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The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (September 2020)

September 7, 2020 07:06 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the September 2020 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – 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!

This month's edition continues with new co-author (and AdvisorTech guru) Craig Iskowitz, along with guest contributor Kyle Van Pelt, and kicks off with a look at Schwab’s announcement that all existing Schwab clients will receive free access to a MoneyGuide financial plan that they can create for themselves using the MoneyGuide One guided experience (or work with a Schwab Intelligent Advisory CFP professional for an advisory fee as little as $30/month), and highlighting how financial advisors can no longer justify their financial planning value by just inputting client data into and presenting the output from comprehensive financial planning software, and instead will increasingly be required to specialize into niches, and/or demonstrate their value in the conversations they have around the planning software.

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

Apex partners with Marstone for a tech-plus-custody all-in-one in an anticipated effort to charge fees for RIA custody (and has hired Morningstar’s Chief Product Officer Tricia Rothschild to help execute!)
Riskalyze partners with Rowboat Advisors to support ‘tax alpha’ and tax-intelligent optimization as the new portfolio value-add
LPL launches a Meeting Planner solution to optimize the surprisingly-time-intensive meeting prep process for advisors
The SEC changes the Accredited Investor definition to include financial advisors themselves, in what may be a boon to AdvisorTech crowdfunding efforts to raise capital directly from their future users?

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including Envestnet preparing its own direct indexing overlay tools as technology increasingly becomes the new value-add layer, Vanguard begins to develop its own 'robo' platform for advisors to compete for custody, XTiva raises $10M to compete for the complex process of integrating advisor compensation systems in large-scale financial services enterprises, and Timeline raises $2.3M in capital to compete in the increasingly popular realm of specialized planning tools that goes beyond what ‘generalist’ planning software can provide (in the case of Timeline, to facilitate retirement distribution planning in the decumulation phase!).

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you're continuing to find this 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]!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (September 5-6)

September 4, 2020 03:00 pm 3 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a big expose from the Wall Street Journal on the SEC's new Form CRS, which found that amongst 8,100 firms that had filed Form CRS, 3,100 of them had a legal or disciplinary history they were required to disclose... and 40% of them failed to do so, raising serious concerns about whether the "transparency and disclosure" lynchpin of the SEC's new Regulation Best Interest rules is already coming up short.

Also in the news this week is an announcement that the state of Massachusetts will begin to enforce its own state fiduciary rule on both investment advisers and broker-dealers (in response to its view that the SEC's Regulation Best Interest came up short in regulating brokers giving advice), criticism of the Department of Labor's new fiduciary rule from both fiduciary advocates who say it doesn't go far enough and industry participants who fear it will already impose 'too much' fiduciary obligation on brokerage firms and insurance companies, and news that the SEC is finalizing changes to its Advertising and Anti-Testimonial rules with updates due to be announced next month!

From there, we have several interesting investment articles on retirement planning, including a look at how to reframe retirement as an 8,000 day period that clients can plan around (recognizing that 'play golf' may be a good start to retirement, but probably is not something you want to do for 8,000 straight days!), new research from Morningstar's David Blanchett about how to set a reasonable life expectancy estimate for retirees, a discussion of how to craft a 'Retirement Policy Statement' to complement a client's Investment Policy statement, an exploration of how retirement is really more a 'state of mind' than a state of being, and a look at the origins of FIRE as a movement around Financial Independence and not just 'extreme Early Retirement'.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of the new Work-From-Home era: the first explores how firms are testing out new 'hub-and-spoke' models of work environments with limited central office space and decentralized home office work environments; the second looks at the new rise of 'tiny office' spaces (e.g., 'tiny homes' custom-built as an office space!); and the last looks at how work from home may be challenging for many jobs and types of workers but especially conducive to knowledge-based workers (including financial advisors!?)!

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Isolating IRA Basis For More Tax Efficient Roth IRA Conversions

September 2, 2020 07:02 am 23 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

The Roth IRA was first introduced in 1997 and has since been a popular tax planning tool for financial advisors and their clients. As while Roth IRA accounts generate tax-free growth and income from retirement savings, making Roth IRA contributions is most beneficial when a client is in a relatively low marginal tax bracket. This is in contrast to deferring pre-tax dollars to a Traditional IRA, which is often most beneficial when a client’s current marginal tax bracket is high (and anticipated future tax brackets are lower). While Roth conversions are often used to transfer Traditional IRA funds into a Roth IRA account, reporting these transactions for income tax purposes can be complicated when the Traditional IRA from which the funds are being transferred include both pre- and post-tax funds.

