Nerd's Eye View blog

The Best Technology To Adopt First As A Solo Financial Advisor

June 28, 2018 02:12 pm 1 Comment CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Choosing what technology to first adopt as a solo advisor can be a challenge, particularly for those who are not technology-inclined in the first place. In addition to being solely responsible for making the decision, solo advisors now have to choose from an ever-expanding universe of options, as while 10 years ago the primary criticism for both independent RIAs and independent broker-dealers was that there just weren’t many technology choices, now arguably the problem is that there are so many choices it can be overwhelming to figure out what to even use in each category! Not to mention figuring out which category or type of software to tackle and try to adopt first!

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we discuss the best technology to adopt first as a solo advisor, and why a key factor in that decision is whether you are trying to grow a large advisory business or operate an efficient lifestyle practice to begin with.

The first question to ask yourself when trying to determine what technology you should adopt first is what kind of firm you are really trying to create. At a high level, you can break advisory firms into two categories: Practices and Businesses. A practice is built around you as the advisor and the founder and the owner, and the capacity of the business is your personal capacity (perhaps with a few support staff) to serve clients. By contrast, an advisory business is something that’s meant to grow beyond just you as the advisor and your personal capacity to serve clients, where you anticipate having multiple advisors and potentially multiple partners someday. This distinction isn’t necessarily about income or financial wherewithal to buy fancy technology versus cheaper technology (as benchmarking studies show the most successful solo practice owners take home as much as partners in advisory businesses); instead, the distinction is important because advisory businesses tend to be most focused on scalability (as they most grow from one to many advisors and handle the challenges that come with that), while practices tend to be most focused on personal efficiency (particularly time efficiency) of the firm owner.

With that in mind, the technology that growing advisory firms must adopt first is straightforward: a good CRM solution. In a growing advisory firm, the CRM is the hub of the entire business. Not just to keep track of clients like a big rolodex, but to track tasks and activities, and workflows to ensure that everything is being done properly. This isn't as important when a firm is just a solo advisor, but when you hire your first staff member, suddenly a CRM system becomes more important. And it really becomes important when you add your second staff member, as there are more process hand-offs between staff members, and the odds that someone has a conversation with the client that neither of the two other team members is privy to increases substantially. Fortunately, for independent advisors, there are a few good CRM options. Wealthbox and Redtail are common among solo advisors, while very process-centric firms may use Junxure. You hear a lot about Salesforce in this category too, but it's fairly expensive and really needs a lot of customization (or at least an overly system like XLR7, Skience, or Financial Services Cloud) before it is a viable option, which makes it impractical for most smaller advisory firms.

When it comes to a lifestyle practice, the best technology to adopt isn’t so straightforward, because it really depends on the size and nature of the firm. If you have a staff member (and especially if you have two staff members), CRM is a “must” once again. You still need someplace to capture key client information, but you may be able to get by using some other system. And because lifestyle practices are so a reflection of the individual advisor and what they do, the “best” technology for you is really whatever solves a pain point for you. If you don’t like how much time it takes to trade and implement their portfolios, consider rebalancing software (e.g., RedBlack or iRebal). If you’re finding it takes a lot of time to produce individual financial plans by hand, look at some of the various financial planning software solutions (e.g., eMoney Advisor, MoneyGuidePro, or RightCapital). And for a lot of solo advisors in lifestyle practices, the truth is that the best technology to implement is not “industry” software, but simply tools that make you personally more productive and efficient, such as a better internal communication tool (e.g., Slack) or scheduling software to cut down on back-and-forth emails setting meeting times with clients.

But ultimately, the key point is to acknowledge that the best software to adopt first as a solo advisor really depends on what type of firm you are trying to grow. The needs of a solo advisor aiming to grow an advisory business are going to be different than the needs of a solo advisor aiming to grow a lifestyle practice (and among lifestyle practices, needs are going to vary depending on the specific advisor and their preferences for gaining personal efficiency). You can go about the process of prioritizing yourself or look to technology consultants for assistance (either in choosing technology, or implementing it), but the reality is that your practice can be tremendously more efficient by just implementing the right technology!

QBI Deduction Strategies For High-Income Financial Advisors (And Other Small Business Owners)

June 27, 2018 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

For financial advisors, the new Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction (also known as the IRC Section 199A deduction, or the pass-through deduction) presents not just many tax planning opportunities for small business owner clients, but also tax planning opportunities for financial advisors themselves as small business owners. The caveat, however, is that the 20% QBI deduction may be very limited for financial advisors, because they are classified as "Specified Service Business" owners under the new rules, and, as a result, any "high income" advisors (defined as those whose taxable income exceeds $315,000 when filing a joint return, or $157,500 when filing otherwise) are subject to a phaseout of their potential full QBI deduction.

