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Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (May 2-3)

May 1, 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 as an increasing number of (investment-centric) financial advisors are adding planning services to their offerings, the value of comprehensive financial planning as a differentiator for advisory firms could continue to decline in the years ahead (particularly as artificial intelligence tools aimed at consumers could potentially offer financial recommendations to consumers as well). Which suggests that firms looking to stay ahead of the current could seek alternative ways to show how they are "different", perhaps including leaning into the personal, human element of the planning process (something AI tools might find harder to match).

Also in industry news this week:

A survey finds that there could be a mismatch between retirees' (often high) interest in planning for the non-financial aspects of their lives and the (comparatively lower) frequency at which advisors broach these discussions
Almost 80% of Millennials want to retire early, according to a recent survey, though they might not have the investment risk tolerance to make it happen (suggesting a valuable role for financial advisors in connecting investment returns with financial goals as well as in highlighting alternate forms of 'retirement' that might be more financially feasible)

From there, we have several articles on investment planning:

Why taking a strategic approach to bond investments based on an investor's time horizon and cash needs could be superior to a tactical approach focused on anticipating future interest rate moves
Returns data indicate that Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) funds and high-yield bond funds offered purchasing power protection during the past decade (including the recent inflationary period), while many investors in short- and long-term government bonds saw their purchasing power erode
An analysis compares investing in "buffer" ETFs versus Treasury bills when planning for a large purchase at a defined date

We also have a number of articles on practice management:

Why being a "legacy leader" rather than a "lone ranger" might be the key for advisory firm founders to create a firm that retains clients for the long haul and thrives beyond their personal influence
Why firm owners might need to seek new study group peers and mentors as their businesses grow and mature
Seven research-backed practices to help leaders build "superteams" that thrive amidst an ever-changing business environment

We wrap up with three final articles, all about happiness in the modern age:

An exploration into why Americans have experienced a sharp drop in happiness this decade at a time when many personal economic measures have been strong
How "third places" represent an opportunity for communities to build greater social connection and trust
Why cutting certain office perks could save money the short run but ultimately backfire for businesses if employees see it as a signal that they're less valued

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Navigating Change Fatigue With And While Serving Clients: Kitces & Carl 189

April 30, 2026 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Kitces & Carl Ep Navigating Change Fatigue

Uncertainty is a core tenet of life – from markets to technology to economic realities to life decisions. As the saying goes, past performance does not guarantee future results – and people often make decisions in a shifting, unstable, unpredictable environment. This can cumulate into “change fatigue”, where there are too many uncertain and ambiguous decisions to make, and clients are exhausted from navigating them. This is challenging for both clients and advisors because no certain answer exists.

In this 189th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how advisors can lead effective conversations amid ongoing ambiguity. Advisors naturally want to be helpful and solve their clients’ problems, but this instinct can be counterproductive when the advisor jumps to solutions too early. If the client is still processing uncertainty or doesn’t fully understand their goals, then the solutions may not resonate – even if, by all appearances, the client is “asking” for a solution.

In conversations navigating ambiguity, it may be more effective to slow down. Asking questions and creating space for the clients to sound out their options can help the advisor determine what the client is ‘really’ asking. For example, does the client really want to golf all day… or do they ‘just’ want to quit their job as quickly as possible? Understanding the underlying issue behind a client’s goals is key to providing grounded, helpful advice.

Additionally, the emotional dimension of change fatigue cannot be ignored. Clients may be reacting not just to specific financial decisions, but to the realization that familiar life paths – such as homeownership timelines, career stability, or education outcomes – do not function as expected. Advisors, in turn, can be prepared to acknowledge and validate these concerns, even when they cannot resolve them with a clear-cut answer. This requires a form of leadership grounded in empathy and presence, where the goal is not to restore a false sense of certainty, but to help clients move forward with confidence despite uncertainty.

Ultimately, serving clients well in an era of constant change demands both professional and personal resilience. Advisors are navigating the same uncertainties as their clients, often while their own businesses are indirectly affected by the very changes clients fear. Sustaining the ability to show up thoughtfully in client conversations therefore depends on maintaining one’s own capacity – through rest, recovery, and deliberate practices that build resilience over time. By embracing this more human-centered, adaptive approach to advice, advisors can deepen trust, facilitate better decisions, and reinforce their value not as forecasters of the future, but as steady guides through it!

Using Exchange Funds To Diversify Concentrated Securities (And When It’s Better To Sell Instead)

April 29, 2026 07:08 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

A client whose portfolio is highly concentrated in a single large holding with sizable embedded capital gains presents a multilevel challenge for a financial advisor. On the one hand, continuing to hold the security exposes much of the client's portfolio to the risks inherent in investing in a single company. On the other hand, selling the security in order to diversify may trigger significant capital gains and incur a sizable tax bill, leaving less for the client to reinvest. And while some investors can diversify gradually over time to at least dampen the tax consequences of selling, that might not be an option for someone who is already in a high tax bracket, or whose concentrated position is so sizable that it would take several years or more to diversify their portfolio to an acceptable level.

