Energetic investment

New takes on personal investing, value creation and middle managers

The Essential Individual Pension Plan Handbook

In recent years individual pension plans, or IPPs, have become a popular retirement savings tool for many executives. This is partly because of changes in provincial pension benefits legislation, and to the active promotion of the potential advantages of IPPs by insurance companies and financial institutions. They are considered an “RRSP upgrade” for high earners. The primary candidates for IPPs are business owners, company executives and incorporated professionals over the age of 45 with an annual income greater than $100,000 per year.

The Essential Individual Pension Plan Handbook is a useful guide to IPPs for financial advisors, accountants and other consultants who want to fully understand the value of IPPs. Sections of the book include the history of IPPs, the features, benefits and limitations of IPPs, as well as laws, regulations and industry standards that affect such a structure.

A thorough text, the book also covers IPP investment considerations, and advanced IPP applications, like using employee profit-sharing plans, and maximizing IPPs with Investment Management Fees and additional voluntary contributions.

By Peter J. Merrick. Published by LexisNexis. For more information visit www.lexisnexis.com.

Be Unreasonable

Everyone needs an occasional pep talk about how to get motivated to achieve better-than-average business success. Be Unreasonable is a prime example of such a book — one that will get the reader thinking about how to break out of the tried-and-true routine and into a value-adding role.

As the author states, being reasonable about your business only keeps you in step with other businesses. To get out front, you have to be unreasonable; you have to expect more of yourself and others, and not be afraid to change old systems that just don’t work anymore. This might require a change in your mindset, and the author offers a few tips on how to get out of your comfort zone to find that new mindset.

This book is about assessing your situation and leaping into the unknown courageously.

By Paul Lemberg. Published by McGraw-Hill. For more information visit www.mhprofessional.com.

Ignited

Middle management gets short shrift in a lot of business literature. Many business books are aimed at creating great CEOs or great firms, but getting to the top (and creating great companies) demands a smart approach to the middle tier as well. Ignited attempts to fill that gap.

The book aims to help managers reshape their career and their organization by showing them how to:

• Lead in a limited space;
• Power up their network and expand their influence;
• Drive meaningful strategic change across their company and industry; and
• Connect their personal passions with their company’s goals.

Ignited is based on custom research and in-depth interviews with more than 100 managers from such companies as GE, AOL, AT&T, and Rawlings.

By Vince Thompson. Published by Financial Times Press. For more information visit www.ftpress.com.

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