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Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (January 10–11)

January 9, 2026 01:45 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that a study by financial advisor AI platform Jump, which analyzed thousands of anonymized client meetings, found that advisors were broadly able to improve client sentiment over the course of meetings. Notably client sentiment saw a bigger boost when advisors demonstrated stronger emotional intelligence (including by having balanced talk time with their clients, asking open questions, and serving as an empathetic listener to client concerns), suggesting spending time during meetings to better understand and respond to client concerns could ultimately pay off in the form of improved client sentiment (and perhaps, ultimately, greater client retention and referrals).

Also in industry news this week:

A survey from Vanguard finds that "peace of mind" was the most-cited reason its clients cited for pursuing an advice relationship, with an advisor's ability to monitor the client's financial situation in the background while also acting in the client's best interest as key drivers of creating this sentiment
The SEC this week proposed amendments that would change the definition of "small entity" when it comes to the application of regulations for RIAs from having less than $25 million of assets under management to less than $1 billion, which could potentially lead to reduced regulatory burdens for a wide swath of firms

From there, we have several articles on investment planning:

Why investment concentration can be a double-edged sword and how advisors can offer value when clients express concerns that their portfolios are either over- or under-concentrated
Why liquidity risk is an important part of evaluating a potential investment (and why it's sometimes overlooked by investors)
While advisors might pride themselves on providing evidence-based investment recommendations, investment research and performance can sometimes offer contradictory conclusions

We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:

A review of studies on the drivers of happiness suggests that certain "additions" (e.g., finding more opportunities for socializing) and "subtractions" (e.g., "buying time" by outsourcing certain undesirable tasks) could improve wellbeing in retirement
How financial advisors can help retiring clients successfully make the adjustment from full-time work to having "7 Saturdays A Week" (both financially and in identifying what they are planning to retire "to")
While studies can provide aggregate information about the drivers of happiness, each individual's preferences are likely to differ from the broader population, suggesting that a more personalized approach to planning for retirement could lead to a more satisfying result

We wrap up with three final articles, all about attention:

Six ways individuals can improve their attention spans, from scheduling breaks to avoiding "task switching" as much as possible
Why "critical ignoring" is a valuable skill at a time when there is no shortage of (sometimes unreliable) information sources available
An experimental study suggests that relying on AI tools to create written products that require deep thought could lead to less-convincing work and an accumulation of "cognitive debt" in the process

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Helping Clients With AI Bubble Fears To Stay The Course: Kitces & Carl 181

January 8, 2026 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Kitces & Carl Ep Helping Clients With AI Bubble Fears To Stay The Course

The vast majority of people build their wealth through markets – and advisors offer crucial advice, insight, and strategy through their investment management services. While these services are helpful in good times, their value is most salient during periods of market turbulence, when advisors must coach their clients through uncertainty and anxiety. Potentially concerning market patterns emerge regularly (and according to some media,"concerning patterns" are emerging all the time), such as the current concern about a potential "AI bubble" that could trigger a correction. This chatter naturally creates concern for clients, who will turn to their advisor for help – placing advisors directly into the recurring 'scary markets' conversation that tests both their investment philosophy and their ability to communicate it effectively.

In this 181st episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how advisors can lead clients through a "market fears conversation". The challenge for advisors is not to dismiss these concerns reflexively as something "already planned for", which may be technically true but does not alleviate client concerns in the moment they are most fearful.

Instead, effective scary-market conversations begin with empathy, not explanation. Clients typically deliberate internally for days or weeks before bringing their concerns to their advisor, meaning that by the time they call, they are already emotionally activated. Acknowledging that their fear is understandable – and even shared – helps create the psychological safety necessary for productive dialogue. From there, advisors can slow the interaction by creating space between stimulus and response, allowing emotions to settle before triggering action. This deliberate pacing reinforces that the advisor is not reacting defensively or dismissively, but thoughtfully and intentionally.

