Betterment CEO and founder Jon Stein is revolutionizing the way financial services are delivered and consumers are the beneficiaries of his vision. Jon founded Betterment, a so-called "Robo-Advisor"  in 2008 in order to help consumers invest the way they should, rather than trying to beat the market. Jon notes that "We tend to think we’re better than average, on average. We intuitively think we can outperform. The whole brokerage and investment industry has grown to serve these irrational behaviors—and as a result, they don’t serve the individual consumers’ best interests. I started Betterment to re-invent the investing industry." Boy, has he ever--Betterment allows users to rationally approach investing by seeking the best return (factoring costs) for the least risk.

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It was great to have Jon on show, especially after appearing on CBS This Morning to discuss "When is the Right Time to Hire a Financial Advisor".

While Betterment started as an automated platform to help investors create a customized asset allocation plan, it has now evolved into an advice-driven organization. (For those who want a deep-dive on the evolution of financial services, check out this LinkedIn webcast, where Jon appeared with other leaders in the industry.) If I sound like I am fawning over Jon's business, I AM! After years in this business, it is terrific to see people like Jon (and Hart Lambur of Open Folio, Hardeep Walia of Motif Investing and Mitch Tuchman of MarketRiders) shaking up the industry. Jon also discussed how the Department of Labor's new rule, which will require any advisor managing retirement assets to be held to the Fiduciary standard, is likely to force the industry to FINALLY put clients first.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week, especially Mark, the Best Producer in the World. Here's how to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

As California Chrome attempts racing's ultimate trifecta at Belmont this weekend, the triple crown of your financial life is easier to achieve: (1) Pay down consumer debt (2) Establish emergency reserve fund (3) Maximize retirement contributions.

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In honor of the Belmont Stakes, Queens-born financial whiz Michael Goodman, President of Wealthstream Advisors was our guest. Michael provided great advice on how to approach the client-advisor relationship; ways to kick-start your financial life for the second half of the year; and discussed the difference between passive and active investing.

Listener questions included a great discussion about long term care with Kathy; buying versus renting (and reverse mortgages) with Sandy; and education saving for Rick and Aaron.

Marie wondered about contesting a will, while Eileen wants to start Roth IRAs for her favorite 18 year-olds and Carol followed up with more details so we could advise her about investing the proceeds of her house sale.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

When aging parents ask you about estate planning or transferring a house into your name from their names, you should seek the advice of a good estate attorney before making any decisions.

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Mary Ellen and JP both had questions about the pros and cons of creating life estates. This can be an excellent way for your parents to remain in their homes; protecting them from nursing home liens; avoiding probate; and retaining the ability to receive a step-up in cost basis upon death.  Of course, there are downsides too...

Along those lines, Dawn asked about creating a trust for her assets to protect them against being devoured in the event that she requires costly long-term healthcare.

We helped Linda determine whether $1.4 million is enough to retire at age 55 and discussed how Carol might handle a $300,000 inheritance.

If you hold a lot of your company stock in your 401 (k), pay attention to my conversation with Dan--you'll learn an easy way to extract company stock in a tax advantaged way!

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

So many of you ask how to navigate the head-scratching journey of selecting a financial professional. As caller Lou said, "I don't want buzz words, I want someone who will take care of me!" In addition to Lou, James and Theresa also asked about selecting financial pros.

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Of course you have to interview a number of advisors before you settle on the one that is right for you. To help with those meetings, print out my "10 Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor".

For those who have smaller accounts or want to invest on their own, there are a number of web-based alternatives, which guide you through a risk assessment process, recommend a portfolio and then either provide you with a nudge to rebalance (for do it yourselfers) or an automatic rebalancing tool that the company will employ on your behalf. Check out "Advice for Small Investors" for more information.

Rick and Doumo asked about home purchases, while Mike and his wife wanted a reality check on their retirement plans --everything seemed A-OK!

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Check out Mark's first-producing credit for this CBS Evening News segment that aired recently. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet us: @jillonmoney and @MTalercio

Evidently, there's a football game in New Jersey this weekend. Before you partake in the festivities, check out this week's show, where we are talking about how to select a financial advisor.

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Who better than Janet Stanzak, the president of the board of directors for the Financial Planning Association (FPA), to help guide us in the mission of identifying a financial advisor? Janet joined us to discuss the concept of "full and fair disclosure," which may be more important than comparing fee structures of various advice-givers.  While compensation is important, it is not the only thing people need to consider, according to Janet. She also went through some of the 35 questions to ask tool the FPA recommends people ask prospective financial advisers. If you are looking for an advisor, you can use the FPA Planner Search tool.

We fielded questions from Amanda and Leigh about inherited IRAs; Dennis and Mike, who wanted to know whether they had accumulated enough to consider retirement; and Carol and Tom, who both had questions about rolling over retirement accounts.

Lisa and Dan had education funding questions, which reminded me about FinAid.org, a fabulous college funding resource that super-smart Mark Kantrowitz founded.

