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Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (August 1–2)

July 31, 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 a recent survey of wealth management firms finds that while the number of respondents who have Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a dedicated tech budget line item increased from 14% to 67% in the past year, 65% said they have no defined AI success metric. Which suggests that while some firms might be looking to reap the potential benefits of using AI-enabled software tools, they might not be aware of the return (e.g., staff time saved that could be used for higher-value activities) they are receiving (or not) on this investment.

Also in industry news this week:

An analysis of SEC filings indicates that while RIAs saw strong AUM growth during the past year, many firms are struggling to add to their client headcount
A recent commentary calls into question CFP Board's commitment to the public, suggesting that it is focusing more on the interests of its certificants and itself as an organization, potentially inhibiting the transformation of financial planning from an industry to a profession

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

An analysis identifies the key variables that drive satisfaction in retirement (with non-financial factors, including health and social connectivity, often serving as more powerful drivers than financial considerations)
Recent surveys suggest that financial advisors can add significant psychological value to clients when it comes to building confidence in their retirement spending
Why aiming to hit a specific retirement savings 'number' could create unnecessary stress and ultimately be counterproductive for many individuals

We also have a number of articles on practice management:

Why the move from 'doer' to manager can be a particularly challenging transition, and how firms can help new managers succeed (as well as improve the performance of team members in the process)
How to frame questions to team members or clients in a way that better elicits responses that they might be nervous to volunteer
Why "accidental business owners" are often the unhappiest financial advisors and how this group can evaluate their options to adjust their operations going forward

We wrap up with three final articles, all about education planning:

How financial advisors can support clients by helping them evaluate which types of college scholarships might be taxable (and by strategically allocating different funding sources to their most tax-efficient uses)
Why qualifying for need-based financial aid has become easier for families that own small businesses
How many colleges are attempting to offer greater pricing transparency at a time when the ultimate price students will pay has become more confusing

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Personalizing Lifespan Assumptions For More Accurate Social Security And Retirement Withdrawal Recommendations

July 29, 2026 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Retirement Planning

There's a long-standing aphorism amongst financial planners about the difficulty in doing retirement planning: if the client could just tell me the precise date they will die, I'd make them the perfect retirement plan. Yet the reality is that no one knows when they are going to pass away; while life insurance companies may be remarkably effective at estimating life expectancies for whole populations based on the law of large numbers, any individual client is a sample size of one. Which means most advisors simply plug in a "reasonably conservative" assumption to their retirement planning software, and plan from there.

In this guest post, Dr. K. Jeremy Ko of ShoreUp Retirement Solutions explores the dynamics of how advisors typically estimate a retiring client's lifespan, and the potential impact of developing more customized estimates of life expectancy, to better estimate how much clients need to save for retirement, can safely spend in retirement, or time the onset of their Social Security benefits.

The starting point is to recognize how common it is for most advisors to simply use a standardized conservative life expectancy assumption, with one recent analysis finding that nearly 90% of advisors simply use the default age-90 or age-95 assumption already built into their financial planning software. Even though the reality is that different demographics – from income to education to race – have materially different life expectancies, varying in many cases by 10-15+ years. Which means at the least, advisors would benefit by looking to more client-demographics-specific actuarial tables than just the standard population average.

At the same time, while many advisors may prefer to ask clients what their own preference is for a life expectancy assumption, research finds that consumers also systematically misjudge their own life expectancy, with a so-called "flatness bias" that younger individuals tend to underestimate life expectancy (i.e., they don't realize how long they may really live in retirement), while older individuals tend to overestimate life expectancy (i.e., they don't realize how short their remaining years may be). Which is especially problematic because these client misperceptions will systematically tilt planning recommendations towards more aggressive, rather than more conservative, assumptions early in retirement.

So what's the alternative? Using an emerging set of technology tools – from the Society of Actuaries calculator, to the University of Connecticut's Goldenson Center of Actuarial Science, or the public version of Northwestern Mutual's Lifespan Calculator – to craft more client-specific recommendations that take into account their individual income, educational, and health factors. Two otherwise similar clients can vary by as many as 20 years in life expectancy just on the basis of a select number of key health and other demographic factors, enough to very materially impact planning recommendations that might otherwise be overlooked if not discussed.