One option that has gained prominence in recent years to solve for this challenge is the exchange fund, which combines multiple areas of the tax code to allow investors to achieve some level of diversification while deferring the recognition of capital gains. In a nutshell, an exchange fund operates as a partnership to which multiple investors contribute individual highly appreciated securities and, after a seven-year holding period, each investor can withdraw a pro rata share of the entire 'basket' of securities within the fund without recognizing capital gains. And over the past several years, as the runup in technology stocks has created concentrated stock wealth for numerous investors – such as employees of technology companies who are compensated in company stock – exchange funds have been marketed as a solution to provide instant diversification with full deferral of capital gains.

However, there are caveats relevant for advisors when evaluating whether an exchange fund might help their clients achieve their goals. For example, the seven-year holding period –which is a requirement for the exchange fund to achieve tax deferral for all its participants – creates a significant restriction for clients who may need liquidity during that time frame. Additionally, the requirement for the exchange fund to hold at least 20% of its assets in illiquid investments, typically non-traded real estate funded by debt incurred by the fund in order to avoid selling any of the contributed securities, raises questions about the risks involved in adding such a high allocation to illiquid alternative assets – especially given the cost of borrowing to invest in those assets.

Also, because the concentrated securities that many investors are trying to diversify away from are disproportionately made up of technology stocks (since those have been the top overperformers in recent years), many exchange funds are consequently concentrated in technology and other high-growth sectors. Meaning that, while the fund might be diversified enough to eliminate investors' single-company risk, investors may still be subject to a significant amount of 'single-sector' risk. That is, if they can find a fund that will take their securities, as investors who are concentrated in certain popular holdings like Apple and Amazon might face long waiting lists for exchange funds with room for them.

The key point is that strategies like exchange funds don't eliminate tax on diversifying out of concentrated holdings – they merely defer it. Unless the investor doesn't plan to use the portfolio funds during their lifetime, they'll need to pay the tax at some point. Which means that when evaluating an exchange fund, advisors can ask whether it's worth taking on the additional risk – both in terms of illiquidity and the risks of the investments within the exchange fund itself –just to delay a tax bill that will eventually come anyway, or whether it's better to sell and take the tax hit now rather than risk even greater losses if the portfolio is misaligned with the client's needs?

Building The Team And Tech To Serve Thousands Of (Advice-Only) Clients Efficiently: #FASuccess Ep 487 With Lori Atwood

April 28, 2026 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 487th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Lori Atwood. Lori is the founder of Fearless Finance, an RIA based in Washington, DC, that has served almost 3,000 client households over the past three years on an advice-only, predominantly hourly fee basis.

What's unique about Lori, though, is how she built an internal planning software platform to meet the needs of her ideal target client alongside a team of advisors ingrained in her firm’s culture and planning processes to profitably and efficiently serve new and existing clients.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Lori decided to pursue an advice-only, hourly model to be able to serve working-age clients facing major life decisions (for example, the financial implications of taking a new job in a different city) as well as ‘traditional’ financial planning clients with more assets (who might want to confirm that they’re on track for retirement), how Lori decided to create a "hub-and-spoke" model for her firm with advisors who are tied into the firm’s culture as well as its systems in order to create a stronger brand, and how Lori decided to build her own financial planning software platform (with the support of external developers) to allow her advisors to efficiently zero in on the planning issues most important to their clients.

We also talk about how Lori spends approximately 18% of her revenue on client acquisition, resulting in 400 new clients last year with a 64% close rate, how Lori’s marketing spend might be relatively high amongst advisory firms in terms of percentage of revenue, her per-client acquisition cost is much lower than the industry average given the number of clients she onboards each year, and how Lori markets in part by sponsoring podcasts that put her firm in front of listeners undergoing life changes (and therefore might be ready to meet with a financial planner).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Lori shares how she finds that many clients who might otherwise find financial information using AI tools come to her for "confirmation, not information" on their financial situations, how Lori finds that being transparent about her pricing on her website (and communicating that clients should expect increases to the hourly fee every two years) has resonated well with prospects and ongoing clients alike, and how Lori has ultimately found it gratifying to be the first call her clients make when they face an unexpected financial situation and to be able to provide them with meaningful solutions that keep them on the right track financially.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Lori built an advice-only, hourly financial planning firm that has served nearly 3,000 client households in just three years, how how her hub-and-spoke advisor structure helps maintain culture and consistency, and why Lori built her own internal financial planning software to improve efficiency and client outcomes, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Lori Atwood.