Now on firmer (and calmer) footing, the advisor can reconnect clients to the deeper foundations of their financial decisions. Revisiting purpose, values, and long-term goals reframes the market discussion away from headlines and toward the reasons the portfolio exists in the first place. From that foundation, advisors can remind clients how their investment process was built: portfolios were designed using long-term historical evidence that already includes periods of extreme uncertainty, speculative excess, and painful drawdowns. While the triggers for market stress change with each 'crisis', the common thread is that such periods eventually resolve, even if the path is uncomfortable. The assumption that markets ultimately recover is not blind optimism; it is the central premise underpinning long-term capital market participation.

Importantly, advisors can also demonstrate that 'staying the course' does not mean doing nothing. Rebalancing, gradually adjusting risk profiles to align with a client's life stage, and maintaining exposure across asset classes enable portfolios to respond systematically without resorting to binary, all-or-nothing bets. This framework helps counter the seductive appeal of going entirely to cash (which introduces a second, often more stressful decision in turn: when to get back in). By walking clients through what 'waiting until the dust settles' would actually look like, advisors can gently show that reentry typically coincides with higher market prices, not lower risk.

Ultimately, these conversations highlight the true value of financial advice during periods of uncertainty. Advisors are not merely portfolio managers, but emotional anchors who help clients navigate fear without making irreversible decisions they may later regret. While the repetition of scary-market discussions can be taxing for advisors, each instance is often the client's first encounter with that level of anxiety. Approaching each conversation with patience, compassion, and intellectual clarity allows advisors to reinforce trust, strengthen relationships, and fulfill their role as steady guides through uncertainty. In doing so, they help clients remain aligned with strategies that are imperfect but enduring – and better positioned to support long-term goals despite the inevitable discomfort along the way!

10 Charts To Help Explain The 2026 Market To Clients

January 7, 2026 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

2025 proved to be a fruitful year for investors, with a wide range of asset classes generating positive returns. However, some investors might be nervous heading into 2026, with regular news headlines raising potential threats to the market, from elevated valuations to uncertainty around U.S. government policy. With this in mind, financial advisors can provide their clients with context surrounding these issues to help them make better-informed investment decisions in the year ahead.

One of the hottest topics in 2025 was the unprecedented level of capital expenditures into Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related businesses, including data centers, equipment (e.g., GPUs), and more. Which has made AI investment not only a key driver of the U.S. economy, but also of stock market returns (with sectors including Communication Services, Technology, and Industrials also seeing above-market returns on the year). Nonetheless, history offers important context for the AI boom, with previous transformative technologies (e.g., railroads in the 1860s and the dot-com bubble of the 1990s) following similar patterns of skepticism, rapid adoption, market exuberance, and adjustment of expectations. Which suggests that AI presents both a growth opportunity and a portfolio risk that should be managed carefully (e.g., by staying true to an appropriate asset allocation aligned with long-term goals).

Another potential concern for investors is the current level of market valuations, with the Cyclically Adjusted Price-to-Earnings (CAPE) ratio hovering just above 39, the second-highest level in over 150 years (trailing only the peak of the dot-com bubble). Notably, though, while certain market sectors are trading at relatively higher P/E ratios (e.g., Information Technology trading at a forward P/E of 26.8x), other sectors have lower valuations (e.g., Financials and Energy trading closer to 16x). Also, a key difference between today and the dot-com era is that current valuations are supported by earnings growth and business fundamentals, not just speculation. Nevertheless, maintaining appropriate diversification and avoiding overconcentration in high-valuation sectors remains essential for managing risk.

Market headlines in the first half of 2025 were driven in large part by ongoing tariff announcements, which led to an initial sharp market decline. While the market has bounced back and inflation measures such as the Consumer Price Index have ticked up only slightly, the full effects of U.S. tariff policy have likely not yet been felt (e.g., in terms of companies making longer-term adjustments to prices or in tariffs' impact on global GDP). Also, in the world of government policy, investors may be looking ahead to a leadership change at the Federal Reserve in 2026 and to the Fed's interest rate policy. However, history shows that different Fed Chairs have presided over steady economic growth over the past several decades. Similarly, while the 2026 U.S. midterm elections represent a 'known unknown', market history suggests that the trends that affect portfolios remain unaffected by politics, even if control of Congress changes.