Another benefit of the emerging crop of technology tools is that it can make the conversations with clients easier, as advisors can either walk through the questionnaire with clients together, or offer them the opportunity to do it on their own (if the clients are otherwise uncomfortable to talk about specific family or health factors that may impact their longevity) and simply use the results from the software output itself. Recognizing that because advisors still have a conservative tilt – no one wants to see a client run out of money by underestimating life expectancy – advisors may still default to more conservative longevity estimates (such as a 90th percentile lifespan instead of using the 50th percentile median).

Ultimately, though, the key point is simply to recognize that lifespan in retirement can vary, quite significantly, based on individual health, demographic, and other factors. Merely using a broad-based conservative assumption about clients' life expectancy – such as assuming all clients may live to age 90 or 95 – can still result in undue conservatism for clients who really aren't in good health, and with recent medical advances may actually underestimate the life expectancy of the healthiest clients. In the end, no life expectancy tool can perfectly predict how long a client will live, but the more life expectancy assumptions are adapted to the individual client and their retirement recommendations, the more accurate the recommendations can be, even if they will never be perfect.

And if you want to go deeper on this topic, hear directly from the author on the Financial Advisor Technician podcast .

Amplifying Business Growth By Constantly Honing Your Time Towards Its Highest-And-Best Use: #FASuccess Ep 500 With Michael Kitces

July 28, 2026 01:17 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Michael Kitces Podcast Preview Image FAS

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 500th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's milestone podcast is me, interviewed by Kitces.com Financial Planning Nerd Adam Van Deusen.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how I manage my time, starting with the exercises I undertook to better understand where my time was going (and how it might be used better), how I started delegating certain tasks to others so that I could focus on higher-value opportunities, and how I balance my responsibilities across the Kitces.com platform and other businesses I'm involved in with raising a family and still having time to get enough sleep each night.

We also talk about how I made the decision to forgo an opportunity to run a successful advisory firm to start the Kitces.com platform, how I gained the confidence to transition away from producing much of the content on the website by identifying key metrics that show whether team members who took it over are meeting our standards for quality, nerdiness, and relevance, and how I have intentionally managed the growth of my business (sometimes purposefully delaying new initiatives in order to 'digest' recent growth) to ensure it continues to operate in a sustainable manner well into the future.

And be certain to listen to the end, where I share how having well-defined core values (and interview questions that explore them) has helped attract high-quality candidates to the company when we look to hire, what's coming next for Kitces.com and for my own entrepreneurial journey, and how I view advisor success after recording 500 episodes of this podcast (and asking each guest what success means to them).

So, whether you're interested in learning about how I manage my various work and personal responsibilities, how to let go of key responsibilities as a business owner, or how to create a company culture and interview process that leads to better hires and a stronger team, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

20 Lessons From 500 FAS Podcast Episodes: What I Learned Building An RIA From Scratch In My 20s

July 27, 2026 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Building an advisory firm from scratch is extremely difficult in the best of circumstances. While CFP educational programs teach the knowledge of financial planning, they don't teach the practice of it – and there's remarkably little established training or curriculum. From figuring out how to find or attract prospects in the first place, to establishing and operationalizing your planning process, investment approach, and overall value proposition, while still finding time to not just work in the business but also work on the business – these are all challenges commonly faced by advisor-owners. Fortunately, though, we can learn from other advisors who have generously shared their experiences.

In this guest post, Jeremy Eppley of Silverstone Financial shares some of the key milestones of his growth journey, as told through the lens of lessons he gleaned and then applied to his practice while listening to all 500 episodes of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. He highlights 20 episodes as a starting point for those who want to binge on the most salient practice management lessons (and another 30 'bonus' episodes for those who want to go deeper).