In this guest post, Jeffrey Levine of BluePrint Wealth Alliance, and our Director of Advisor Education for Kitces.com, examines how high-income financial advisors (and other Specified Service Businesses) can utilize strategies to get the most benefit from their QBI deduction, including spinning off and renting back depreciable property, creating a PEO and leasing back employees, condensing lifetime giving via the use of a donor-advised fund, and other strategies!

The good news of the new QBI rules, and the phaseout for Specified Service Businesses (including financial advisors), is that it still takes a fairly substantial income to phase out the deduction, and for those under the income thresholds, the full QBI deduction remains available. On the other hand, because the QBI deduction phaseout is based on total household income from all sources (albeit after all deductions), even advisors who themselves don't earn more than the threshold amount may still end out phasing out some or all of the deduction based on other income (e.g., spousal income, real estate income, portfolio income, etc.).

Fortunately, though, not all is lost for financial advisors who have entered into the QBI phaseout zone. First and foremost, advisors can look to strategies that convert the advisor’s specified service business income into "other" income derived from a non-specified trade or service business, such as by spinning off any firm-owned real estate into a separate entity (and leasing it back at fair market value), spinning off non-advisory employees and leasing them back through a professional employer organization (PEO) (as a PEO would be eligible for a QBI deduction, so long as it is not deemed an advisory business), or holding the firm's intellectual property under a different entity and then licensing it back to the firm (as the intellectual property income may be eligible for a QBI deduction). The net result of such strategies is that the advisor's total income is the same, but occurs by reducing the amount of specified service business QBI generated from their practice (as rent, employee leasing, etc, are deductible business expenses), while simultaneously increasing the amount of QBI generated from the separate (non-specified-service and QBI-deduction-eligible) businesses.

For those who are in the midst of the QBI phaseout zone, planning can be even more impactful, as marginal tax rates during the QBI phaseout can spike as high as 64%... which may lead advisors to increase investment into the firm (as deductions are more valuable at the higher rate!), shift income to other years (that are outside the phaseout zone), or potentially even cut back on their workload (if they're really only keeping 36 cents on the dollar before the additional impact of state income taxes!).

Ultimately, the key point is to acknowledge that high-income financial advisors (and other specified service business owners) have considerable opportunity to plan around the new QBI phaseout zone... even if their total income is within or well beyond the QBI phaseout zone! While the new rules can be a bit tricky (and strategies could shift as the IRS provides more guidance going forward), it appears that QBI strategies will be a key focus going forward, and present a considerable planning opportunity for advisors (and their clients!) to reduce their overall tax burden!

#FASuccess Ep 078: Understanding And Serving The Needs Of Truly Ultra-High-Net-Worth Investors with Charlotte Beyer

June 26, 2018 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the 78th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Charlotte Beyer. Charlotte is the founder and former CEO of the Institute for Private Investors, a private networking organization specifically for ultra-high-net-worth investors, and some of the advisors who serve them.

What's unique about Charlotte, though, was the way she built a series of conferences, networking events, and online community for ultra-high-net-worth individuals before the world of social media and online communities became what they are today... and in doing so, demonstrated and proved that ultra-high-net-worth clients really do have a set of unique needs and challenges, for which they need both an organization, and advisors, dedicated to serve them.

In this episode, we talk in depth about the two biggest worries of ultra-high-net-worth families – which is not necessarily about how to maximize their investment returns or even minimize their taxes, but how ensure that their children don't grow up to be entitled or otherwise adversely impacted by the family wealth, and how to avoid the risk of being "taken" and conned or scammed out of their money – what Charlotte calls the five "Ps" that she counsels ultra-high-net-worth investors to consider when evaluating an advisor, including the firm's People, Performance, Process, Philosophy, and Phees, why the future of working with the ultra-wealthy is all about high-tech and high touch, and what ultra-high-net-worth investors really want to hear from an advisor to connect with them in a world where they hear a ton of advisor "pitches" to them that all sound the same.

We also talk about how Charlotte herself built IPI as an organization, how the effort to create a community organization for ultra-high-net-worth investors almost failed out of the gate, the way she structured the organization's meetings and established group norms to promote the interaction between ultra-high-net-worth investors and the advisor community, and the lessons that any advisor can draw in figuring out how to really listen to the clients you're serving an adapt what you offer them to fit what they really want and need.

