Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition kicks off with several big news announcements, including President Obama's public endorsement of the Department of Labor's looming fiduciary proposal, Envestnet's acquisition of robo-advisor-for-advisors platform Upside Advisor barely more than a year into its existence, and the decision of Fidelity to merge its broker-dealer and RIA custodian clearing units into one while also creating a new Fidelity Wealth Technologies division to push forward the company's increasing focus on next generation technology.
From there, we have several investment-related articles this week, from the emerging "existential" crisis for indexing (and whether non-cap-weighting indices like fundamental indexing represent true "indexing" at all), to whether rebalancing really does increase returns or not, to the opportunities of "local investing". There are also discussion of the surging popularity of cash balance pension plans for high-income professionals and small business owners, a nice "lessons learned" article about the world of investment management, and an interesting look at whether owning long-term Treasury bonds might still make sense even at today's low rates (think: defending against deflation risk that could take rates even lower from here).
We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first is a look at the life of 109-year-old Irving Kahn, an investment adviser who started in the business in 1928, profited by shorting stocks in the crash of 1929, and ultimately went on to become a deep value investor after working as a research assistant directly under investing legend Benjamin Graham; the second article is a discussion of how parents should properly set allowances for children, suggesting that most parents do not give children nearly enough responsibility with money early on when it can be best used to teach important lessons about values; and the last is a look at how the "Uberization" of work could lead to an entirely new era of how we find employment and earn money, that may allow for more flexible work than ever, but also lead to a significant decline in the stability and security of employment, with profound ramifications for how we give career, earnings, and saving advice to young people today.
And be certain to check out Bill Winterberg's "Bits & Bytes" video on the latest in advisor tech news at the end, including the Envestnet acquisition of Upside Advisor, the "Superfish" vulnerability on Lenovo laptops, and a new integration from mobile dictation service Mobile Assistant!
