Nerd's Eye View blog

The Best Of Weekend Reading 2023: Top 25 Articles You Might Have Missed

December 25, 2023 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Each week in Weekend Reading For Financial Planners, we seek to bring you synopses and commentaries on 12 articles covering news for financial advisors including topics covering technical planning, practice management, advisor marketing, career development, and more. And as 2023 draws to a close, we wanted to highlight 25 of the most popular and insightful articles that were featured throughout the year (that you might have missed!).

We start with several articles on retirement planning:

Data showing where American retirees currently stand, from their average net worth to how they spend each hour of the day
How, according to a recent study, delaying Social Security benefits typically leads to greater lifetime wealth than claiming benefits early in order to reduce portfolio withdrawals
Why common advisor concerns about Monte Carlo analysis are more about the software tools they use rather than the technique itself

From there, we have several articles on investment planning:

Why holding on to stocks, rather than moving to cash, could be a smart move, even if a recession is expected to occur
A recent study found that investors lagged the performance of the funds in which they invested by 1.7% per year over the past decade, suggesting a potential role for advisors in helping them overcome this "behavior gap"

We also have a number of articles on cash flow planning:

Why it can be valuable for clients to consider the 'hidden' costs of buying a vacation home before jumping into a purchase
What being "upper-middle class" actually means in dollar terms
A recent study suggests a causal connection between married couples who use a joint bank account and increased relationship happiness
How setting a spending cap can help couples reduce money conflicts and enjoy more guilt-free spending

We continue with 3 articles on tax planning:

How advisors can help clients take advantage of the 0% long-term capital gains tax bracket
How IRMAA surcharges, while a nuisance, tend to represent a relatively small percentage of a retiree's income
How advisors can help clients reduce the amount of their Social Security benefits (and overall income) subject to taxation

Next, we have a few articles on insurance planning:

How advisors can add value for clients by helping them make better Medicare decisions
Why high-deductible health plans with paired HSAs could be the most cost-effective and tax-efficient health insurance option for many clients
Why an advisor decided to buy an indexed universal life insurance policy for himself

We also have a number of articles on practice management:

10 'harsh' lessons one business owner learned on his entrepreneurial path and how they apply to financial advisors
What actions advisory firm owners can take when they find they have too much work on their plate
Why stressed-out firm owners might consider downsizing their client base rather than selling their firm

From there, we have several articles on financial advisor marketing:

Why ChatGPT could be a valuable tool to support advisor marketing, from creating ad copy to drafting prospect emails
How offering a "second-opinion service" can help advisors generate more referrals from clients and centers of influence
How to optimize the 5 most important pages on an advisory firm website

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about career development:

How a series of mental exercises can help individuals build resilience and overcome challenges they face
How both "macro" and "micro" focus can contribute to productive, fulfilling work
How cultivating a sense of moxie can help individuals address "impostor syndrome"
Why showing poise, the combination of style and substance, is often at the heart of a successful career

Thanks for letting us be a part of your reading list each week and we'll look forward to highlighting more insightful articles in 2024!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (December 23-24)

December 22, 2023 02:10 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 Envestnet has published research highlighting a number of key trends that they believe will shape the growth of the advisory industry in 2024 and beyond, which reflect at a high level advisors' ongoing shift towards providing more and deeper financial planning while leaning on technology to make that level of planning possible.

Also in industry news this week:

The SEC has been sending letters to advisory firms requesting details on their use of AI technology, raising questions about whether they may be considering revising their proposed AI rule that received significant pushback earlier this year for the wide breadth of the types of technology it covers
DPL Financial has announced it has sold over $2 billion worth of fee-only annuities in 2023, doubling their total sales from 2022, which highlights both the significant number of advisors looking to shift their annuity business from a commission-based to a fee-only model, and the growing interest in annuities from existing fee-only advisors seeking to offer more retirement income options to their clients

From there, we have several articles on marketing:

A newer advisor lead generation service, Datalign Advisory, has seen early success with its unique auction-style model where advisors can bid on prospects who are a good match for their services, which can help eliminate some of the conflicts inherent in other lead generation models (though it remains to be seen whether it can scale its own marketing efforts in a way that can make its business model successful)
How a regular weekly marketing schedule can help advisors overcome the challenges of finding time to consistently market their services
Why some of the oldest tactics for finding new clients – including corporate wellness programs, seminar marketing, and custodial referrals – can still help advisors overcome their challenges with achieving organic growth