And be certain to listen to the end, when Charlotte provides her suggestions about what financial advisors should consider if they want to move "up market" into serving ultra-high-net-worth clients, and the way the ultra-high-net-worth space is shifting as wealth gets younger (with the rise of Gen X and Gen Y ultra-high-net-worth investors), as women control an increasing portion of ultra-high-net-worth wealth (and have different expectations of their advisors), and as the advisor value proposition itself continues to change as technology automates for free many of the things that we previously were paid for.

So whether you are interested in learning more about how to build a community around your niche, the unique challenges and goals of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, or what you should consider if you are interested in moving "up market", I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Announcing The First Kitces Research Survey On The Real Financial Planning Process

June 25, 2018 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

Financial planning, and the process of creating a financial plan, has changed extensively over the nearly 45 years since the first class of CFP certificants. While early on, the financial plan was used primarily as a Calculator to do Needs-Based Analyses for the products they had to sell, over time it evolved into a Comprehensive Financial Plan that advisors could actually get paid for independent of any product implementation, which advisors then in turn Customized even further, and are now increasingly delivering Collaboratively with clients (where the focus is on the planning experience, and The Plan itself is merely delivered after the fact to commemorate the planning decisions already made).

Yet unfortunately, remarkably little research exists on how, exactly, financial advisors are actually preparing and delivering financial plans today. How often do advisors charge separately for planning? What is it that they actually deliver to clients? When advisors complain that it is very “time-consuming” to do financial planning, which part, exactly, is so time-consuming? And to what extent does financial planning software expedite the process… or exacerbate the problem?

In this context, we’re excited to announce the first Kitces Research initiative – a comprehensive study on the process that financial advisors actually go through to create and deliver a financial plan. Think of it as a benchmarking study for the creation of the financial plan itself, with a focus on identifying best practices.

So whether you’re frustrated that financial planning software doesn’t “do” what you need it to in order to demonstrate its value, or are simply looking for ideas to refine your own financial planning process to be more time-efficient or cost-effective (or valuable and able to command a higher price!), I hope you’ll take a few minutes to participate in our Financial Planning Process survey and help the world better understand what real financial planners actually do!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (June 23-24)

June 22, 2018 02:52 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the official news that the Department of Labor fiduciary rule is really, truly, finally dead, as the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals finally issued its formal court mandate to vacate the rule.

Also in the news this week, following on the heels of the demise of the fiduciary rule, is the announcement that both Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan are considering whether to roll back their commission bans on retirement accounts as the fiduciary rule goes away (albeit to appeal to the subset of investors who actually wanted a commission-based account, because they didn't trade often anyway, and were unhappy that the firms were using the DoL fiduciary rule as an excuse to force them into higher-cost fee-based accounts). And this week's news also includes an important Supreme Court ruling in the case of Lucia v SEC, finding that the SEC's administrative law judges are improperly appointed... although ironically, the Trump administration had already begun the process of shifting away from ALJs and towards appointed judges for government agencies anyway!

From there, we have a number of investment-related articles, including: the ongoing (and perhaps inevitable?) grind of mutual fund fees towards zero, as fund families find other ways to get paid instead; how the pressure on mutual fund fees is starting to push upstream to custody and clearing platforms, that often boost the expense ratio of funds by as much as 40bps to cover platform fees that most investors mistakenly thing are going to the mutual fund company and its managers when they're not; and the last looking at how the rise of technology to manage large numbers of stocks may soon make it feasible for at least do-it-yourself investors to start creating their own rules-based investment algorithms that basically amount to their own personalized index fund.

We also have several additional articles on tax planning this week as well, from IRA planning strategies in 2018, to tactics to better manage investment advisory fees in a world where miscellaneous itemized deductions (including those for advisory fees) are no longer permitted, and a dive into the increasingly popular strategy for high-net-worth investors to get around the $10,000 deduction cap on property taxes by splitting up their real estate and transferring it in slices into a series of out-of-state non-grantor trusts.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the dynamics of finding more productive uses for your time and energy: the first explores how, if you really want more time to connect with family and friends, the key is not to declutter your schedule with fewer obligations, but to add an obligation to your calendar specifically for family-and-friends time; the second looks at how the concept of "antifragility" can be applied directly in our own lives, especially when it comes to taking an ongoing series of small risks that give ourselves opportunity for a big outcome; and the last looks even further at how we can actually promote more serendipitous events in our lives, as research increasingly shows that "luck" is a material component of big success... but that some people are better at making their own luck with deliberate habits and strategies.

