New adviser rules may bolster retirement plans
New rules for financial planners advising retirement plans and Health Savings Accounts could have an unexpected benefit for small businesses. The rules, from the U.S. Department of Labor, place new “fiduciary” responsibilities on financial advisers and consultants. They must pick the most economical plans – without regard to their own compensation — when advising clients. Read More →
Forcing workers to save may be key to retirement
Taxes and savings are much in the news these days. Baby boomers aren’t saving enough for retirement. Millennials will need $2 million portfolios in order to achieve a decent level of retirement income. Federal income taxes are too high – and don’t get us started about California. Old-fashioned pensions are largely gone from the private Read More →
Tacky chamber move sets a bad example
When we launched the Pacific Coast Business Times 16 years ago, one of our core values was to respect existing business organizations. That’s why we went the extra step and joined chambers of commerce from the Conejo Valley to San Luis Obispo. We continue to support our chambers and last year we became a media Read More →
Volunteerism ‘shapes community we share’
In business, we measure success by revenue growth, rising profits, share prices and transactions closed. But in communities across the Tri-Counties, successful leadership is often defined by measures less tangible. That point was brought home on March 9 when we stopped by the Santa Barbara Foundation’s 73rd annual Man and Woman of the Year luncheon. Read More →
Tri-County Produce goes on but co-founder will be missed
The concept of local sourcing of food was not exactly a hot trend in 1985 when Jim Dixon took over a fledgling farmer’s market operation named Tri-County Produce on lower Milpas Street. For three decades the company has flourished in a warehouse a couple of blocks from East Beach in Santa Barbara. It is there Read More →
Oxnard needs to get financial house in order
A Feb. 23 city council meeting in Oxnard underscores the fact that the region’s largest city still has some cleanup work to do after the financial scandal that engulfed the city several years ago. The accounting firm Eadie and Payne said that it needed until at least March 29 to prepare a schedule for the Read More →
Scalia’s death will impact cases of regional concern
The untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia over President’s Day weekend will likely alter the trajectory of any number of cases before the court. Two of them are particularly relevant to the Tri-Counties. In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the justices appeared to be closely divided on the question of whether to uphold Read More →