Ultimately, the key point is that many asset classes are supporting portfolios as we enter 2026 (with international stocks actually outperforming their U.S. counterparts in 2025 and fixed income playing a stabilizing role). For longer-term investors, this broader participation across asset classes reinforces the fundamental principle that diversification matters – no matter where news headlines might lead in 2026!

Growing To $470M In 7 Years While Making Yourself Dispensable Enough To Take A Personal Sabbatical: #FASuccess Ep 471 With Dennis Morton

January 6, 2026 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Dennis Morton Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 471st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Dennis Morton. Dennis is the co-founder of Morton Brown Family Wealth, an RIA based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that oversees $475 million in assets under management for 275 client households.

What's unique about Dennis, though, is how he and his co-founder were able to build sufficient firm infrastructure to be able to take five-week sabbaticals without major disruptions (while continuing to experience client growth).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Dennis's firm is able to offer all employees the opportunity to take a sabbatical after five years of service in part by socializing clients with more than one advisor and the rest of the team (so that they don't rely on a single point of contact), how Dennis found that rather than being nervous about their advisor being out-of-pocket for several weeks, that clients were excited for him to have the opportunity to take time away from the business (and showed his authenticity about wanting to spend quality time with his family while building his firm), and how Dennis's experience with a failed succession plan at a previous firm inspired him and his co-founder to build a business where they wouldn't be indispensable.

We also talk about how Dennis and his partner have scaled their firm in part by identifying tasks that need to be done in-house (typically those that require intimate knowledge of their clients' circumstances) versus those that can be outsourced (where knowledge of the firm's principles is sufficient), how Dennis boosted firm growth and amplified his firm's brand both in its local community and online by hiring a director of marketing who leads firm efforts on managing lead pipelines and centralizing marketing data, and how Dennis and his co-founder conducted a "brand DNA" exercise soon after founding their firm, and then revisited it later as the company grew to ensure the full team was on the same page when it comes to firm culture.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Dennis shares how he's found significant value in providing clients with a one-page financial plan as part of his firm's plan presentation meeting, how Dennis has developed an ideal client profile of leaders (including those at the head of businesses and non-profits) who understand the benefit of having smart people around them and who aren't afraid to delegate, and how Dennis has found that his background in the U.S. Army provided valuable leadership skills that have served him well as a firm owner (and how he thinks other career changers can leverage their unique skills to find success in the financial planning industry).

So, whether you're interested in learning about building firm infrastructure and staffing to allow founders and team members to take sabbaticals, the potential value of hiring a director of marketing to build a firm's brand online and in the local community, or strategically deciding which business functions to keep in-house or outsource, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Dennis Morton.

Potential Growth For Prospecting Tools As FINNY Raises $17M (And More Of The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech – January 2026)

January 5, 2026 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the January 2026 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

This month's edition kicks off with the news that the AI-powered prospecting solution FINNY has recently raised $17 million in Series A funding at a whopping $150 million valuation, suggesting that its investors see the potential for significant growth in tools that can make it easier for advisory firms to generate organic growth – although with only around 5% of advisory firms today using outbound prospecting for client growth, it's worth wondering whether the potential market for tools like FINNY is big enough to justify those expectations?