We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:

With the end of the year comes a bevy of new key tax planning numbers, including several delayed provisions of the SECURE 2.0 Act that are set to kick in for 2024, which are helpful for advisors to know as they discuss tax planning strategies with their clients
While individuals may, for various reasons, regret filing for Social Security benefits early, 2 strategies can help to give them a second chance to delay their benefits (and receive a higher monthly benefit as a result)
Although middle-income individuals can often benefit the most from a tax-efficient retirement withdrawal strategy in percentage terms, higher-income individuals can also see significant savings that make it worth considering the effective tax rate of each marginal dollar in retirement

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about finding ways to grow in the new year:

Why a "self-review" at the end of the year can be a valuable way to reflect on accomplishments and lessons learned from the past year, and to gain insight on how to keep progressing in the year ahead
Amidst a proliferation of advice on how to improve habits in the new year (which can quickly become overwhelming), it's better to work on changing one thing at a time, with a focus on making the change as enjoyable as the habit it's replacing
New Year's resolutions often fail because they're tied to an arbitrary date, which fades in importance as time passes – which means that more lasting change should be anchored in a deeper sense of self-identity

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Implementation Questions To Properly Prioritize And Address To-Dos For Consistent Follow-Through

December 20, 2023 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

After a financial advisor and their client have agreed on a financial plan, there are usually a lot of good feelings going around. The causes of the client's worries have been identified, there's agreement on the steps that will get the client to where they want to be, and all that's left is to take action to implement the plan. But while it seems like the momentum of the earlier steps of the planning process should carry through into the implementation stage, all too often, the opposite occurs: despite all the steps being in place, the client fails to take the agreed-on actions. While the advisor, not wanting to nag or badger the client and sour the good feelings that abounded earlier in the relationship, finds themselves at a loss for how to follow through. As a result, the plan stagnates, and the next steps – some genuinely timely and others needed to set the client on the right track for the long term – go unaddressed until the next plan update rolls around.

For advisors feeling the frustration of stalled implementation, the first step can be understanding some of the reasons that clients may hesitate to take action even when they may have previously seemed ready to act. Often, there are 3 main causes of clients failing to implement. First, when discussing future-oriented plans like retirement, clients may feel as though those plans should have a high priority for them – and yet, when it's time to make the necessary adjustments today (and often, the lifestyle tradeoffs that are needed to start saving more for the future), the needs of tomorrow suddenly have a lower priority than when everyone was simply talking about them. Secondly, clients may sometimes find themselves simply unable to carry out the tasks recommended by the advisor if those actions aren't discussed in sufficient detail. Lastly, for a client who may be new to working with a financial advisor, it may simply take time for the client to become familiar enough with the planning process and the advisor to take action. After all, conversations are one thing, but taking action can often require a great deal of trust that the advisor understands the client enough to make recommendations in their best interests.

Fortunately, advisors can help clients minimize the potential for inaction by asking some simple implementation questions after the plan has been agreed on that can help focus priorities, clarify the most important next steps, and ultimately build up a rapport that can create the foundation of trust needed before the client takes action. For example, asking the client which task they feel is most important can help reinforce the client's prioritization of the task, while asking the client to share what they know about how to accomplish the agreed-on actions can uncover any potential blocking points stemming from a client's lack of knowledge about how a task should be done.

Ultimately, the key point is that clients don't always fully understand the roadblocks that work against implementing their financial plan. Advisors can achieve more consistent follow-through when they can uncover obstacles to implementation before they happen – and by asking questions to identify these impediments, they can also help the client clarify what they need to do going forward, all while building on the client-advisor relationship that will keep the momentum moving forward each time the plan is updated and renewed (and re-implemented) in the future!

#FA Success Ep 364: Scaling Marketing To Sell A $2.2B Advisory Firm And Advising Advisors On The Lessons Learned From Selling, With Ted Jenkin

December 19, 2023 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 364th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Ted Jenkin. Ted is the consultant of JPTD Partners, a consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, that helps financial advisors gather offers, negotiate, and ultimately sell their advisory firms.

What's unique about Ted, though, is how his journey to facilitate financial advisor mergers and acquisitions started from selling his own $2.2-billion AUM advisory firm that he spent more than a decade building… and the perspective he gained as a founder who sold his firm influences the way he now helps other advisors prepare for and understand the acquisition offers placed in front of them, and their own options to exit the firms that they may have spent their careers building.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how, after Ted went through the challenge of getting multiple offers to sell his firm and struggled to figure out how to compare them, he found that many other advisors were asking him for advice based on his experience and ultimately decided to build a consulting firm to help fellow advisory firms field and compare multiple acquisition offers at once, how Ted has now come to see himself as a "Zillow for an advisory practice's worth" as he got deeper into the weeds of evaluating how buyers really assess the value of an advisory firm and price its 'true' profit margins, and how Ted's unique niche as an advisor who sold helping other advisors to sell has led to the point where after just a few years his firm is now representing 115 active advisory firms actively shopping for a buyer (allowing him to get even deeper into the current trends of what buyers are really offering and how to maximize the value of a deal).

We also talk about how Ted initially built his own advisory firm with what he calls a "manufactured celebrity" approach by immersing himself in media appearances that made him a go-to local advisor in the Atlanta area, how the success of Ted's marketing approach ironically led to severe burnout (because Ted enjoyed marketing to clients far more than the ongoing servicing of clients and management of a large multi-billion-dollar firm) that resulted in him exiting 'early' when he was still in his forties, and how Ted overcame his nerves of "becoming an employee" again as a result of selling the firm and negotiated his own buy-out deal to play into those same strengths relating to his ability to grow (ultimately resulting in a bigger payout for himself).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Ted shares what he would recommend advisors consider in their own exit plan to maximize value ( even if the transition is still years down the road), how Ted has often found that determining the real value of a firm is more complex than 'just' looking at the bottom line of a firm's profitability, and how Ted learned that while he had considerable strengths in some parts of the business, he wishes he had outsourced his weaknesses to others sooner despite his fear of giving up control (and realizes that if he had, he probably would have been able to stay with the business longer and continued to build it even bigger and make it even more valuable).

And so, whether you're interested in learning how Ted helps advisors navigate mergers and acquisitions by diving into how buyers really assess the value of advisory firms, how niching down helped him scale his consulting firm, and his transition from business owner to employee post-sale of this firm, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ted Jenkin.

2023 Highlights – The Top 22 Nerd’s Eye View Blog Posts You Might Have Missed

December 18, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

As 2023 comes to a close, I am once again so thankful to all of you, the ever-growing number of readers who continue to regularly visit this Nerd's Eye View Blog (and share the content with your friends and colleagues, which we greatly appreciate!).

We recognize (and appreciate!) that this blog – its articles and podcasts – is a regular habit for tens of thousands of advisors, but that not everyone has the time or opportunity to read every blog post or listen to every podcast that is released from Nerd's Eye View throughout the year. As many of you noted in response to our Reader Surveys, most of you choose which content to read or listen to based on headlines and topics that are of interest (and skip the rest). Yet in practice, this means that an article once missed is often never seen again, 'overwritten' (or at least bumped out of your Inbox!) by the next day's, week's, and month's worth of content that comes along.

Accordingly, just as I did last year, and in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, I've compiled for you this Highlights List of our top 22 articles in 2023 that you might have missed, along with a few of our most popular episodes of "Kitces & Carl" and the "Financial Advisor Success" podcasts. So whether you're new to the blog and #FASuccess (and Kitces & Carl) podcasts and haven't searched through the Archives yet, or simply haven't had the time to keep up with everything, I hope that some of these will (still) be useful for you! And as always, I hope you'll take a moment to share podcast episodes and articles of interest with your friends and colleagues as well!

Don't miss our Annual Guides as well – including our list of the "10 Best Financial Advisor Conferences To Attend in 2024", the ever-popular annual "2023 Reading List of Best Books For Financial Advisors", and our increasingly popular Financial Advisor "FinTech" Solutions Map and AdvisorTech Directory!

In the meantime, I hope you're having a safe and happy holiday season. Thanks again for the opportunity to serve you in 2023, and I hope you enjoy all the new features and resources we'll be rolling out in 2024 (and beyond!), too!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (December 16-17)

December 15, 2023 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that this week's round of public hearings on the Department of Labor's proposed new fiduciary rule featured fierce opposition from the brokerage and insurance industries – which, while unsurprising given those industries' stance against the DoL's previous fiduciary rule (which ultimately caused it to be struck down in court in 2018), nonetheless highlights the debate over what constitutes a relationship of "trust and confidence" that rises to a fiduciary standard, and whether broker-dealer representatives and insurance agents who hold out as advisors should continue to be regulated 'just' as product salespeople when they aren't actually giving advice.

Also in industry news this week:

Most businesses that operate in the U.S., including partnerships, LLCs, and corporations, will soon be required to report specific information on their "beneficial owners" to the Treasury Department – which notably includes all state-registered RIA firms, as well as potentially many businesses owned by clients of financial advisors
Pontera has raised $60 million in venture capital funding, highlighting the growing advisor demand for its technology for directly managing clients' 401(k) plan assets (while raising questions about whether its success will spawn future competition that could temper its growth expectations)

From there, we have several articles on practice management:

As organizations grow, employees often struggle with issues such as stretched capacity, skill gaps, and burnout, which makes it important for leaders to be attentive to the issues their employees face and to have solutions available to address those issues directly
Although performance reviews after a challenging year can be a difficult process, managers can help take them in a more positive direction by being clear about the company's future (and the employee's place within it)
For solo advisors, the decision of whether or not to hire an employee can be a difficult one, but hiring may be at least worth considering to ensure that clients can continue being served either in the event of an unexpected incapacitation or when they ultimately decide to retire

We also have a number of articles on retirement:

For people over age 70 1/2, making a Qualified Charitable Distribution from an IRA can have significant tax benefits – so much so that they're worth the often-cumbersome process required to make the contribution itself
Although bonds are currently an attractive option for retirement income given today's higher interest rates, immediate annuities can potentially provide even higher yields, making them worth considering for retirees who are likely to (at least) reach their life expectancy
Although many people focus on tax brackets when deciding which accounts to withdraw from in retirement, a strategy around managing the "effective marginal tax rate" can add material after-tax value to a client's retirement savings

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about health and wellness:

How the true secret to so-called "Blue Zones" with high concentrations of people who live beyond 100 years old might not be diet, climate, or lifestyle, but bad data
How runners can improve their training and even race times by incorporating short interludes of walking into their run
How the science of the way our nervous system is involved with digestion can uncover the key to treating and preventing digestive disorders

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 127: Creating Value Through Presence (And The 50 Fires Podcast)

December 14, 2023 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

In the world of financial advisors, tradition often emphasizes technical numbers, structure, and a firm focus on solving financial problems. However, in practice, forging a human connection – such as sitting around a fire and having a conversation, digging into emotions, feelings, and fears – and tying it to a client's mindset surrounding their financial priorities and goals can be a powerful way to encourage individuals to explore and reassess their perspectives on finances.

In our 127th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards delve into Carl's latest project – the "50 Fires" podcast. This project, in partnership with the creative team behind "The Big Bang Theory" and featured on Chip & Joanna Gaines's Magnolia Network, centers on 'campfire conversations'. In these sessions, Carl engages in heartfelt discussions with his guests about their personal relationships with money, with the goal of providing financial advisors with ideas for integrating meaningful communication prompts into their own client meetings.

While conversations between financial advisors and their clients often focus on the quantitative aspects of a client's financial life (e.g., balance sheets, investment portfolios, and retirement projections), "50 Fires" aspires to demonstrate how the qualitative aspects of a person's relationship with money can reveal personal values and priorities that provide an advisor with important situational context of a client's financial goals. Through these discussions, Carl explores the stories and wisdom embedded in religious beliefs and family practices, uncovering poignant experiences from recognizing one's socioeconomic status in junior high school because they only owned 1 pair of jeans, to symbolic moments like cherishing an unopened can of Coke because of its representation of financial prosperity in India. These narratives not only shed light on the root of a person's financial mindset but also help to understand their financial behaviors, revealing the deeper lessons learned from these experiences.

Additionally, these conversations underscore an important takeaway: clients often value the personal connections formed with their financial advisors that are based on discussions that go beyond sharing just financial concerns. While these intangible personal connections may be challenging to market, the ability to guide clients into meaningful conversations to identify the big goals and values they have regarding money is universally appreciated. Everyone has financial concerns and yearns for genuine connections with others, even when they may not be consciously aware of these things. And experiencing such a connection with a financial advisor can significantly enhance a client's willingness to engage in the financial planning process.

Ultimately, the key point is that the ability to successfully connect with prospects and clients on an emotional level, using soft skills to navigate their relationship with money, is crucial to build trust and develop stronger relationships with clients. Carl envisions "50 Fires" as a catalyst, providing the spark to ignite millions of genuine discussions about money around the world. This initiative aims to normalize everyday conversations about money while facilitating deeper connections with clients, potentially influencing not only their thought process around finances but also shaping the financial outlook of future generations!

