Archives Of Weekend Reading For Financial Planners

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issue starts off with a recent survey from the Financial Planning Coalition that advocates for greater [fiduciary] regulation of advisers to protect consumers, and a review of the Senate confirmation hearing for prospective SEC chairwoman Mary Jo White, who pledged to act quickly on the proposed uniform fiduicary standard and increased oversight of investment advisers.

From there, we have a few practice management articles, including a look at how mega-RIA RegentAtlantic built a $2.4 billion AUM practice by creating a series of niche specialist planners under a single umbrella, an evaluation of all the ways advisors add value to clients in portfolios beyond just investment selection (e.g., helping clients stay the course, asset location, systematic rebalancing, etc.), an overview of the biggest tech trends coming out of the recent Technology Tools for Today conference, how to craft a good content marketing strategy, and a good list of ways in which advisors end out "wasting" their time on social media due to poor execution of the marketing strategy.

In additon, there are a couple of technical articles this week, including a look at how even index funds aren't really truly passive but that the essence of being passive can still be captured if the goal is to simply be the market and not beat the market, and an overview of some of the problems that arise when clients misunderstand what cash value life insurance is and how the cash value really works.

We wrap up with three articles: the first is by Bob Veres and looks at how financial planning may change in the coming decade; the second is a series of tips from Bill Bachrach about how to improve work habits in your practice to be more successful, and the last is an intriguing overview of some of the recent research about the link between money and happiness, which is much more nuanced than the traditional saying "money can't buy happiness" would imply. Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issue starts off with a look at how financial planning may be different by 2023 (and the trends driving those changes), from the rise of Gen X and Gen Y to the impact of technology as computing power continues to grow exponentially.

From there, we have a few practice management articles, including a look at how LPL's NestWise financial planning offering for the middle market is beginning to gain momentum, a review of useful technology tools and apps for financial planners from a panel at the Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference, and a review of the recent 2013 Investment News Advisor Technology Survey.

In additon, there are a couple of more technical financial planning articles this week, including a preview of how health insurance will work for clients beginning in 2014, how estate planning trust strategies are shifting given the permanence of higher estate tax exemptions and portability, some guidance about how to debunk questionable investment sales pitches that may come to your clients, and an overview of the increasingly popular risk parity funds.

There are also a pair of articles tying to psychology and behavioral research for planners: the first finds that perhaps the perceived differences in risk tolerance between men and women are actually just a myth (or at least, can be explained by their personal and financial circumstances, not any biological difference in risk aversion); and the second article provides some guidance about how we can help clients de-stress their financial decision-making process. 

We wrap up with two much lighter articles: the first is by Vivek Wadhwa and explains how, despite having no journalism degree, never taking writing classes, and nearly failing English in grade school, he became such a prolific business writer (and you can, too!); and the last article highlights 10 things that really amazing employees do, which can either be a suggestion for how to better succeed if you are an employee, or what to look for and better reward if you are a boss/owner/employer. Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issue starts off with a few regulatory articles, including a discussion of the SEC's regulatory examination priorities for 2013 - with a special warning to hybrid advisors - and a look at whether RIA firms need to reconsider how they check off the boxes of what services they offer on their From ADVs.

From there, we look at a few practice management and business succession articles, including a look at the HighTower model used to acquire advisory firms, a look at the so-called "valuation gap" between what most advisors think their firms are worth and what a buyer is really willing to pay for them, and a very frank discussion from a veteran advisor who has been through four failed succession planning attempts and can speak first-hand to the problems that arise in the process. We also have two technology-related articles, including a nice recap of the financial planning software panel from the recent Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference, and an industry-star-studded technology trends roundtable from the Journal of Financial Planning.

In additon, there are a couple of retirement planning articles this week, including a look at the top 5 issues in retirement research and policy, a fascinating analysis from Moshe Milevsky showing how the best strategy for variable annuity guaranteed income riders may be to start taking withdrawals immediately (even if the client doesn't need them!), and an analysis from retirement researcher Wade Pfau on whether we may be over-projecting retirement returns.

We wrap up with two much lighter articles: the first provides a great reminder that a client complaint should be viewed as an opportunity to improve your business for all your clients, and the second provides an important reminder of the value of saying "thank you" from time to time, whether to a boss, co-worker, or especially employee; while offering nice pay and benefits (and a job in the first place) is a great start, don't underestimate the positive motivating effects of showing simple gratitude, too. Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issue starts off with a great article for newer advisors (although experienced practitioners will it relevant as well!), providing guidance on how to cultivate new relationships with centers of influence.

