Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's issue starts off with three big articles on industry trends: the first is a review of the comment letter submitted by the Financial Planning Coalition to the SEC, with a growing cadre of high-profile organizations supporting a fiduciary duty; the second is an interesting look at how CFP certification continues to grow in the large firm environment, even though some firms aren't entirely convinced the certification results in higher professional success; and the third looks at some of the trends with RIAs, including how margins are getting squeezed as the advisor environment gets more competitive. In a similar vein, there's also an article discussing some of Bob Veres' latest perspective about whether many advisors may actually be misjudging their competitive environment and undercharging clients.
From there, we have several technical articles this week, including a roundtable discussion about implementing a tactical asset allocation investment approach in your firm, a look from Moshe Milevsky at how in Chile the biggest annuity problem is that so many people choose to annuitize, a summary of some of the big changes coming to the healthcare system in 2014 as the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act kick in, and good overview of the health insurance exchanges in particular will work as they open up on October 1st, and an interesting warning from The Slott Report about clients who may be using their retirement plans to fund a business venture but are not reporting it properly on Form 5500 to the IRS.
We wrap up with two final articles: the first is a summary of a recent "Barron's top advisors" panel sharing what the keys to success were for them (most common theme: specialize); and the second is a good read from Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal about our shaken trust in the integrity of the financial system, and how important it is - due to our behavioral biases - that we continue to see ourselves living in a just world, which means it's still important for regulators to get more aggressive against wrongdoing, for Wall Street to show some contrition for its actions, or ideally both. Enjoy the reading!