How I Hired Two Support Planners: Designing A Job Posting To Attract Talented Early-Career Financial Planners

April 27, 2026 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

When hiring, financial planning firms will naturally seek to find the best possible candidate for the specific position. However, such individuals don’t necessarily appear on their own; rather, firms have to craft a job posting that attracts a qualified pool of candidates from which to choose (while also considering the time cost to the firm of assessing those who apply).

In this guest post, Daniel Yerger, founder and owner of the RIA MY Wealth Planners, outlines the strategy behind crafting a job description when his firm needed to hire two entry-level positions in relatively short order, and the tradeoffs involved in where to advertise the position.

To start, the concept of “signaling theory” suggests that employers will attract better candidates when their signals are clear in terms of expectations and rewards, and candidates with stronger qualifications will apply for roles in which they believe they are more likely to obtain adequate compensation in alignment with their qualifications.

With this in mind, an effective job posting can start with a basic description of the role and its responsibilities, followed immediately by compensation information (including a salary range as well as benefits offered). At this point, any qualified candidate for whom the compensation would be reasonable is likely to proceed, and any candidates not qualified or otherwise who feel their skill level is above the offer at hand will move on. Next, the description can describe common tasks for the job (to give candidates an idea of what their day-to-day work would be like in this position) as well as a list of minimum and preferred qualifications (with the former being a shorter list to avoid discouraging potential candidates who might only apply if they meet every one listed).

The job posting can then include a description of the hiring process to give candidates an idea of both what they can expect in terms of submission requirements (e.g., resume and cover letter) and the number of interviews, as well as when to expect to hear back from the firm (whether they’re selected to move on to the next round of the process or not) as well as the start date for the position. To help clients through this process, firms can also include a paragraph describing its target focus, the size of its client base, and any unique characteristics, as well as a list of resources where candidates can learn more about the company.

With the job posting created, firms can then consider where to advertise it to reach a desired pool of candidates. Notably, this decision involves tradeoffs; for example, while including the posting on larger platforms (e.g., LinkedIn or Indeed) can attract a broader (and more diverse) pool of candidates than on industry-specific job boards (e.g., the FPA Job Board or the CFP Board Career Center), doing so could require filtering through more submissions (though firms can reduce the number of superfluous candidates by having them apply on the firm’s website instead of directly on the site where the job posting is listed).

Ultimately, the key point is that given the high stakes involved in advisory firm hiring (particularly when it comes to the time and dollar costs of employee turnover), taking the time to craft and advertise a job posting that appeals to prospective candidates with the interest and qualifications to excel in the position is likely to be a worthwhile investment!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (April 25-26)

April 24, 2026 02:02 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 recent report by F2 Strategy indicates that a strong majority of advisory firms surveyed are seeking to make operational changes in the year ahead, with tech integration and client onboarding representing key areas for potential improvement. Which suggests that while it might not be as flashy as marketing or client service, firms are recognizing that improving operational capabilities could be a key to greater scalability over time and be a potential way to boost advisor and client retention as functional hurdles are removed for each group.

Also in industry news this week:

CFP Board reported a record number exam takers during its March administration, with a notable tilt towards younger candidates who could eventually make up for potential talent shortfalls in the years ahead (as long as they don’t wash out of the industry)
Minority investments in RIAs are shifting towards relatively smaller firms, opening the door for founders to tap into the capital and expertise that outside investors can provide (balanced against the possibility of reduced control over their firm)

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

A Morningstar analysis identifies retirement income strategies that offer the highest starting safe withdrawal rates (which could be appropriate for clients looking to front-load their retirement spending)
While the results of both are a “probability of success”, historical simulations and Monte Carlo analyses are quite different (but can be quite powerful when used together)
An analysis of whether adding (perhaps many thousands) more scenarios to Monte Carlo simulations adds additional value for advisors and clients considering the sustainability of their financial plans

We also have a number of articles on estate planning:

The ins and outs of disclaiming an inheritance, from the legal requirements to execute a disclaimer to the level of flexibility heirs have to do so
10 reasons why an heir might choose to disclaim an inheritance, from mitigating estate and income tax exposure to protecting assets from creditors
The options for surviving spouses when inheriting a traditional IRA, and how these decisions can impact the after-tax wealth that their children will eventually receive

We wrap up with three final articles, all about lifestyle trends for the wealthy:

The growing popularity of private concierges and how financial advisors can similarly step in to help clients “fix problems” that arise in their lives
Why private jet travel has become a status symbol for wealthy individuals, and how advisors can help interested clients navigate the range of available ways to tap into this opportunity
How concierge medical practices can smooth access to providers and offer a more personalized level of care for patients (though the ultimate health benefits of working with one are less clear)

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!