Preserving HSA Eligibility And Maximizing Contributions After Age 65

December 13, 2023 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Retirement Planning

Although numerous tax-advantaged vehicles are available for retirement savings, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) have particular benefits for individuals saving for retirement. Specifically, HSAs offer a "Triple Tax Benefit" that includes tax-deductible contributions, tax-deferred growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses. This can allow individuals to save a significant amount that can be withdrawn tax-free for medical expenses later in retirement. Therefore, for workers looking to boost their savings towards the end of their working years, HSA contributions can be the most tax-efficient vehicle available.

The caveat, however, is that to be eligible to contribute to an HSA, an individual must be covered by a qualifying High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with no other non-HDHP coverage. And because government-funded health insurance options such as Medicare are not considered qualifying HDHP coverage, enrolling in Medicare – either directly through its website or by applying for Social Security benefits (which automatically enrolls someone in Medicare once they reach age 65) – means that an individual will no longer be eligible to contribute to an HSA.

For retirees, self-employed workers, and others who rely on Medicare as their sole option for health insurance after reaching age 65, this means there is effectively no way to contribute to an HSA after age 65. However, people who continue working beyond age 65 (or whose spouse does so) and have access to an employer-provided HDHP can continue making HSA contributions as long as they don't enroll in Medicare or apply for Social Security benefits. And because there's no age cap on HSA contributions, it's possible to keep contributing for as long as the person is still working and remains on a qualifying HDHP (although retiring and subsequently enrolling in Medicare will ultimately end HSA eligibility).

Advisors can help their clients who want to keep contributing to HSAs after age 65 by planning strategies that help to preserve their eligibility and maximize the amount they can contribute. For instance, if someone has applied for Social Security benefits and inadvertently enrolled in Medicare (which would make them ineligible for HSA contributions), they may be able to withdraw their Social Security application within 12 months and cancel their Medicare coverage to restore their eligibility – although doing so would require paying back any Social Security benefits actually received.

Additionally, when married couples have one spouse with HDHP coverage, the other spouse can enroll in Medicare without affecting the HDHP-covered spouse's HSA eligibility (and if the HDHP covers both spouses, one spouse can still contribute up to the higher family contribution limit even if the other spouse is covered by Medicare and ineligible to contribute to their own HSA).

And when someone working past age 65 does decide to retire, they will need to navigate the "6-month rule", where Medicare coverage is considered to begin 6 months before applying for benefits. This means the individual will need to plan carefully to calculate their maximum allowed HSA contribution to avoid inadvertently overcontributing to their HSA, since they may become ineligible for contributions well before they actually retire and apply for Medicare!

The key point is that while it's possible to contribute to an HSA after age 65, the specific rules around HSAs and Medicare introduce an additional layer of planning that's needed once an individual crosses the age-65 threshold. But given that the point of working past 65 is often to boost retirement savings, and given the tax-efficient benefits of HSAs as a retirement savings vehicle, the extra planning can ultimately be worthwhile on account of the additional tax-free savings for those who can navigate the challenges of doing so!

#FA Success Ep 363: Finding The Best Networking Approach For Prospects (And New Career Opportunities), With Christa Madison

December 12, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 363rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Christa Madison. Christa is the Managing Director of Financial Planning and Business Development at Sebold Capital, a fee-only RIA based in Chicago, Illinois, which manages $300M across more than 100 client households.

What's unique about Christa, though, is how she used her business development and networking skills to overcome the challenges that sprung up when, through a combination of personal and professional shifts, she found herself building her book of business from scratch, 3 separate times, and how she leveraged those pivots as an opportunity to account for how her own skills and competencies had changed and grow into larger (and more lucrative) opportunities.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Christa's start in insurance sales at Northwestern Mutual brought both successes in building a book of younger clients just beginning their career journeys, and challenges as she struggled to hit sales goals when her young clientele were more interested in starting Roth IRAs and didn't need much insurance yet, how Christa's intensive networking event schedule and simple but uniquely branded way of following up allowed her to feed into a '10-3-1' prospecting pipeline (in which on average, for every 10 prospects she approached, 3 were interested, and 1 became a client) and continually rebuild her book of business when she transitioned roles, and how despite her skillset at networking, Christa still found after having to start over 3 times that it takes 3 years, on average, for her prospecting to start to grow from scratch into its own robust referral network.

