The Tools & Techniques of Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning (Tools and Techniques of Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning)

Rating:
Summary: Not for average consumer
Review: I do not recommend this book as a main source of information for the average reader. It is informational, but probably incomplete and not useful in deciding which plan to implement. It is used as a supplement (not even the main textbook) in an advanced Certified Financial Planning (CFP) course. Students in this course already have proven knowledge of key concepts regarding taxes, investments, risk management-insurance, etc. This is tough education/training that is being undertaken by people who's main job is (will be) to advise on these subjects.

Rating:
Summary: Worse than the Worst PowerPoint Presentation
Review: If ever you've sat through a presentation in which the speaker followed a PowerPoint template and asked yourself, "Could anything be worse than this?", this book is the answer and the answer is "Yes, much worse!"
Stephan Leimberg may know something about employee-benefit and retirement planning but his writing skills might best be used to torture prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
For chapter after chapter, he follows the same deadly template: "What is it?, When is it indicated?, Advantage, Disadvantages, Design Features." For paragraph after paragraph, he follows the same hackneyed formula: Bland, meaningless string- I can't say sentence; so I have to resort to computer language to describe the assemblages of words he puts between periods- followed by another string that begins with "however", "although", or "but." Apparently he didn't write this book; he word processed it. Having conjured up an incoherent notion, he characteristically begins the next sentence with something along the lines of "This can often...." What the "this" refers to, not even he could figure out. As if all these travesties were not awful enough, he greatly prefers the passive over the active voice.
Besides being useful in the war on terror, the book might serve well for beginning courses on "How to Edit Pitiful Writing." Almost every sentence contains at least one example of how not to write.
Well, now I've told the truth and feel guilty for trashing the book and its author. Is there something nice I can say about Stephan Leimberg? The nicest thing I can think of to say is this: Maybe he didn't actually write the book.



Rating:
Summary: Informative But Organized Poorly.
Review: The other review for this book refers to it as dry. Frankly, I have yet to read a riveting book on the retirement plan regulations. Liemberg touches on all the relevent topics that can arise when planning a retirement program for a company or an individual. What makes the book so tedious is that so much of the first 250 pages covering the various retirement saving vehicles rehash the same ERISA/IRS regulations every chapter. Chapters 25 through 27 which sumarize these regulations should be at the beginning of the book and then each chapter covering a retirement plan would only need a table referring to them. Liemberg instead tortures the readers with them in virtually every chapter from Ch.s 8 - 24. The meat of the book is then followed by about 25 short chapters covering all sorts of additional corporate benefits such as life and health insurance and reimbursement plans. Leimberg should be applauded for including so many topics but should have gotten his act together with the organization after 8 editions. For those of you that need to read this for the CFP or related professional tests, I suggest reading chapters 25-27 before reading Ch.s 8-24.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly Written Textbook
Review: This is a poorly written textbook. It is dry, uninformative and lacks any cohesive organization that would make the material easier to understand. The author uses a set template for each topic (Advantages, Disadvantages, Tax Implications etc.) that sometimes fits and sometimes does not fit the topic at hand. In more than one case, there are bullet items that repeat the same text as previously bulleted items. This is just sloppy editing and a lack of attentiveness ...