The Des Moines Register carries an extensive ad for a registered representative claiming that he has been named as one of America’s Best Financial Planners by Consumers Research Council of America. Being a natural skeptic, I checked it out.

Turns out that this “council” also names “best” doctors, nursing homes and golf instructors. Odd? Yes.

An Iowa nursing home bragging about its award as one of America’s Top Nursing Homes states that the council is “the nation’s leading consumer group that evaluates professional services throughout the country.” This may have been said in ignorance rather than with deliberate intent to deceive, but it is pure P.T. Barnum humbug nonetheless.

The “council” is connected to a California plaque and trophy company called SLD Industries. In short, offer people a plaque saying “you are the best” and back it up with an impressive-sounding third-party blessing. It might be morally bankrupt, but what a great marketing gimmick! Even some doctors advertising the award said their “best” status had been bestowed by SLD Industries – apparently not realizing that SLD is the trophy company.

Sounds like a chance for Tom Miller to protect consumers.

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Having just finished putting a daughter through Grinnell College in 2004, I am well aware of college costs. She loved Grinnell, and it is undisputedly a fabulous school, but consider what would happen if parents chose to fund retirement instead of college.

If you start funding a Roth IRA at a child’s birth with the current maximum of $4,000 per year and stop making contributions after their 17th birthday, the child would have $4,592,607 at age 65, with earnings computed at 7.5 percent. Your total cost would be $72,000. Even better, you’d never have to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid form.

The current comprehensive annual fee at Grinnell College is $34,418 – multiplying this by four years gets you to $137,672. This doesn’t include clothing, books, transportation, sundries, entertainment, etc. You probably surmised that saving $4,000 a year from birth is not going to pay for college unless your child can play quarterback like Vince Young or costs start declining instead of rapidly climbing. Neither is likely.

The drawback to my idea is that if your children don’t figure out a way to get through college on their own, they might spend a lifetime being awed by astrology, “The 700 Club” and Britney Spears.

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A serious discussion of transitioning public employee pensions from defined benefit to defined contribution plans does not appear to be on the Iowa legislative agenda. Deferring this issue until a funding crisis occurs is understandable; no one likes getting yelled at. However, it is wrong even though the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Peace Officers’ Retirement System, etc. have performed pretty darn well as managers of the retirement program.

IPERS will not push for any fundamental innovation. Consider that the IPERS Benefits Advisory Committee has 13 representatives of government units or government employees and ONE public representative. This committee has stated that it wants to “maintain the current benefit structure.” The political ramifications are immense due to the large number of interested participants. The average legislator probably has hundreds of acquaintances and dozens of relatives in the public pension system.

The legal issues are exceptionally complex as well. What is needed is to give the state the ability to close the books each year (absolutely, not just hopefully) on its future pension obligations. Freedom from Employee Retirement Income Security Act strictures gives the Legislature flexibility not enjoyed by private employers.

Legislators should remember what advertising legend George Lois said: “Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” Any other legislative “hot issues” on the current agenda are mere gnats on this elephant’s back.

Mike Nelson is a senior vice president at Iowa Savings Bank in Carroll.