From there, we look at a number of practice management articles, including one looking at the costs and challenges of starting up an independent advisory firm, another that includes an interesting discussion of whether the new training programs being rolled out by large firms will help to bring in the next generation of advisors or is more like rearranging deck chairs on a sinking wirehouse Titanic, a third providing a fantastic summary of the various rebalancing software platforms discussed at the Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference, and the last an interview with technology consultant Bill Winterberg.

We also have a few more technical articles on advanced financial planning issues, including one from Jon Guyton on how to structure client retirement accounts to help them manage their own discretionary expenses (so the planner isn't stuck in the position of parenting client spending), another from Wade Pfau looking at how to craft an "efficient frontier" of retirement income products, a discussion of a recent tax court case the IRS lost that may lead to a significant boost in deferred private annuity estate planning strategies, and a look at how managing online accounts (or just trying to access them!) after death can lead to a lot of new world estate planning problems.

We wrap up with three very interesting articles: the first takes a deep look at the history of hyperinflations for the past century and how the government just printing money alone does not lead to an inflationary spiral; the second takes a look at how to rebuild consumer trust in financial services globally, making the notable point that just increasing disclosures may provide more/better information to consumers but may also be providing them more reasons not to trust; and the last providing a poignant reminder for all planners that being a good advisor also means living your own advice, which means make sure your own financial house is in order and that you're fitting your business into your life, not the other way around. Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issues starts off with the big regulatory news of the week - that FINRA may be backing away from its efforts to regulate investment advisers - along with two articles about being a good financial planning professional: the first indirectly suggests that perhaps life insurance needs to be recognized as its own profession (with its own professional designation, the CLU); and the other notes that fiduciaries might be trying to hard to get clients by using fiduciary as a tool for instilling fear, uncertainty, and doubt, instead of trying to get clients by acting like a fiduciary in a way that demonstrates leadership and helps clients with their decision-making process.

From there, we look at a series of articles this week about blogging and more generally about using content to attract prospective clients and grow your business as a financial advisor. The first article highlights an advisor interviewed at the recent TD Ameritrade conference who's bringing in $2M per month of AUM purely from blogging in targeted niches; the second looks at how blogging is evolving, noting that while short blog posts are often popular it may be the longer blog posts that really demonstrate your expertise to clients; the third providing a fantastic list of topic ideas for advisors (you'll never have writer's/blogger's block again!), and the last providing some useful tips about how to distribute your blog content so it's read more widely and grows an audience.

Beyond the blogging articles, there's a great piece about how to set good investment defaults with clients so that they will more often make good decisions (or at least need to go further out of their way to make bad ones), an interesting look at how Gen Y advisors may be leaning increasingly towards wirehouses out of a desire for a more structured career environment, a strange-but-true article highlighting research that finds clients may be more inclined to engage in risky financial decisions if they are touched on the shoulder by a woman, and a NY Times discussion of how economics research is beginning to focus on not just the objective economic data but also the subjective data on happiness, raising the question of whether in the future we'll look at Gross Domestic Happiness alongside the country's Gross Domestic Product?

We wrap up with a lighter article from the Harvard Business Review, which serves as a reminder that one of the greatest technology tools to enhance business efficiency and productivity, not to mention client service, was actually invented almost 140 years ago: it's called a telephone, and it's time we picked it up a little more often to just talk to clients (or staff), and perhaps rely a little less on all the email back-and-forth Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issues starts off with the big regulatory news that Mary Jo White has been nominated to replace interim SEC chairwoman Elisse Walter; White is an industry "outsider" with a background as a U.S. attorney who has prosecuted terrorists and organized crime bosses, raising the question of whether there's about to be a shift in the aggressiveness of the SEC towards Wall Street and in favor of the fiduciary movement. After looking at a second article on the trend towards fiduciary as well, we have a series of more technical articles, including one that suggests potential estate tax reforms may change how ILITs are designed, another that provides a useful checklist of reminders for advisors and their clients when someone passes away, and an interesting look at how education regarding stock options can help employees overcome the mental shortcuts they take that often misjudge the value of their option compensation.