Enjoy the "light" reading!

The Problem With Selling ‘Hand-Holding’ As A Financial Advisor Value Proposition

June 21, 2018 02:52 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Personal/Career Development

In today's competitive environment, it is increasingly popular for financial advisors to talk about “behavior management” as a key value proposition for clients, as more and more studies have come out (e.g., Morningstar's Gamma, Vanguard's Advisor Alpha, and Envestnet's Sigma) showing that financial advisors can often more-than-recover the entire cost of their advisor fee just by helping clients to stay the course, not succumb to their investment biases, and close the behavior gap. However, while financial advisors may create value for clients through such hand-holding efforts, it's not clear whether marketing "behavior management" is actually an effective way to show our prospective forward-looking value to get clients to work with us in the first place. And, in fact, the message it sends could be driving prospective clients away!

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we discuss why hand-holding is not an effective value proposition to communicate in order to get new clients, particularly in light of the way it forces prospective clients to awkwardly admit to themselves they've made mistakes in the past (in a manner they may not want to do!).

To understand why “You need an advisor to help you manage your behavior” is not an effective value proposition to win clients, put yourself in the client's shoes for a moment. Imagine a typical affluent individual who is approaching retirement with a $1 million portfolio, knows they need some guidance on making the transition (Social Security timing, retirement projections, etc.), and is perhaps even aware they've made some mistakes along the way (e.g., getting caught up in tech stocks during the late 90's, or a bad rental real estate purchase during the housing bubble). Such a financially successful individual may see the message "research shows bad investment behaviors can result in 1.5%/year or more of performance drag"... but being already financially successful, is more likely than not to assume they are one of the above-average individuals not being fully impacted!

Of course, the advisor can try to "convince" the client of the depths and extent of their problematic investment behaviors... but this can actually sour the relationship even more! For instance, imagine a client that did get caught up in tech stocks and the housing boom, and the prospective advisor says "Well, one of our primary value propositions is to help you manage your behavior so you don’t make those kinds of big mistakes again, that in the future could derail your retirement." From the client's perspective... mistakes may have been made, but this can feel like rubbing it in their face! And if a couple is involved, where usually one spouse is primarily responsible for managing their assets, now the advisor is asking that person to acknowledge, in front of their spouse, that they’re so bad at investing, and so hopeless and incapable of learning, that the only solution left is to just walk away and hand it to you, the advisor, to manage instead! Which to say the least, is an awkward conversation for any couple to have!

On the other hand, the reality may be that there's a niche of clients out there who already have internalized this message, and are looking for an advisor for these reasons (we may even see a lot of these clients since they tend to seek us out knowing they need help). But in the end, this may still only a small subset of investors. For the rest (who may be below-average investors, but they don’t know or realize it, or they still think they can improve and get better), trying to convince them that they need behavior management is doomed to fail because it requires them to make a very negative change about their own self-image… and most people just don’t want to do that! And it completely eliminates your chance to work with clients who simply want to pay you for your advice and expertise about all the other financial planning value-adds that we can bring beyond the investment portfolio and remedying investment behaviors!

Ultimately, the key point is to that framing hand-holding as a financial advisor value proposition may not always work, and, in some cases, may even alienate many of the prospects you are trying to win over. This may be true even when managing behavior actually is valuable for a client who is inclined to make those common investment mistakes (and, as a result, helping clients actually manage their behavior could be a good way to retain clients), but that doesn't necessarily mean that behavior management is a good way to convince clients to work with you in the first place! Or stated more simply, be wary not to underestimate the power of denial, for those investors who don't want to admit to themselves - and their spouses - of the mistakes they've already made along the way!

Financial Advisor (And Other Specified Services) Business Entity Choices To Maximize QBI Deductions

June 20, 2018 11:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) included the most substantial changes to the tax code that we have seen in over 30 years. The change which has garnered the most attention amongst financial advisors, though, is the new 20% deduction for Qualified Business Income (QBI). What's unique about the QBI deduction (also known as the IRC Section 199A deduction, or the pass-through deduction) is not just the size of the deduction (as a deduction of up to 20% of certain business income is certainly appealing!) but the fact that many financial advisors themselves will be eligible for a QBI deduction, albeit subject to some "high-income" limitations that some financial advisors will need to plan for in order to avoid having their QBI deduction phased-out entirely.

