Nerd's Eye View blog

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (November 11-12)

November 10, 2017 03:10 pm 3 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a recap of the latest tax plan from Senate Republicans that was released this week, which is similar to the one issued last week by House Republicans, but contains a number of key differences (from excluding estate tax repeal but bringing back the medical expense deduction), setting the stage for challenging compromises as Republicans try to find a way to reconcile the differences between the two in a manner that stays under the $1.5T deficit target (necessary to avoid a Senate Democrat filibuster) but keeps enough Republicans on board to pass the legislation with a narrow 2-seat majority in the Senate.

Also in the news over the past two weeks is the announcement that the final version of a DoL fiduciary delay has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final approval to delay the full implementation of the Best Interests Contract Exemption until July of 2019 (and opening the door for the SEC to begin a rulemaking process of its own in the interim), and the news that Morgan Stanley has withdrawn from the Broker Protocol in what may quickly be an unraveling of the ability of brokers to change broker-dealers (at least, not without messy lawsuits and Temporary Restraining Orders) and cause a compression in the valuation of broker-dealer-based advisory firms.

From there, we have a number of articles on hiring and career development, including why advisory firms should institute a 6-week training and onboarding process for new financial advisors (including and especially for experienced financial advisors who can hit the ground running with clients but need time to be trained in how to do so consistent with the firm's established processes and procedures), a look at a fascinating Millennial advisor survey that finds young advisors are most likely to leave and go solo between the ages of 26 and 35 (after they have a few years of experience but before becoming "too embedded" in an existing firm), and tips for employee advisors about what they can do to advance their own career and promotion prospects.

We also have a number of advisor technology articles this week, from a review of the latest from Riskalyze as the company continues to expand from "just" risk tolerance software into an increasingly comprehensive advisor platform, a discussion of the latest advisor technology developments at major broker-dealers like Commonwealth, LPL, and Securities America, and why video conferencing technology may prove to be even more disruptive to financial advisors and the delivery of financial advice than robo-advisors.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all focused around the theme of working outside the office for improved productivity: the first explores the growing trend of conducting business meetings outside the office (from business owners meeting with key partners, to employees meeting with each other) as a way to improve both employee creativity and improve employee-to-employee connections; the second looks at the latest research that helps to explain why people can be productive in coffee shops (as it turns out, ambient noise is good and helps our creativity) but why open office plans are so inefficient (because 'background noise' from people we know tends to actually distract us), and a controlled experiment study in the benefits of working from home that found a whopping 13.5% increase in productivity by allowing employees to work from home... along with a massive 50% decrease in employee turnover rates!

Enjoy the "light" reading!

The Gap In Advisor-Supported 529 College Savings Plans For RIAs

November 9, 2017 03:01 pm 16 Comments CATEGORY: General Planning

A longstanding challenge for independent RIAs has been finding a way to effectively and efficiently help their clients with 529 college savings plans - due primarily to the fact that "advisor-sold" 529 plans are actually built primarily for broker-dealers, while "direct-sold" plans aren't meant to have any advisor involvement at all... and leaving advisors at RIAs stuck in between. As a result, there has been little growth of 529 plans in the RIA channel, and fiduciary advisors who would like to help their clients comprehensively manage their wealth have had few options to facilitate the implementation of 529 plans and manage them thereafter.

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we discuss the traditional broker-sold and direct-sold channels for 529 college savings plans, the blocking points of why more RIAs don't get involved with 529 college savings plans, and why a third option - the "advisor-supported" 529 plan - is needed to better facilitate RIAs helping clients invest in 529 college savings plans.

From their start, there have been two distribution channels for 529 college savings plans: advisor-sold, and direct-sold plans. Direct-sold plans were simply sold (marketed) directly to do-it-yourself consumers, who could open and invest the accounts themselves. Yet because not every consumer wants to do it themselves, many state 529 plans also created an “advisor-sold” option (and/or mutual fund companies that had long-standing relationships with advisors – like American Funds – established advisor-sold plans that they hoped would become appealing to advisors regardless of their state location). Yet the caveat is that because advisor-sold plans can only compensate advisors via the mutual fund commission structure, they would more aptly be described as "broker-sold" plans and can only be used by those who work under a broker-dealer. Since RIAs can't receive a commission, RIAs can’t even access and use “advisor-sold” (broker-sold) 529 college savings plans at all!