We also have a series of retirement-planning-related articles this week, including: research about how clients can start with significantly higher safe withdrawal rates if they're willing to give up inflationary adjustments in later years (which often happens anyway as clients age); a new research study suggesting that the base safe withdrawal rate may need to be reduced below 4% given today's dangerous combination of high market valuation and low yields; and how it may be worth delaying immediate annuities given today's low return environment until clients are well into their 70s or even their 80s. There's also a striking article looking at how annuities may change in the coming decade, going back to their industry roots from centuries ago where annuities didn't guarantee a lifetime of cash payments, but of lifetime services like food, clothing, and shelter. There are also two behavioral-finance-oriented articles: the first looks at how to manage not the behavioral biases of our clients but our own biases; and the second shows how keeping too much liquidity for clients is a problem not just because it's a return drag but also because clients may actually be happier if their long-term investments are illiquid to reduce temptation to spend!

We wrap up with a nice reminder that working as a professional can lead to a lot of sitting - which can be very unhealthy over extended periods of time. The proposed solution: try "walking meetings" where you actually conduct the meeting while taking a walk, instead of just sitting. The author notes that it's not only a healthier way to meet, but can even lead to more productive meetings as well! Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's "Practice Management" edition starts off with a nice Journal of Financial Planning Focus article by marketing consultant Stephen Wershing about how to refine your referral process to improve growth, a great list of tools for digital age marketing from technology consultant Bill Winterberg, and a good reminder that digital age marketing strategies should focus not just on building social media followers but ultimately converting them into clients. From there, we look at an interesting article about the rise of "wealth databases" that advisors can engage to find affluent prospective clients, a profile of some firms that are aiming to serve younger clients not just with different services but an entirely different office atmosphere, and a review from Bill Winterberg about the Fox Financial Planning Network and the resources it provides to help firms with workflow efficiency.

We also look at a few articles highlighting some of the difficult challenges that advisors face, including two warnings from both Mark Tibergien and Angie Herbers that the advisor marketplace is becoming more challenging and competitive and that advisors and the vendors who serve them must step up to compete, a discussion from Pinnacle Advisor Solutions highlighting the emerging number of outsourcing providers that are trying to help advisors get past the growth wall, and a look at how some advisors are joining close-knit study groups where they "open the kimono" and share everything in an intimate group setting to get feedback about how to improve their businesses and professional lives.

We wrap up with two interesting articles: the first suggests that while financial planning is slowly moving beyond just focusing on the numbers to look at client personal issues, we're still a long way from truly integrating behavioral finance and a more holistic look at well-being; and another that shows how storytelling may be a more effective way to activate our brains, which is relevant for everything from marketing your services to prospects to helping persuade clients to change their behaviors and implement your recommendations. Enjoy the reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition starts off with several articles looking at fiduciary and ethical challenges for financial services, from a discussion from the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard about how progress on fiduciary rulemaking has been lagging for several years (and what has to happen in the coming years to get it back on track again), to how hard it is for even an experienced financial planner to find a financial planner to recommend (and how a true license for financial planners could help resolve the issue), to a disturbing trend amongst ETF providers to create marketing materials showing questionable historical performance that may be legal with disclosures but is of questionable ethics. From there, we look at a few business and technology related articles, including a new platform that will allow advisors to create their own ETFs, a discussion of inStream financial planning software that may revolutionize how we use planning software in our practices, a nice discussion of Facebook and where/how it is useful for advisors, and a brief article about how the Social Security administration has expanded its online capabilities (which you can use with your clients to get useful client-specific benefits information). We also look at two more technical articles, one from Wade Pfau discussing the decision for those who want to partially annuitize about whether it's better to do so sooner or later, and an interesting exploration by Martin Shenkman of how estate planning is going to change in 2013 and beyond due to the fiscal cliff legislation. 

We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first from Scott MacKillop about how the research that questions the value of active management as being too much "book smarts" and not enough "street smarts" to rely upon in the real world; the second providing a good overview of the recent discussions regarding the Trillion-Dollar Platinum Coin solution to address the debt ceiling; and the last taking a fresh look at the importance of financial planners finding a niche not just as a way to build business but because in the end having a niche is all about finding the intersection between what we love to do, what we're good at, and what people will pay for. Notably, we emphasize for clients the importance of trying to find the right balance to ensure that what they're doing is meaningful both personally and financially; maybe it's time we take the advice ourselves? Enjoy the reading!

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