In this guest post, Jeffrey Levine of BluePrint Wealth Alliance, and our Director of Advisor Education for Kitces.com, examines how financial advisors (and other Specified Service Businesses) can maximize their QBI deduction through business entity selection, including why employee advisors may want to convert to being independent contractors, why S corps may want to convert to partnerships, LLCs, or a C corp (or not!), and why sole proprietors may not need to make any changes at all.

A key to understanding the new QBI deduction is how the "high-income" phaseout works. For QBI purposes, any Specified Service Business owner (including a financial advisor) who files a joint tax return with more than $315,000 of taxable income, or an individual who files under any other status with taxable income of more than $157,500, will be considered "high-income". And being "high-income" triggers a partial phaseout of the QBI deduction, and culminates in a total phaseout once taxable income exceeds $415,000 (joint) or $207,500 (other tax filers). Notably, since these thresholds are based on taxable income, it includes income from any sources (investment, spouse, etc.), even though the QBI deduction itself is calculated based on the business' income.

The reason business entity selection influences an advisor's QBI deduction is that not all compensation to an advisor (or other small business owner) is considered qualified business income eligible for the deduction in the first place. For instance, financial advisors who receive W-2 wages as an employee advisor are not eligible for a QBI deduction for those wages... which is why employee advisors may want to consider converting to become independent contractors (if their employer will allow it), as their sole proprietor income would be considered QBI. Income from partnerships or LLCs taxed as partnerships will generally be considered QBI, with the exception of guaranteed payments made to partners (which may mean advisors utilizing operating agreements with substantial guaranteed payments may want to reconsider this structure in light of QBI considerations). The good news for S corps is that so long as advisors can reasonably claim a lower salary, profit distributions (though not the wages portion) will avoid self-employment taxes and be considered QBI (although this extra incentive to push the boundary of what may be considered reasonable salary will also likely mean extra IRS scrutiny of S corp income). For C corp owners, wages again are not considered QBI, although such owners may still benefit from the newly reduced corporate tax rate of only 21%.

Ultimately, the key point is to acknowledge that business entity selection plays a key role in maximizing a QBI deduction as a specified service business owner (which includes financial advisors). And although many financial advisors (and other specified service business owners) may totally phase out the QBI deduction due to their high income, choosing the right business entity structure can help advisors preserve as much QBI deduction as possible!Read More...

#FASuccess Ep 077: Creating A Partnership Constitution To Formalize Decision-Making For A Multi-Partner Advisory Firm with Tanya Rapacz

June 19, 2018 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the 77th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Tanya Rapacz. Tanya is the co-founder of the Partnership Resource, a consulting firm that works with financial advisors partnerships to ensure that the partnership itself actually works, from formation, to the ongoing operation of the business, to succession planning.

What's unique about Tanya, though, is that before she was trained in dispute resolution and mediation, she was a financial advisor herself, who both worked successfully in a partnership, and went through a partnership merger that didn't work out, as she experienced first-hand what happens when the multiple partners of a partnership each want to take the business in opposite directions.

In this episode, we talk in depth about what it takes for a successful partnership to work, why it's necessary to treat a business partnership like a marriage (anticipating that some level of conflict is inevitable, and the key to long-term success is your ability to align on your goals and work through the conflict together), why multi-advisor partnerships with 3 to 5 partners tend to be the unhappiest (because of those challenging interpersonal partnership dynamics when the number of partners increases), how the largest advisory firms often have the most stable partnerships simply because they end out creating governance structures that facilitate the multi-partner decision-making process, but why any partnership may benefit from taking the time to create an agreement on how the partnership will make decisions in order to reduce their level of conflict.

We also talk about Tanya's own process working with partners, that starts with a series of personality assessment profiles to help current or future partners understand how to better communicate with each other, and the driving forces that motivate each other, the benefits of having a facilitator to help new partners talk through how key decisions will be made as partners and avoid reaching "easy agreements" that gloss over the challenging decisions like "which financial planning software will we use" that can tear a new financial advisor partnership apart, and how Tanya's partnership process culminates in an actual "Partnership Constitution" document, that formally spells out for all the partners how decisions will be made collectively going forward.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Tanya talks about how she's now beginning to scale up her "partnership compatibility reports" and assessment process with RIA Match, in addition to doing more facilitation with advisors directly as more and more advisory firms begin to form partnerships and merge to gain economies of scale in today's competitive environment.