We also talk about how Christa overcame the unique challenge of maintaining professional momentum while building a family, which prompted her to step into contracting roles when she needed more flexibility and out of them when she needed more stability, how when faced with the need to find a new opportunity Christa leveraged her networking skills to find and then just walk into the lobbies of 20 local-area firms until she found one that was interested in hiring her (and got the job!), and the reason that Christa ultimately decided that as she approached her 3rd time building a book of business, she wanted to build it in the RIA channel instead.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Christa discusses why she feels that her background and early experience in the insurance channel made her a stronger financial advisor (and why she worries that advisory firms today may be underestimating the value of those experiences), how Christa's willingness to 'start over' as a paraplanner in a fee-only firm led her on the promotional fast-track to become the director of 2 departments, and how Christa found that no matter where she went, her people-first prospecting approach helped her grow a client base, especially amongst those in need of financial guidance who lacked support because they weren't 'top of the top' financial prospects for other financial advisors but were more than able to allow her to successfully grow her own practice.

So, whether you're interested in how Christa successfully navigated a reboot of her own career multiple times, how Christa adapted her services to meet the needs of young clientele who don't fit a 'traditional' client mold, or how Christa maintained career propulsion while her personal life demands evolved over time, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Christa Madison.

Announcing More Webinars And IAR CE In 2024 And The State Of The (Nerd’s Eye View) Blog

December 11, 2023 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

For most financial advisors, 2023 was a year of rebound and reinvestment, as markets bounced back from the turbulence of 2022, and expanded profit margins allowed advisory firms room to reinvest back into the services and value they're providing clients to make sure their retention stays strong in the future. Here at Kitces.com, we've similarly been in the midst of a reinvestment process in 2023, setting the foundation so that we can give even more back to the Financial Advicer community, as we continue to expand our "Team of Nerds" beyond just myself with more writers and more speakers, and develop and refine our Q-N-R standards to ensure that everything you get from Kitces.com is Quality, Nerdy, and Relevant… a standard for all Kitces content, even if it's not created by Michael.

And in the coming year, we're going to make sure that even more of that Kitces content is eligible for not only the full range of CE credit for CFP, CPA, and the other various professional designations, but also the ever-expanding IAR CE obligation. Which, thanks to the new rollouts in both California and Florida in 2024, will mean nearly half of all financial advisors who are IARs will need to fulfill the new IAR CE requirement in 2024… as once an advicer has half a dozen clients in any of the 17 states or the District of Columbia, they have to comply with the new IAR CE rules. And a lot of advicers have more than 5 clients in Florida!

In practice, this means that we'll be bringing back our popular IAR Ethics CE Day in 2024 (save the date for August 29th!), expanding IAR CE credits to apply to our monthly live webinars (in addition to our written blog content and recorded webinars), increasing the cadence of our webinars from monthly to offering 2 every month (on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month… with the recording still available for those who can't attend live), and continuing to cross-apply our Kitces content for all the other types of CE you may need as well (so you can check all the boxes at once!). Though we are implementing a small $20/year increase (from $169 to $189 per year) in the price of the Members Section to help manage the cost of rising staff salaries in the midst of inflation over the past 2 years, and to further reinvest into our Platform team to make site improvements so our content is faster to load and easier to navigate.

In the meantime, we remain committed to delivering the ongoing cadence of content that you've become accustomed to from Kitces. In 2024 we'll again feature our Marketing Summit (save the date for April 25th!) and our Financial Planning Value Summit, we'll be rolling out 2 new Advicer Research studies (on Marketing and on Productivity, as we wrap up the 2023 study on Wellbeing in the coming weeks), and we'll be building a new Kitces Course on Optimizing Roth Conversions (to complement our course on Optimizing Social Security) to be released in mid-2024.

If you (or anyone you know) wants to join our Team of Nerds, stay tuned for more openings in 2024 as well, as we anticipate hiring a new Associate Financial Planning Nerd, an Operations Associate, a new Director of Product and Platform, and a Director of Advisor Research. We'll be listing these as they become available on our Kitces Career Opportunities page, or you can sign up for our separate Career Opportunities mailing list (via that Opportunities page) to be notified when new positions open up!

Ultimately, though, the focus remains the same as it always has been – on our mission to "Make Financial Advicers Better, and More Successful" – through our 4 strategic pillars of creating Navigational resources, insightful Education, original Research, and skills Development for financial advisors (and yes, our organizational strategy really does spell out N-E-R-D 😊). I hope you'll continue to come along with us on the journey in 2024!