Although contributions made to a Traditional IRA usually consist of pre-tax dollars (for which taxpayers can take an above-the-line income tax deduction on their tax returns), there are occasions when post-tax dollars are included as well. For instance, nondeductible contributions are made when a taxpayer (or their spouse) is an active participant in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, and their MAGI exceeds the applicable limit for their filing status. Rollovers originating from an employer-sponsored retirement plan can also include after-tax funds if the plan allowed for after-tax contributions.

When Traditional IRA accounts hold both pre-tax and post-tax dollars, the balance will be subject to the “Pro Rata Rule”, which stipulates that, in general, distributions from a taxpayer’s IRA maintain the same ratable proportion of pre-tax and post-tax funds as the taxpayer’s total IRA balance. Which means that distributions from accounts with a mix of pre-tax and post-tax funds cannot be made as solely pre-tax or post-tax and that transferring these distributions into a Roth IRA will need to be accounted for accordingly.

Despite the intricacies of reporting Roth conversions from Traditional IRAs with pre- and post-tax funding, converting Traditional IRA accounts can make sense, especially when a substantial percentage of after-tax dollars are in the Traditional IRA. As while the after-tax contributions themselves will be tax-free, the growth on those funds will be taxable! Therefore, paying tax on the pre-tax portion of the Traditional IRA balance can be worthwhile when considering the tax-free growth of all contributions made to a Roth IRA.

Accordingly, there are few strategies that advisors can use to make Roth conversions more compelling, which can be particularly useful when the Traditional IRA may not (initially) have a large proportion of after-tax funding. For instance, some clients may have access to an employer-sponsored plan that allows for rollovers of IRA funds into the plan. Since IRA-to-plan rollovers are restricted to pre-tax dollars, such rollovers can essentially serve to reduce the pre-tax balance of a Traditional IRA, maximizing the after-tax balance available for the Roth conversion. Importantly, rolling funds back into an IRA from an employer plan, after completing a Roth conversion, should not be done until after the calendar year in which the Roth conversion was carried out, as doing so would result in the basis of the rollover to be included in the converted amount.

Another strategy available to increase the proportion of IRA after-tax dollars is to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), as these distributions are restricted to pre-tax dollars from the IRA. Thus, as in the case of rollovers into an employer-sponsored plan, QCDs effectively reduce the pre-tax portion of the IRA account balance, leaving a larger post-tax balance available for Roth conversions.

Ultimately, Roth conversions continue to be a powerful and versatile tool for financial advisors to help their clients mitigate the tax bite from distributions taken from their retirement accounts. By planning around current and expected marginal tax brackets, and by strategizing to isolate the basis of pre-tax dollars in Traditional IRA accounts, advisors can facilitate substantial tax savings for their clients by way of efficient Roth conversions.

#FA Success Ep 192: Breaking Away From A Wirehouse To Build A True Fiduciary Multi-Family Office, with Paul Pagnato

September 1, 2020 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 192nd episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Paul Pagnato. Paul is the co-chairman and chief visionary officer of Cresset Capital, a multi-family office with nearly $9.5 billion of assets under management for just over 600 ultra-high-net-worth clients. What's unique about Paul, though, is the journey he's had as an advisory firm owner, from a nearly 20-year career at Merrill Lynch to breaking away to work with HighTower Advisors as a partner, deciding to go out entirely on his own as an independent RIA to build his own vision, and then deciding to merge his multibillion-dollar advisory firm into Cresset and give up control in order to further expand the reach of that vision.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Paul's entrepreneurial journey through the industry. How the stresses of the financial crisis on the brokerage industry created a unique conflict that led him to leave the wirehouse world after 20 years there, the challenging learning curve than an advisory firm faces when first breaking away, the unique stresses that emerge in the client relationship when the Broker Protocol and wirehouse employment agreements require that clients not be informed about the plan to leave until surprising them with it after the fact, and why it's so important to have a strong support structure in place with experienced vendors when making the decision to break away as a large team.

We also talk about the unique multi-family office that Paul built once he was finally able to go fully independent. The $90,000 a year flat fee structure the firm uses to serve its ultra-affluent clientele, why and how Paul's firm weaves together tax services, legal support, and even concierge travel assistance into their high-net-worth offering, the unique approach of quarterly experiments that Paul's firm conducts on an ongoing basis to come up with new ways to serve clients more efficiently, and how Paul has been able to scale efficiently with a philosophy of always trying to outsource as much as he can.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Paul shares the journey of deciding to merge his multibillion-dollar multi-family office into an even larger one. The investment banker he used to explore the options, why he ultimately decided to sell instead of raising capital from a private equity firm, and how he got comfortable with the decision to no longer have full control with the decision to merge.