So whether you are interested in learning more about how to manage relationship dynamics while working in a partnership, how personality assessments can help partners communicate better, or learning how you can form your own "Partnership Constitution" document to formalize decision-making, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Summer Reading List of “Best Books” For Financial Advisors – 2018 Edition

June 18, 2018 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Personal/Career Development

As the 2018 school season winds down and summer begins… it's time for the annual summer slowdown for most advisory firms, as client meetings get harder to schedule because they’re on vacation, and as advisors we ourselves have some time to relax with family... and catch up on good books.

As an avid book reader myself, I'm always eager to hear suggestions from others of great books to read, whether it's something new that's just come out, or an "old classic" that I should go back and read (again or for the first time!). And so, in the spirit of sharing, a few years ago I launched my list of "Recommended (Book) Reading for Financial Advisors", and it was so well received that in 2013 I also started sharing my annual "Summer Reading List" for financial advisors of the best books I'd read in the preceding year. It quickly became a perennial favorite on Nerd's Eye View, and so I've updated it every year, with new lists of books in 2014, 2015, 2016, and a fresh round last year in 2017.

And now, I'm now excited to share my latest 2018 Summer Reading list for financial advisors, with suggestions on books about everything from how to improve your financial advice so it actually “sticks” with clients, guidance on how to navigate your career path as a next generation “G2” advisor (or to hire one if you’re a firm owner looking to attract the next generation of talent), self-improvement books on how to better manage your productivity throughout the day or broader Principles to live and manage your life (and business), and an uplifting read on how the world continues to improve in amazing ways, and why the primary issue we face today is not the concerns of our political system or our economy or all the other dreadful drumbeats of negative news, but simply the ways that our own human instincts cause us to misinterpret (in a systematically negative way) the avalanche of information around us.

So as the summer season gets underway, I hope that you find this suggested summer reading list of books for financial planners to be helpful… and please do share your own suggestions in the comments at the end of the article about the best books you've read over the past year as well!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (June 16-17)

June 15, 2018 02:54 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 the window for the Department of Justice to appeal the DoL fiduciary rule to the Supreme Court has passed, in what most believe is the fiduciary rule's final death knell... even as the 5th Circuit's clerk office has still not actually issued its formal mandate to actually vacate the rule.

Also in the news this week is an announcement by FINRA that it is beginning the process of overhauling the back-end technology that powers the CRD (Central Registration Depository) system that handles all the registration and disclosure details of FINRA-registered representatives (in what is anticipated to be a 3-year technology project to complete), and a fascinating study from the Boston Consulting Group that finds as many as 1/3rd of advisors are discounting their fees despite the fact that a mere 10% of clients are very fee-sensitive and fully aware of what they're paying in the first place!

From there, we have a number of behavioral finance articles, including the idea from Shlomo Benartzi that clients should "A/B test" their financial preferences before committing to a major financial decision, that our instincts as social animals to compare to other people is a driving force in our financial unhappiness (but can be 'managed' by getting a financially healthy role model instead), and a look at how the ongoing force of technology commoditizing products is leading advisors increasingly the direction of handling the more emotional aspects of clients' financial decisions.

We also have several additional articles on the evolving role of the financial advisor, including a look at how most younger clients actually need more financial advice and not investment advice anyway (which can be evaluated by looking at their human-capital-to-investment-capital ratio), a discussion from Morningstar's Don Phillips on the rise of the (non-investment) advisor, and an analysis by Bob Veres of how the evolution of the financial advisor over the past 40 years has arguably already so morphed the role of the advisor (and the role that commissions play in incentivizing advisors) that the SEC may be ill-equipped to handle the advisor of the future.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of the role our industry associations play in the financial planning profession: the first raises the question of whether the FPA will once again take up the fiduciary torch by suing the SEC over its watered-down SEC advice rule that exempts brokers from a fiduciary duty (after suing the SEC on a similar version of the same issue - and winning - nearly a decade ago); the second examines the CFP Board's new Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct and how the organization has effectively shifted from a "two-hat" approach (with a fiduciary and non-fiduciary hat) into a "tattoo business" where the fiduciary CFP obligation cannot be removed once tattooed on; and the last explores the sticky question of whether we have too many professional associations and designations that create redundant cost and diluted advocacy, or if the reality is that we need multiple designations and associations to have a healthy level of competition amongst the organizations that serve financial advisors in the first place.

Enjoy the "light" reading!