German losses of 25 (Dempster & Wood, "The Narrow Margin"). The definitive work on the Battle of Britain, "The Battle of Britain Then and Now" edited by Winston G. Ramsey and published by After the Battle, lists 16 British fighters lost that day. During the entire month of September, 1940, Fighter Command pilot casualties (killed and missing) totaled 156, with a further 150 wounded in action (Dempster & Wood). Losses on the scale Mortimer claims could have quite possibly brought down Churchill's givernment and caused the British to negotiate peace on the spot. Regarding the bombing of London on May 10-11, 1941, it's best to start with a close look at what's said about the raid in the definitive work on the Blitz, After the Battle's three-volume "The Blitz Then and Now." Bridge from there to Mortimer's book to put more "flesh on the bones," as it were. While Mortimer gets many facts right (i.e., 38 million gas masks were, indeed, distributed by British Civil Defense before the start of the war), I can't help but wish he'd used footnotes to sources for quite a few other of his statements. While this book contains many useful observations by those who survived the Blitz (including "The Forces Sweetheart," Vera Lynn!), it isn't a history book as much as it is a book about a historical event that in some cases takes a novelist's - rather than a historian's - approach to its subject matter. That, at least, provides for some unfortunate distractions in "The Longest Night" and detracts from the value of the work overall.

The Longest Night the Bombing of London on May 10, 1941

Average customer rating:

The Longest Night the Bombing of London on May 10, 1941
Gavin Mortimer
Manufacturer: Berkley Caliber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S671QW

Average customer rating:

The Longest Night: the Bombing of London on May 10, 1941
Gavin Mortimer
Manufacturer: Berkley Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N76H9I

Book Description

Native Hawaiians arrived in the Pacific Northwest as early as 1787. Some went out of curiosity; many others were recruited as seamen or as workers in the fur trade. By the end of the nineteenth century more than a thousand men and women had journeyed across the Pacific, but the stories of these extraordinary individuals have gone largely unrecorded in Hawaiian or Western sources. Through painstaking archival work in British Columbia, Oregon, California, and Hawaii, Jean Barman and Bruce Watson pieced together what is known about these sailors, laborers, and settlers from 1787 to 1898, the year the Hawaiian Islands were annexed to the United States. In addition, the authors include descriptive biographical entries on some eight hundred Native Hawaiians, a remarkable and invaluable complement to their narrative history.

"Kanakas" (as indigenous Hawaiians were called) formed the backbone of the fur trade along with French Canadians and Scots. As the trade waned and most of their countrymen returned home, several hundred men with indigenous wives raised families and formed settlements throughout the Pacific Northwest. Today their descendants remain proud of their distinctive heritage. The resourcefulness of these pioneers in the face of harsh physical conditions and racism challenges the early Western perception that Native Hawaiians were indolent and easily exploited.

Scholars and others interested in a number of fields—Hawaiian history, Pacific Islander studies, Western U.S. and Western Canadian history, diaspora studies—will find Leaving Paradise an indispensable work.

Customer Reviews:

A riveting account that puts you in the center of the storm.......1999-03-25

John Jiler's Dark Wind transports you to Fire Island, an infamous island known for its wild gay lifestyle, and keeps you riveted in place as Hurricane Gloria surges toward it. Jiler's use of language is creative, colorful and nimble, and his "New Journalism" technique of creating a novel-like vehicle is well-chosen. The characters are vivid and we care about what happens to them. Suspense is maintained and then justified as the hurricane hits the defenseless island. The reader may be surprised to find that Fire Islanders are not all gay; in fact, an entire section of the island is home to straight, but equally colorful characters. If you like to be transported by a book, one that will keep you turning the pages long after you should have gone to bed, you'll love Dark Wind.

Dark Wind: A True Account of Hurricane Gloria's Assault on Fire Island (Stonewall Inn Edition)

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Dark Wind: A True Account of Hurricane Gloria's Assault on Fire Island (Stonewall Inn Edition)
John Jiler
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OT1CE0

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