By the way, here are those Super Bowl factoids that I sprinkled throughout the show:

• Players on the Super Bowl-winning team will make $92,000 each; losers $46,000
• Cost of a 30 second spot:  $4.5 million
• Economic impact on NY-NJ area: $194 million (versus the $500-$600 million that the NFL and politicians  have claimed)
• Who bets? Nearly 1/3 of U.S. adults are likely to wager on the big game, 92 percent of those surveyed said they've actually lost money gambling on the Super Bowl in the past
• The Super Bowl is the second highest day of food consumption in the US after Thanksgiving. (USDA)
• The average fan will consume 1200 calories and 50 grams of fat from snacks, NOT including the meal itself (Calorie Control Council and Snack Food Association)
• Chicken wings: Fans will chow down on 1.23 billion wings or more than 100 million pounds of wings
• Dominos estimates that it will deliver 11 million pieces of pizza to hungry viewers
• Antacids sales are expected to increase 20 percent on the day after Super Bowl

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. Let me know if you think we should provide Mark with a little space to vent his various grievances with you...we're considering calling it "Mark's Musings". If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet me: @jillonmoney

A tepid August jobs report had little impact on "Jill on Money" fans, who were more interested in financial issues that hit closer to home.

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Joe from NY started the show, with a question about early retirement. Have he and his wife accumulated the assets ($2 million at retirement) necessary to call it quits at age 50?

Ron from NJ wants to know my opinion of the Social Security strategy called “File and Suspend” (sometimes referred to as “Claim Now, Claim More Later”)

File and suspend is a feature of the system can be useful for married couples, especially where one spouse has earned significantly more than the other spouse during their careers. In these cases, the lower earning spouse is usually better off claiming half of the spouse’s benefit because it is higher than the individual benefit.

File and suspend allows the primary wage earner to apply for benefits, then suspend collecting, while allowing the other spouse to start collecting spousal benefits immediately and then continuing to collect. Here’s the best part: the primary wage-earning spouse can wait to claim benefits until age 70, which increases the future individual Social Security benefit by eight percent each year between ages 66 and 70.

On the subject of Social Security and retirement income, Ang wants to make sure to factor in taxes when determining the proper amount to withdraw.

Robert from Buffalo is weighing whether or not to refinance an adjustable rate mortgage, while Scott from MO is trying to determine whether or not to pay off his outstanding mortgage.

Daud asked about the ratings of long-term care insurance providers. Finding any company willing to write LTC is difficult enough, but finding a highly rated one is even tougher. Check out the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance for more information.

A few investment questions this week. One of particular note was from JG, who needs a plan to rotate a portion of his retirement funds into stocks. Meanwhile, John is worried about the future value of dollar-denominated assets.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet me: @jillonmoney

Over the Labor Day holiday weekend, "Jill on Money" fans were working to prepare for what could be a volatile September. According to the Stock Trader's Almanac, September has been the worst month for stock performance over the past 50 years!

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Alex kicked off the show with a question about how to invest in bonds, while Jane followed up with concerns that perhaps her choice in a financial advisor might have been...well, ill-advised.

Rebecca and Jackie are looking for the best ways to pya down debt, while Linda is contemplating withdrawing money from her retirement account without generating tax liability.

Richard and Kane are receiving disability income, while Bill is trying to come back from a foreclosure

Stan and RJ are each weighing the purchase of an annuity to create a stream of retirement income, but in each of their cases, there are more affordable options.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world...One question: what do Mark do to the intern to make her disappear on us? If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet me: @jillonmoney

Just back from a quick trip to Brazil and happy to get right back into the groove with questions from the smartest fans around!

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Kathy from MD started asked a question about re-titling an old stock certificate. We dealt with that quickly, before moving into the thornier topic of how to convince an aging parent to draft a will.

Cheryl from NC, Anne from PA and Barb from OR each asked a question about their respective advisors. If Cheryl’s case, she needs to go back to the advisor/broker to better understand the terms of the new asset management fund. Anne needs to tell her advisor that they want to maintain a separate account with stocks that he will not manage and that the risk of her managed account may need to be adjusted to compensate for that fact. For Barb, it’s time to dump her bank-based advisor and find a fee-only (use NAPFA.org) or a fee-based advisor.

Ron from IL checked in with a question about IRS Rule 72T, which allows access to 401(k) funds before age 59 ½, without the early withdrawal penalty.

Jack from CA and is busy trying to pay down $180K in student loans, while Carl is preparing to assume new debt for college and wants to know appropriate parameters that he should use before starting the process.

Kathryn wrote in to warn against a refinancing scam that is aimed at veterans (ugh!) If any listeners encounter these types of horrible hoaxes, please let me know so we can help spread the word!

We fielded a bunch of Social Security questions from Mark, Janis, Max, Ben, Christopher, Ray, Larry and Lowell. As a reminder, the procedure to calculate benefits involves three steps.

1. A worker’s previous earnings are restated in terms of today’s wages to reflect wage growth.

2. Earnings for the highest 35 years are averaged and divided by 12 to arrive at Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME).

3. The Social Security benefit formula is applied to AIME to produce the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), the benefit payable at the Full Retirement Age (FRA).

If you have less than 35 years of earnings, you may want to work enough additional years so you have a full 35 years of earnings. Otherwise, the Social Security Administration will average in zeros for any years less than 35.

The maximum SS benefit depends on the age you retire. If you retire at your full retirement age in 2013, your maximum benefit would be $2,533.  If you retire at age 62 in 2013, your maximum benefit would be $1,923. If you retire at age 70 in 2013, your maximum benefit would be $3,350.

Tony asked how many months out of the year are required for state residence and Alan from Buffalo needed help with debt pay down options.

Dave in St Paul, MN asked about a bond fund versus a stable value fund and whether to use retirement assets to build a house.

Thanks to everyone who participated and to Mark, the BEST producer in the world and Christina the intern. If you have a financial question, there are lots of ways to contact us:

• Call 855-411-JILL and we'll schedule time to get you on the show LIVE 

• Send an email: askjill@jillonmoney.com 

• Tweet me: @jillonmoney