Announcing New Kitces Research Study On Advisor Well-Being

August 31, 2020 07:06 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

It’s an old saying that “money can’t buy happiness”, but recent research has shown that, in reality, the relationship between money and happiness is more nuanced. Greater income levels are associated with greater levels of emotional well-being (at least up to a certain point); money is associated with higher levels of happiness, at least when it’s spent in certain ways (e.g., on experiences shared with other people or outright on others, rather than spent on ‘stuff’); we are increasingly recognizing the real-world trade-offs between earning more money versus having more time with our friends and family; and in the context of advisory firms, the trade-offs between income and work are of even greater focus as many advisors can outright control how many clients they wish to take on and what ‘Enough’ really means in the context of an advisory business.

Yet, in practice, remarkably little research exists to understand what maximizes the well-being of financial advisors. Instead, industry research overwhelmingly focuses only on what produces ‘More’ – more revenue, bigger businesses, more profitable businesses, with greater and greater productivity – as though the only path to success is through growth, and completely ignoring the growing base of financial advisors who are deliberately building ‘lifestyle’ practices and stopping their growth once they reach the point of having 'Enough'.

To better understand these trends, we’re excited to announce the launch of our latest Kitces Research Study on Advisor Well-Being, which explores what factors really are – or are not – associated with greater well-being as a financial advisor. Are independent advisors really happier than employee advisors? Are smaller advisory firms really more stressed than larger firms? Does the platform an advisor is associated with impact their own individual well-being? Does advisor well-being actually rise as an advisory firm grows, or is there a point of diminishing (or even negative) well-being returns on growth?

So if you have a few minutes, please take our latest Kitces Advisor Research study on Advisor Well-Being. It is the shortest yet of our Research studies (for those of you who have been kind enough to go through some of our prior longer surveys!), and we’ll be sharing the results at the end of the year, in the hopes of helping the entire advisor community plan out what should be on their New Year’s business resolution lists to make 2021 their best year yet.

Thanks again for your willingness to contribute to this important advisor research!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (August 29-30)

August 28, 2020 02:59 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the big industry news that the SEC has updated the Accredited Investor rules, declining to increase the income and net worth thresholds but expanding the definition of who constitutes a "sophisticated" investor to include financial advisors themselves... allowing anyone with a Series 7, 65, or 82 license to be able to participate in private market investments themselves (though still not necessarily on behalf of their clients, unless their clients still qualify under the more 'traditional' measures).

Also in the news this week is an announcement that insurance companies expanding into the world of fee-based annuities for the no-commission RIA channel are now starting to develop life and disability insurance products for RIAs, as insurance distribution continues to be reinvented, and a study finding that advisors unwittingly tend to engage the men more than the women of their heterosexual couples, resulting in a gender bias that is associated with women not only being more likely to terminate their advisor after a bad experience but being less likely to complain or give the advisor a chance to correct the issue before being fired from the relationship.

From there, we have several interesting investment articles, including a new Morningstar analysis finding that actively managed funds did not actually outperform their passive peers during the recent market volatility (though notably, they didn't underperform either), a look at how market valuation measures aren't very predictive in the short term but that measures like Shiller CAPE are very predictive in the long run (which has significant implications for what return assumptions advisors are using in their retirement planning projections), and a review of SPACs that are suddenly becoming the hot new alternative to IPOs.

We also have a few articles around selling an advisory firm, including what it takes for advisory firms to get a double-digit multiple of earnings for their seller valuation, a look at recent M&A trends for advisory firms that are rebounding quickly after a brief pandemic slowdown, and some guidance on what it takes to sell your advisory firm on the open market (for sellers who have never been through the process before and only get one chance to get it right!).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of building a practice that fits your personal goals (rather than simply one that is solely focused on growth): the first explores the rise of the 'lifestyle' practice as an alternative to the 'traditional' work-hard-play-hard approach (of intensive hours of growing the firm and vacations to recover and then returning to the grind of building again); the second examines one 37-year-old advisor's decision to turn his practice into a lifestyle firm focused on profits and personal time efficiency over growth; and the last explores the 'curse of the overachiever' and how to think about the balancing point and finding the sweet spot between wanting to succeed as a high achiever and when you've got 'enough' to focus your energy elsewhere, instead!

Enjoy the 'light' reading!