Instead, advisors in RIAs generally have to work with clients through the “direct-sold” plans for do-it-yourselfers. But this is a problem for most RIAs, since direct-sold plans aren't built for an advisor to be involved at all, leaving RIAs with no way to track performance, manage the account, nor to bill the account for services rendered! At best, advisors can try and work around this by using account aggregation tools like eMoney Advisor or ByAllAccounts to access the client's account directly, and some plans (such as the Utah Education Savings Plan) have provided solutions to pipe client account data directly into portfolio reporting tools from the UESP website. But Utah's plan seems to be the exception to the general rule for direct-sold 529 plans right now: that they are not practical, and certainly not scalable, for independent RIAs to use with their clients.

Which means if (direct-sold) 529 plan providers really want to better engage the rapidly-growing RIA community to help their clients with 529 plans, then we need a third type of 529 plan: the "advisor-supported" plan, where the advisor isn't a broker who sells the plan, but an independent advisor who supports and advises on the plan. And a successful advisor-supported 529 college savings plan is going to have to get good in 4 core areas: 1) reporting (which means providing transaction-level data feeds to popular performance reporting tools), 2) trading (by integrating to existing rebalancing and model management trading software for RIAs), 3) billing (to make it feasible for RIAs to include the 529 plan as part of their billing process on their expanded assets under advisement, ideally with an option to bill the fee from the 529 plan directly); and 4) educational and planning tools to help RIAs understand when an out-of-state advisor-supported 529 plan is appropriate and when an in-state plan might be better (e.g., for in-state tax benefits).

But the bottom line is simply to recognize that, while 529 plan adoption has not been significant in the RIA channel, and the few who do use them tend to just choose simple age-based glidepath portfolios in direct-sold plans… it’s not necessarily because that’s the only thing that RIAs want from a 529 plan. It’s because, with the lack of advisor-supported 529 plan options, that has been the only option that was feasible in the first place, given that RIAs fall into the crack between direct-sold and broker-sold plans. And with better advisor-supported 529 plan options (particularly in light of the House GOP tax plan that may expand their use for private elementary and high school savings as well), there’s potential for a lot of growth of 529 plans in the RIA channel... if we can get a true advisor-supported plan!

Providing Small Business Health Insurance Benefits With A QSEHRA

November 8, 2017 07:01 am 26 Comments CATEGORY: Insurance

For many small businesses, it’s simply not economically or administratively feasible to offer group health insurance to employees, which can create a competitive disadvantage for business owners trying to attract top talent that needs health coverage. The good news of the launch of state health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act was that, for the first time, individuals had guaranteed access to health insurance regardless of employment status, eliminating the need or requirement for employers to provide coverage. The bad news, however, was that to avoid disrupting the existing employer group health insurance marketplace, the Affordable Care Act imposed penalties on businesses if they tried to simply give employees tax-preferenced reimbursements to buy their own coverage on the exchanges.

However, the 21^st Century Cures Act, signed by President Obama shortly before leaving office, created a new Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA), which allows small businesses with fewer than 50 full time equivalent employees to offer an HRA for employees to purchase their own health insurance on a tax-preferenced basis – tax-deductible to the employer and tax-free to the employee – without running afoul of the ACA coverage mandates. Although employees cannot “double dip” and obtain premium assistance tax credits and employer HRA dollars, it is now possible for employers to give a specified tax-preferenced dollar amount reimbursement to employees – up to $5,050 for individuals and $10,250 for couples and families in 2018 – for their medical expenses, including health insurance premiums for coverage purchase on an exchange.

The primary appeal of the QSEHRA for most small business owners is that it’s a way to provide employee “health benefits”, without taking on the full burden – and cost uncertainties – of offering group health insurance. Instead, employers can control their costs by explicitly setting a monthly dollar amount that becomes available to employees for reimbursement, avoiding payroll taxes on any dollars actually spent, and keeping any unused QSEHRA dollars that aren’t actually claimed by employees as a reimbursement (since technically an HRA is a health reimbursement arrangement, not an actual account).

Notably, the QSEHRA benefits are not available for most small business owners themselves, though with the above-the-line deduction for health insurance premiums for small business owners, the QSEHRA would often be a moot point anyway. Nonetheless, for small business owners looking to do “something” to support employee health benefits, and have better control over their business and costs than offering group health insurance directly (or joining a PEO), a QSEHRA may be a very appealing tax-preferenced alternative!

#FASuccess Ep 045: Compensating Employees For Generating Profit Instead Of Revenue with Rebecca Pomering

November 7, 2017 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the forty-fifth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Rebecca Pomering. Rebecca is the Chief Practice Officer of Moss Adams, a mega-accounting firm with more than $600 million in revenue and 2,800 employees... which includes a wealth management division with more than $2.1 billion of AUM, and an advisor consulting division that originated benchmarking studies for financial advisors.

What's fascinating about Rebecca, though, is her own personal career across all of these business lines at Moss Adams, having started as a 23-year-old in the firm's financial advisor consulting division, becoming a partner with Moss Adams by the time she was turning 30, taking over as CEO of Moss Adams Wealth Advisors at $800 million of AUM right before the financial crisis and nearly tripling the size of the firm in the 7 years after the market bottom... and now becoming the Chief Practice Officer of the entire Moss Adams enterprise, applying her practice management expertise across all the professionals in the firm's 28(!) industry niches.

In this episode, we talk in depth about Rebecca's lessons learned in practice management in a career that's spanned consulting, leadership, and executive roles, with a particular focus on how to structure compensation for employee advisors, why bonuses should be tied to both business development and the profitability of the firm, and why it's a good idea to share your advisory firm's income statement with your entire team so everyone understands how the business really works.

We also talk about the challenges of growing a wealth management firm within an established accounting firm (which makes a lot of sense on paper, but is much more difficult to implement in practice!), why accountants actually feel that it's risky to make referrals to outside financial advisors (but can be even riskier to referral internal financial advisors at the firm), and her lessons learned in taking over Moss Adams Wealth Advisors right before the market crash... and the changes she had to make to keep the firm on track.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Rebecca talks about how she established her own credibility as a young consultant by focusing her expertise into a particular niche, and how, even and especially at the size of Moss Adams crossing $600 million of revenue, Rebecca still sees the firm's path forward as being entirely focused about going deeper into niches. Which at the size of Moss Adams and its 2,800 employees, actually means going into 28 different niches simultaneously!

So whether you’ve been contemplating your own firm compensation for employee advisors, wondering how transparent you should be with financials within your firm, or interested in the challenges of growing a wealth management firm within an established account firm, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

The Latest In Financial Advisor #FinTech (November 2017)

November 6, 2017 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the November 2017 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month's edition kicks off with the big debut of CleverDome, a next-generation cybersecurity solution that aims to bring all major financial services providers into a closed network that operates with a “Software Defined Perimeter” (SDP) to block out hackers and only permit known entities to interact with vendors. At the T3 Enterprise advisor technology conference, CleverDome announced that it is launching with Redtail CRM, Orion Advisor Services, Riskalyze, Entreda, and TD Ameritrade all “under the dome”, and is looking to rapidly add more advisor tech providers in the coming months.

Also in the news this month was a slew of new “Model Marketplace” announcements, including the launch of Orion Advisor Services’ “Communities” model marketplace built around its new Eclipse rebalancer, a pivot by Oranj to build a new MAX model marketplace around its recently acquired TradeWarrior rebalancing software and make its platform free to advisors to place assets in MAX, and the announcement that Apex Clearing is launching its own API-based rebalancer called Equilibrium that may also become a future player in Model Marketplaces (while enhancing its capabilities to compete with other RIA custodians as well).

From there, the latest highlights also include a number of major new product and feature rollouts this month, including:

Morningstar launches its “Best Interests Scorecard” solution to help advisors with DoL fiduciary due diligence and compliance on IRA rollovers
Redtail launches “Redtail Speak”, a new compliant text-messaging solution for advisors
Advizr launches “Accelerate”, which will allow advisors to directly open investment accounts or begin insurance applications from within a financial plan presentation
CapGainsValet re-opens its annual tracking database of end-of-year mutual fund distributions

You can view analysis of these announcements and more trends in advisor technology in this month's column, including fresh Series A rounds of capital for Snappy Kraken and Vestwell, the launch of U.S Bank’s “FundKeeper” platform that aims to reinvigorate the “direct mutual fund” business of small- and mid-sized broker-dealers (with better compliance oversight and a fraction of the cost!), and the release of a series of “Consumer Protection Principles” from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to re-assert that consumers are the owners of their financial data and have a right to grant third-party data aggregators access to it (despite a desire of many Financial Institutions to limit the flow of data that is increasingly being used against them!).

I hope you're continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

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

Evaluating The Proposed Individual Tax Reforms Under The House Republican Tax Plan

November 3, 2017 08:42 am 128 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

(Michael’s Note: In light of the breaking news of the long-awaited release of the House GOP tax reform legislation, we have pre-empted the usual Friday Weekend Reading with this special “In-Depth Review Of The Proposed Tax Reforms” edition of Weekend Reading! Hope it helps!)

(Note: For an updated discussion of the final 2017 GOP Tax Plan, see Individual Tax Planning Under The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Of 2017.)

After more than a year of buzz from both House Republicans, and President Trump, and high-level proposals that were scant on crucial details, this week the House GOP finally unveiled the actual draft legislation of its proposed tax reform – kicking off the messy process of Congressional compromises that may still be necessary to actually pass the reforms into law, but providing a first real glimpse at exactly what is on the table.

While the proposals of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” are not quite the sweeping level of “file your tax return on a postcard” that Republicans had proposed early on – as the inevitable push for compromises eliminated the elegant simplicity of the original version – the House GOP proposal nonetheless represents some of the most significant tax reform in more than 30 years, with a reduction in the number of tax brackets from seven to four with the same top tax rate of 39.6% (albeit with a 6% surtax for a portion of income over $1M that effectively creates a new 5th tax bracket at 45.6% before reverting back to 39.6% again), the repeal of the AMT, and substantial simplification employee fringe benefits, college tax preferences, and itemized deductions… along with a near doubling of the standard deduction that will make itemizing a moot point for most individuals anyway.

On the other hand, the proposed changes also bring a whole host of crackdowns that will likely trigger complaints for many – but then again, sweeping tax reform virtually always means that everyone has at least some pet deduction or tax credit to lose. Though for many, the negatives will be made up for most of the middle class by the expanded standard deduction, an increased $1,600 child tax credit, and a new “Family Flexibility Credit” of $300, fewer (and for many, lower) tax brackets, while more affluent business owners will be attracted to the opportunity for many types of pass-through business income to be taxed at favorable 25% tax rates (though, alas, not the pass-through income for financial advisors!), as well as a (delayed) repeal of the estate tax (starting in 2024).

Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether or how much the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will be altered from here, as the messy process of compromise begins in an effort to garner the necessary votes to actually pass the legislation. Nonetheless, the fact that so many compromises have been brought already, from the original House GOP framework, and the fact that the GOP already laid the groundwork to pass the legislation with an up-to-$1.5 trillion deficit projection under budget reconciliation rules (which only require 51 votes in the Senate and cannot be filibustered), suggests that legislators are truly positioning this proposed tax reform legislation as something that can garner enough votes to pass (as in current form, it is projected to cause a $1.487T revenue loss over 10 years, just under the budget reconciliation thershold). Which means that while some of the exact details may shift, the current proposal has a real chance of being passed in the coming month, setting a new foundation for the Internal Revenue Code (and individual tax planning) in the coming decade!

B/D Advisor Valuations To Compress As The Broker Protocol Unravels

November 2, 2017 11:10 am 10 Comments CATEGORY: Industry News

Since 2004, brokers moving from one wirehouse or broker-dealer to another, or breaking away entirely to the RIA channel, have relied on the Broker Protocol to set the rules for switching firms without fear of being sued. However, the big news this week is that Morgan Stanley – the largest wirehouse by advisor headcount – is leaving the Broker Protocol effective Friday November 3^rd, in what is likely the beginning of the end of the Broker Protocol, and a reversion back to the dark days of breakaway lawsuits.

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we discuss why Morgan Stanley leaving the Broker Protocol is likely to result in the unraveling of the Broker Protocol, and the subsequent implications, including reduced payouts at wirehouses and a compression of advisory firm valuations for those at broker-dealers.

For those that are unaware, the Broker Protocol stipulates the specific five pieces of information (client names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and account titles) that departing brokers can take with them without fear of being sued for violating the firm’s non-solicit agreements or any client privacy and confidentiality obligations under Reg S-P. Originally put in place by Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley) in 2004, the Broker Protocol effectively served as a cease-fire of breakaway lawsuits between the major wirehouses, but in the decade since has grown to also include over 1,600 other firms (including independent broker-dealers and RIAs that hire brokers away from wirehouses).

The reason why it is such a big deal that Morgan Stanley is leaving the Broker Protocol isn’t just about what happens to brokers at Morgan Stanley who want to leave in the future, but because Morgan Stanley’s decision to leave the Broker Protocol will likely unravel the entire Broker Protocol in short order. Because as it stands now, if Morgan Stanley recruits a Merrill or UBS broker, the broker can leave under Broker Protocol. But if UBS or Merrill recruits a Morgan Stanley broker, then Morgan Stanley is reserving the right to sue the broker for leaving (and likely UBS or Merrill Lynch as the recruiting firm). So, from Merrill Lynch’s perspective (and UBS, and Wells Fargo), it’s not a good deal to stay in the Broker Protocol when Morgan Stanley isn't. As long as they were all in, they all shared the potential pain and the potential benefits together. But once Morgan Stanley leaves, there’s not much reason for the others to stay, either. And the more firms that leave, the less value there is for any to remain, including a number of independent broker-dealers that have been net losers of broker recruiting in recent years.

Which means we’ll be moving back to the dark days of breaking away from a broker-dealer in the early 2000s and the 1990s, where breakaway attempts were almost immediately followed by a cease-and-desist order, which might then be followed by a judge issuing a Temporary Restraining Order requiring that the broker stop contacting clients or risk going to jail for being in contempt of court. And then the breakaway lawsuit would come, alleging theft of trade secrets (for the former broker taking the broker-dealer's client list), breach of confidentiality and client privacy, and/or breach of non-solicit agreements. Of course, there were brokers who still made the breakaway transition, but it was far more risky and expensive, and broker-dealers were often eager to sue if they could, as even if they didn't prevail against a particular broker, the legal costs effectively raised the cost of breaking away in order to make it less appealing for any other broker to consider trying it as well.

Yet if the end of the Broker Protocol makes it difficult, more risky, and more expensive to try and leave a broker-dealer, that also means that broker-dealers will have more leverage to cut their payouts to advisors as well (what are you going to do, try to leave?). And when it is harder to leave and take clients, brokers will increasingly be compelled to sell to other brokers on the same platform... which means brokers can’t sell to the top buyer willing to pay the best price as they become more captive to only buyers at their current B/D. As a result, the valuation of advisory businesses under a broker-dealer will likely compress going forward, and sellers will have more difficulty negotiating favorable tax and payment terms from buyers.

Realistically, not all broker-dealers will leave the Broker Protocol, as those that have been successfully using it to hire away from their competitors (e.g., Raymond James, RBC, and Janney) will want it to stick around. But in a world where most broker-dealers have been net losers on recruiting, either to other larger broker-dealers, or to the RIA channel, most broker-dealers will not likely stay in the Broker Protocol - and especially not the firms that brokers would most likely want to leave! Which means brokers at other firms contemplating leaving - especially at the major wirehouses - may want to accelerate their plans… at least while they still can! Because, as Morgan Stanley has shown, a firm can depart the Broker Protocol very quickly once they make the decision to do so!

Does Failed Retirement Income Planning Really Result In Bankrupt Financial Ruin?

November 1, 2017 07:01 am 9 Comments CATEGORY: Retirement Planning

While it is a topic most retirees hope to avoid ever dealing with, the reality is that not all retirement income plans will be successful. Whether due to a retiree’s refusal to plan, reluctance to take the advice of a professional, or simply due to unfortunate circumstances which were outside of a retiree’s control – failures in funding retirement can and do occur. In fact, financial planners routinely do Monte Carlo projections for retirees to determine their prospective probability of failure, especially given growing awareness of sequence of return risk.

Yet given the reports of low levels of both objective measures of retirement preparedness (such as savings) and subjective measures of retirement preparedness (such as retirement confidence), many financial advisors may be surprised to learn that bankruptcy rates among those over age 65 appears to be less than 3 per 1,000, and actually declines among older retirees. So, what’s going on? If retirees are living longer than ever – which should be making retirement more difficult than ever to afford and sustain, especially given the long-term impact of sequence of return risk – then where are all of the bankrupt retirees?

In this guest post, Derek Tharp – our Research Associate at Kitces.com, and a Ph.D. candidate in the financial planning program at Kansas State University – examines bankruptcy among retirees, finding that the reality is that bankruptcy may not be a great indicator of retirement income planning failure. A retiree who blows through their nest egg doesn’t necessarily end up bankrupt, they simply need to adjust their spending downwards to their new reality. Social Security plus public assistance represent the true consumption “floor” for most. Further, bankruptcy may not even be a great indicator of actual financial strain, as given the rules surrounding bankruptcy, the ways that retirees deplete their retirement assets does not necessarily trigger an actual bankruptcy filing, especially in light of the ways in which bankruptcy laws favor those in retirement.

Nonetheless, the point remains: with longer life expectancies and struggles with retirement preparedness, especially combined with the difficult markets of the past 15 years, the retiree bankruptcy rate is shockingly low. Which suggests that the overwhelming majority of retirees facing retirement shortfalls really are able to downsize their lifestyle to avoid financial ruin when the time comes. Of course, few retirees want to risk even a major lifestyle setback in retirement if they can avoid it. Still, though, if most retirees really are capable of making spending adjustments when necessary… shouldn’t those potential adjustments be better reflected in financial plans in the first place?

#FASuccess Ep 044: Structuring A Successful Internal Succession Plan As A 25-Year-Old Buyer with Jake Kuebler

October 31, 2017 07:01 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the forty-fourth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Jake Kuebler. Jake is the President of Bluestem Financial Advisors, an independent RIA based in Champaign, Illinois, that provides a combination of financial planning, investment management, and tax preparation with 4 staff members for nearly 100 clients using a comprehensive annual retainer model.

What's really unique about Jake's business, though, is that he's actually the next generation successor owner of Bluestem, having spent the past 5 years buying out the founding owner, Karen Folk, while nearly doubling the size of the practice along the way. Oh, and he just turned 30. Which means he started this internal succession plan as a buyer when he was just 25.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Bluestem built a niche focus on serving college professors and administrators (as they are based in the hometown of the main University of Illinois campus!), why they chose to include tax preparation as a part of their annual service offering, the structure of Bluestem's annual retainer fee model and how it changes from upfront to ongoing clients, how their retainer model structure is allowing them to grow the business serving a substantial segment of young professionals in the Champaign area in addition to retirees, and the business management spreadsheet that Jake uses to monitor and track the key metrics of his advisory firm along the way.

From there, we also talk about the details of the actual succession plan that Jake executed with the founder, how they eventually came to terms on setting a price for the internal succession plan of a hard-to-value solo advisory practice, the way the purchase was structured and funded, and how it was balanced to share the upside for both Jake as the buyer, and Karen as the seller, for any growth that happened after the terms of the deal were set.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Jake shares his own advice to other young advisors looking to buy into an advisory firm and be a succession plan, about how to push the conversation forward when the founder just doesn't seem to want to sell.... and how to know when it's time to cut bait and leave and find another opportunity instead.

So whether you’ve been curious to see an example of how an internal succession plan is structured, to hear the perspective of the buyer’s side of a succession plan, or just want a glimpse into the world of a successful retainer-based practice with a clear niche, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Becoming B Corp Certified As A Financial Advisory Firm

October 30, 2017 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Practice Management

With the increasing interest and focus from consumers on sustainable and socially responsible investing, more and more financial advisors have started to offer SRI portfolios designed to more effectively align a client's investment dollars with their stated values. However, the next frontier in these values-based investment approaches is not merely to allocate client dollars to SRI portfolios, but to operate the financial advisory business itself in a manner that effectively considers its environmental, social, and community impacts.

In this guest post, Georgia Lee Hussey and Liliya Jones of Modernist Financial provide a guide to making values-based commitments as a financial advisory firm through becoming B Corp Certified. The B Corp certification is not an alternative to other corporate structures like an S or C corp, but a process that entails making a legal commitment (through the business' bylaws or operating agreement) that affirms the existing S or C corp (or partnership or LLC) business entity's commitment to consider its impact on all stakeholders (rather than just maximizing shareholder value). After recently going through the process of getting their RIA to become B Corp Certified themselves, Georgia and Liliya outline what a B Corp is, why financial advisors should consider getting their firms B Corp Certified, and how to go about the process.

When a financial advisory firm wishes to become B Corp Certified, the advisory firm owner must first take an assessment which evaluates their practices in the areas of governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. After completing this assessment, firms will be required to provide some documentation of select items, and possibly create a specific action plan for bringing their firm up to required standards. Once a firm meets the criteria required by B Labs - which grants the B Corp certification - they are then required to make the necessary changes to their corporate documents in order to make their commitment to ethical practices legally binding.

Financial advisors interested in earning B Corporation® certification have many ways to ensure they are considering all stakeholders in their decision making, from implementing ESG portfolios and promoting diversity and inclusion in the industry, to investing in their employees and considering the environmental impact of their firm. Ultimately, being a B Corporation® can be a way to truly apply a values-based perspective beyond the portfolio itself. Which can result in a new way to build trust with prospective clients - especially those who already have a strong values-focused oriented to where they invest and who they do business with - as well as connect with a broader community of like-minded socially-conscious entrepreneurs, and provide an environment that is more attractive to next generation advisors!