Jeremy begins by underscoring the importance of key structural decisions you make about how to build the firm in the first place. The channel you choose (e.g., RIA versus broker-dealer) impacts what tools you can use or solutions you can offer to clients in the first place (Episode 192). Having a fee structure that generates enough revenue per client (by AUM, planning, or subscription fees) is essential to be able to scale in the future (Episode 244). But you don't have to get paid for everything you do, just enough to make the business work; thus the appeal of giving away parts of the initial planning process for free… because clients who really want and need your help will just ask you to implement for/with them, anyway (Episode 20)! All of which only works if you're careful in managing your own spending and lifestyle creep as an advisor (so your personal upkeep doesn't undermine the stability of the business, especially in its early years, per Episode 1).

Operationally, choosing the right platforms also matters, from selecting a tech-forward custodian (Episode 350), to truly making your CRM system the hub of the advisory business (Episode 272) – as does establishing the right team structure to leverage the lead advisor's time while deepening (and diversifying) how many different people the client has a relationship with at the firm (Episode 248). Recognizing that not every client will be the right fit for the firm, it's okay (for your business, and your personal health and sanity) to refer out the clients whose incoming phone call you're already dreading anyway (Episode 233).

This creates the space to home in on how you want to serve your particular clientele – and the more clear you are about who your ideal client is, the easier it is to create a specialized offering (Episode 173). Which in the case of Silverstone Financial, means giving clients confidence by running their numbers in two different financial planning software platforms (Episode 285), raising at least 12 months of cash each year to give them more confidence in the midst of market volatility (Episode 391), and partnering with an external tax preparation firm to offer clients a "one-stop shop", but not actually bringing the tax preparation in-house with your own CPA or EA (Episode 421)!

Ultimately, the key point is simply to recognize that while every advisory firm is different, almost every problem experienced by one advisor/founder has probably been experienced by another in a manner that is similar enough that we can all learn something by hearing each other's journey. Podcasts like the Financial Advisor Success series provide an excellent library of lessons to absorb, whether you're walking the dog, mowing the lawn, cooking in the kitchen, commuting, or exercising. Or as Jeremy puts it, "an hour and a half of walking [with the Financial Advisor Success podcast] … is a great way to pay down some of your health debt and build up some educational assets at the same time".

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (July 25–26)

July 24, 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 Treasury Department officials this week expressed concern about various "tax alpha" investment strategies, including Section 351 exchanges, "box-spread" ETFs, funds designed to generate ordinary losses, and ETFs that trade in and out of other ETFs to avoid dividend distributions. While Treasury hasn't yet taken action to restrict any of these strategies (though one official said that "all the tools are under consideration" in addressing them), the comments highlight that certain tax-aware products and strategies that don't explicitly have the government's blessing might not be available for the long haul.

Also in industry news this week:

A report from Russell Investments puts the value of a financial advisor at 4.92% (a figure that exceeds many other estimates of this elusive figure), with an advisor's ability to keep clients invested during turbulent market periods identified as a particularly valuable service
CFP Board has submitted a proposal for public comment that would explicitly allow its Disciplinary and Ethics Commission to consider the expungement of a criminal conviction as a mitigating factor when considering an individual's fitness for certification

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

Fidelity's latest estimate of retirees' lifetime health costs jumped 7.5% this year to $185,500, though the fact that many of these expenses are often spread out over the course of a retirement could make them more manageable outlays to plan around
Why dental expenses can be an underestimated part of a retiree's budget and how advisors can help clients evaluate potential solutions to mitigate them
How advisors and their clients can balance the relative unlikelihood of experiencing an extended long-term care event with the potential costs if one does occur when it comes to saving for and/or insuring against this contingency

We also have a number of articles on client communication:

How advisors can handle a client's 'hot' investment idea tactfully and in a way that demonstrates respect while keeping them on track to meet their investment goals
While portfolio diversification is a core tenet of many advisors' investment strategies, clients might have a different understanding of what it actually means for their investments
How creating a communications matrix can help advisors organize the different types of client communications they produce during the year and better meet particular clients' needs

We wrap up with three final articles, all about technology and modern society:

While hybrid workplace arrangements appear to represent a 'sweet spot' between working in the office full time and fully remote work for many employees (with potential productivity boosts for their employers as well), experiences can vary significantly based on an individual's unique circumstances
How the rise of algorithmic-based recommendations could be driving real-world cultural trends (and leading some individuals to spend significant time waiting in lines)
Why "skill nostalgia" can develop when technological innovations lead to a reduction (or even elimination) of certain occupations, and how this isn't necessarily a modern concept

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

The Client Engagement Trap And Balancing Touchpoints Vs Rapid Responsive Service: Kitces & Carl 195

July 23, 2026 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Kitces & Carl Ep The Client Engagement Trap

In the time between review meetings, advisors are often busy doing work for clients (such as portfolio analysis or reviewing insurance needs). This cadence of work is crucial, but it’s also often invisible, especially when no action is needed. The antidote for many advisors is some sort of communication between meetings – from birthday cards to phone calls to email newsletters. Yet this may be met with a lukewarm-at-best reception from clients, leaving advisors to wonder… what sort of communication touchpoints (if any) actually make a difference to clients?

In this 195th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how to choose the method and frequency of client touchpoints. There is a balance to be struck: if an advisor under-communicates, then clients may not know if or how to contact an advisor between meetings. On the other hand, overcommunication can quickly drown an advisory team’s capacity as a client base grows.

The latest Kitces Research on Advisor Productivity suggests that successful advisors had frequent contact with their clients, but it was almost all standardized, such as newsletters and webinars, that allowed efforts to amplify on a one-to-many basis. This allows touchpoints to scale with the client base… and can provide an organic place for an advisor to both provide guidance and commentary to their client base. Similarly, sending brief messages that affirm that a component of a client’s plan was reviewed (even if no action is needed) can reassure the client that their plan is being monitored.

This approach has two benefits: first, it can illuminate the otherwise invisible work of the advisor. Second, it can free up the advisor’s time so that when the client does reach out, the advisory team can provide a thorough and timely response. The latter is particularly important as the capacity to automate all communication continues to grow – in other words, the advisor will need to carefully determine where it is important to have human, one-to-one availability. Advisors may be surprised by just how differentiating it is to have a blend of consistent communication that accumulates in fast, human-centered interaction.

On the other hand, these scheduled communications may receive relatively low engagement. Clients may not open emails or log into their portals as frequently as advisors would like, which can make advisors wonder if the effort to continually provide some level of communication is worthwhile. This is where discernment is crucial for what types of communication really make difference… yet it can be helpful to remind clients that the advisory team is actively monitoring the situation and is available.

Ultimately, the key point is that an advisor has many avenues through which they could communicate with clients, but it may be more effective to do a few things consistently than many things infrequently. A cornerstone of communication, combined with great, accessible service, is the key to delivering exceptional advice that scales with the firm!

Scaling Advisor Marketing In Large Advisory Firms For Cost-Efficient Organic Growth

Kitces Research Spotlight Webinar

This virtual event is designed specifically for enterprise leaders, marketing executives, and tech and investment professionals supporting advisor marketing initiatives.

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (August 1–2)

Want CE Credit for reading articles like this?

Personalizing Lifespan Assumptions For More Accurate Social Security And Retirement Withdrawal Recommendations

Amplifying Business Growth By Constantly Honing Your Time Towards Its Highest-And-Best Use: #FASuccess Ep 500 With Michael Kitces

20 Lessons From 500 FAS Podcast Episodes: What I Learned Building An RIA From Scratch In My 20s

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (July 25–26)

The Client Engagement Trap And Balancing Touchpoints Vs Rapid Responsive Service: Kitces & Carl 195

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Scaling Advisor Marketing In Large Advisory Firms For Cost-Efficient Organic Growth

Kitces Research Spotlight Webinar

This virtual event is designed specifically for enterprise leaders, marketing executives, and tech and investment professionals supporting advisor marketing initiatives.

Want CE Credit for reading articles like this?

Read More...

Nerd’s Eye View Praise

Showcase YOUR Expertise

Stay In Touch

Questions?