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

Charles Schwab is planning to shut down its "Intelligent Portfolios Premium" service combining automated portfolio management with access to CFP professional advisors – showing how while robo advisors can be run profitably charging minimal fees 'just' to implement client portfolios with no advice, and human advisors are thriving by charging premium fees for relationship-based planning and advice, it's much harder to serve the middle ground by offering lighter-touch advice at low cost
The technology startup Nevis has announced a $35 million fundraising round centered around the pitch that it will help advisors eliminate their administrative work and open up more time for working with clients – but although advisors do tend to spend a lot of time doing administrative work outside of client meetings, our own Kitces Research has shown that technology alone often doesn't lead to more time in client meetings (and therefore more revenue productivity), and advisors who truly want to open up more time to meet with clients may be better off hiring support staff to delegate tasks to than trying to automate them away through technology (which the advisor still needs to use – and troubleshoot when it goes awry – themselves)!
Morningstar has recently announced the launch of two apps within ChatGPT that will bring in proprietary investment research and data from Morningstar (for public markets and funds) and PitchBook (for private markets), showing the potential for research firms like Morningstar to monetize the data they keep behind paywalls where it hasn't already been scraped by AI bots' models – and potentially spelling bad news for third party AI investment research tools, since investment researchers who use ChatGPT can now simply use the Morningstar and PitchBook apps within ChatGPT itself without the need to buy a standalone solution

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including:

Zeplyn has announced new features that bring it closer to being an "agentic" AI tool than a standalone AI notetaker – which on the one hand gives it a way to differentiate itself from other tools in the crowded AI notetaker field, but on the other hand creates the additional challenge of articulating what advisors can actually do with agentic AI
Amid recent innovations in AI solutions for connecting and syncing data between an advisors' software tools (instead of relying on inconsistent point-to-point integrations or expensive data warehousing solutions), it's worth wondering where that type of solution will ultimately 'live' in an advisor's tech stack – because while platforms like Advisor360, Orion, and MileMarker are rushing to launch their own integrated "AI layers", an advisor doesn't need multiple AI data-syncing solutions at once; rather, they simply need one tool that can do a good job connecting all of the advisor's technology!

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular "Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map" (and also added the changes to our AdvisorTech Directory) as well!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (January 3–4)

January 2, 2026 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that while 2025 was a fruitful year for RIAs, as firm leaders look ahead to 2026, several key themes and decision points are on the horizon, from navigating the recent calm market environment (which is supportive of client portfolios and firm AUM, but could make certain clients or prospects complacent about their need for professional advice) to increasing industry movement (both in terms of the brisk pace of RIA dealmaking and advisors moving to RIAs from other industry channels and between RIAs themselves), all while firms look to boost their organic growth and create the operational (and staffing) capabilities needed to maintain a high level of client service. Which could make 2026 a key year as many firms look to be opportunistic while ensuring they remain prepared for a future economic or market downturn.

Also in industry news this week:

A survey finds that only one-quarter of advisors are at least "very satisfied" with their firms' tech stacks, though many firms appear to be looking to improve them, whether in terms of enhancing core functions (e.g., CRM or financial planning software) or exploring opportunities with AI-enabled software
The U.S. House of Representatives in December passed the INVEST Act, which could lead to more RIAs qualifying as "small entities" (entitling them to certain regulatory relief) and to more individuals qualifying as "accredited investors" with access to certain private market investments

From there, we have several articles on tax planning:

While Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is the metric used to determine eligibility for several deductions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), the exact types of income MAGI includes for the purposes of OBBBA measures remains unclear in the absence of IRS guidelines
How financial advisors can potentially save clients thousands of dollars in taxes by ensuring they coordinate their Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) with other IRA withdrawals when it comes to fulfilling their Required Minimum Distributions
How helping clients navigate the capital gains "bump zone" can help them avoid unexpected large increases in the marginal tax rate they face in a given year

We also have a number of articles on investment planning:

How advisors with clients interested in cryptocurrency investments can offer value by calibrating an allocation that meets their particular risk-return preferences and investment goals
Why the timing of investments in (often volatile) cryptocurrency ETFs plays a large role in determining an investor's ultimate returns
While Bitcoin is sometimes referred to as "digital gold", Bitcoin and physical gold have shown quite different performance characteristics in recent years

We wrap up with three final articles, all about New Year's resolutions: