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Are Vanguard And RIA Custodians Like Schwab And Fidelity The New Disruptive Threat To Independent Financial Advisors?

June 15, 2015 07:01 am 29 Comments CATEGORY: Planning Profession

Wealth management – a combination of investment management and holistic financial planning advice, typically for affluent clientele – has become an increasingly dominant model in recent years. The transition to wealth management has spurred a massive shift to fee-based accounts, the explosion of independent and hybrid RIAs, and the success of a growing number of providers to independent advisors, from custodial platforms like Schwab and Fidelity to asset managers like Vanguard and DFA.

Yet an emerging transition appears to be underway, as a growing number of asset management platforms are no longer just providing support services to financial planners, but are entering the business themselves. From Schwab’s growing number of managed-account solutions (including its new Schwab Intelligent Portfolios) paired with increasingly-CFP-based branch consultants, to Fidelity’s acquisition of financial planning software and push for hiring CFP professionals as well, to Vanguard’s massive launch of its Personal Advisor Services platform - and TD Ameritrade announcing they plan to expand both their Amerivest and "Private Client Services" programs that blend technology with humans providing financial advice - the trend of “insourcing” financial planning has begun.

And what’s notable about this trend is that, given the existing size of these asset managers, their transition to offering financial advice allows them to immediately offer services at a size and scale beyond even the largest independent advisory firms. This gives the companies not only the potential to compete aggressively on price, but to utilize their massive marketing budgets and already-nationally-recognized brands to rapidly scale their marketing and drive growth even faster.

The end result is that independent advisors may increasingly find themselves in competition in the future with a number of large companies who also serve them as asset managers and RIA custodians. This will not necessarily undermine the existing clients of advisory firms – there are lower-hanging fruit for the new players to pursue, including converting retail clients already on their platforms – but presents a significant new headwind and challenge for future clients and growth, unlike anything independent advisors have ever seen before.

And perhaps most notable of all will be the rise of Vanguard’s personal financial advice solution. Not only because Vanguard is already the largest asset manager with the largest existing client base to solicit for planning services, but because its unique “mutual” company structure means it may simultaneously become the largest financial planning firm, and the first to operate solely in the interests of the clients who implicitly own it, without having a separate corporate profit motive. Welcome to the new disruption – the first “mutual financial planning” company has arrived.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Jun 13-14)

June 12, 2015 02:30 pm 23 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that now TD Ameritrade is joining the "robo" race with a direct-to-consumer offering that will expand its current Amerivest program to compete against the likes of Vanguard and Schwab, including a new "Private Client Services" that may potentially compete against the RIAs who use TDA's custodial services, too. And also in the news this week was the announcement that Pershing is launching its own robo-advisor-for-advisors solution, partnered with newcomer Marstone.

From there, we have a few technical planning articles this week, from a look at important IRA-rollover-related "goofs" to avoid, to a discussion of the potential crackdown coming on Family Limited Partnership (FLP) valuation discounts via new Treasury Regulations that may soon be issued, and also a discussion of how income annuities may better support the fixed-income portion of a retirement portfolio over just using traditional bonds.

We also have several practice management articles, including: how advisors are increasingly adopting "virtual" location-independent business models that serve clients through telephone, email, and video conferencing technology; a discussion of how advisors operating as a sole proprietorship or single-member LLC could be creating client continuity planning problems; a look at the benefits of "reverse mentoring" (where experienced advisors take on a Millennial to get their own mentoring about today's 20- and 30-somethings); how employees at many advisory firms are actually quite unhappy, and why the fix is not just to pay them more; and a discussion of best practices to try to minimize employee turnover and retain to advisory firm talent.

We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first is a look at whether the whole concept of monthly "budgeting" is overrated or outright impossible, as research increasingly shows the reality is simply that our income and expenses are not as stable and consistent as a typical budgeting process would imply; the second is an in-depth look at how a credit bureau "security freeze" works and why advisors might consider it for themselves and their clients; and the last is a discussion of whether Wall Street's threat to abandon small investors if the DOL's fiduciary comes to pass may be both an empty threat, and one that is irrelevant because if Wall Street does abandon small investors, there are other organizations like Garrett Planning Network, XY Planning Network, and more, ready and waiting to fill the void.

And be certain to check out Bill Winterberg's "Bits & Bytes" video on the latest in advisor tech news at the end, including the announcement of Pershing's new partnership with robo-advisor-for-advisors Marstone, recent major growth milestones for advisor-client PFM solution Wealth Access, and a new open-sourced wealth management platform that advisory firms might develop for their own use, called Wealthbot.io.

Enjoy the reading!

Building Your Own Low-Cost Equity-Indexed Annuity Or Structured Note

June 10, 2015 07:01 am 27 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

Given the market volatility of the past 15 years, with both the “tech wreck” and the financial crisis, a growing number of consumers are seeking more safety for their investment portfolios, through everything from more proactive risk management strategies, to using products like equity-indexed annuities and structured notes that explicitly provide for "some" upside participation in bull markets, but with downside protection in a bear market.

Yet the reality is that constructing downside protection and a principal guarantee over time doesn’t actually require products like equity-indexed annuities and structured notes. They can actually be constructed with relatively simple combinations of bonds and either stocks or equity index options. In fact, just buying a portfolio of bonds and using the interest to buy at-the-money call options is sufficient to produce a partial upside participation rate in equities with a downside guarantee!

Unfortunately, though, creating such pairings can be especially difficult in low interest rate environments, as there simply isn’t enough yield to afford very many options contracts, which in turn results in relatively low equity participation rates. Yet given that annuity companies and structured note providers are subject to the same constraints, in the end investors will likely suffer from low returns in such solutions, regardless of which vehicle is used… and in fact may have the greatest upside potential by simply constructing the strategies themselves, and avoiding the internal costs of such products in the first place!

Advisor Succession Challenges – Issues To Negotiate And When To Walk Away

June 8, 2015 07:01 am 18 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

While buying into an advisory firm can be an incredible opportunity in the long run, there are also some very important caveats and potential problems to consider, in terms of both the financial terms of the succession deal, and also the more nuanced challenges of participating as one of several partners in a multi-owner firm.

In some cases, the problem is as “simple” as the fact that the business is not actually very profitable, especially once accounting for a reasonable salary to the existing owners of the practice (given that if/when they retire, a comparable salary must be paid for their replacement to do the same job duties!). Similarly, sometimes the problem is just that the valuation of the business is unrealistic, especially when it is valued based on a multiple of revenues but does not have very healthy profit margins to support that multiple.

On the other hand, some of the most challenging problems that crop up when buying into an advisory firm are more nuanced; for instance, if the timing of profit distributions won't line up to when the required loan payments are due, or when there are significant disagreements between the (new and existing) owners about how much to withdraw from the practice versus reinvest for the future. Often, it’s feasible to work through these conflicts – or even bring in an outside expert – but unfortunately, sometimes the only resolution is to raise the issues in advance, negotiate where possible, and if the challenges can't be resolved, to walk away from the deal.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Jun 6-7)

June 5, 2015 02:29 pm 23 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the announcement that SIFMA is aiming to head off the DOL's fiduciary proposal by putting forth its own new uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers, even as critics note that the SIFMA proposal would fail to achieve exactly what the DOL proposal is meant to do: place meaningful restrictions on the worst practices that can cause client harm.

From there, we have a few technical planning articles this week, from a look at senior housing trends and the tendency of seniors to move (or not) when they retire, to a discussion of how to create a 'bridge' portfolio for clients who are delaying Social Security and need to come up with cash flows during the intervening delay years, an article about how to open the conversation about prenups with your clients who are getting married, and a review of the new FBAR rules for reporting foreign financial accounts that all U.S. citizens must comply with or soon face stiff penalties.

We also have several practice management articles, including: how advisors who are dragging their feet about succession planning may need to do some self-reflection to identify their fears and blocking points; tips on how to actually upgrade the quality of your client service; how to ensure you're complying with the RIA requirements for getting "best execution" for your clients; and how to think about whether your advisory firm, if you're hit a growth wall, needs to hire an operations manager or a chief operating officer (COO) instead.

We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first covers a recent high-profile McKinsey consulting report that suggests robo-advisors may not win the day, but that "virtual advice" delivered remotely by human advisors using technology may be the emerging major trend; the second looks at how the emerging "Internet Of Things" could dramatically change retirement, from medication dispensers that remind you if you're behind, to a coffee-maker that can alert your family if your sleep habits have changed; and the last is a look at how advisors are beginning to shift their compensation models... not necessarily because of the "robo-advisor" threat, but simply due to competitive pressures with other advisors, the ongoing evolution of advisory firm business and service models, and a desire to reach new types of clientele.

And be certain to check out Bill Winterberg's "Bits & Bytes" video on the latest in advisor tech news at the end, including John Hancock's acquisition of advisor PFM solution Guide Financial, the release of Fox Financial Planning Network's "AdvisorTouch Symphony" practice management resources to support advisory firms that want to roll out their own online investment service, and the announcement that Wealthminder has raised $1.45M in capital to expand their white-label online-advice-solution for advisors.

Enjoy the reading!

9 Out Of Top 10 CNBC “Fee-Only” Advisory Firms Not Actually Fee-Only?

June 3, 2015 02:55 pm 59 Comments CATEGORY: Industry News

Earlier today, CNBC released its second annual list of the "Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms" to the public. In cultivating the list, CNBC noted that consumers should "make sure you understand how that [advisor] gets paid, and that means [understanding] fees vs commissions" and that "fee-only financial planners... do not accept any commissions or other compensation based on product sales." Independent RIAs were then ranked based on a "proprietary formula" including assets under management, having staff with professional designations like CFP or CFA, average account sizes, growth of assets, years in the business, and comprehensiveness of advice (even on insurance solutions).

Yet a deeper look at the Form ADV Part 2 disclosures of just the top 10 firms on CNBC's "fee-only" list reveals that 9 out of 10 of them share in insurance commissions, own an insurance agency, or are under common ownership alongside an insurance affiliate to which advisory clients are referred. In other words, 9 out of 10 of CNBC's "Top Fee-Only" firms would not actually be fee-only under the CFP Board's compensation disclosure rules.

Notably, the CNBC list does focus exclusively on registered investment advisers (RIAs), and in most cases the RIA firm does not receive any insurance commissions directly (though it does happen in at least one situation, as RIA status does not technically ban commissions). Nonetheless, in 9 out of 10 cases, the RIA does have a clearly related entity or relationship that generates commissions - to the point that ironically, those "fee-only" firms themselves actually disclose those commissions and the conflict of interest it creates in their own Form ADVs!

Ultimately, the fact that a firm (or its related entities) get commissions doesn't automatically merit any complaints or mean it is a "bad" firm - it's about doing whether the firm does what's right for the client (and is held accountable for it), not how the client pays for it. Nonetheless, this incident suggests that at best, the phenomenon first revealed in the now-infamous Camarda vs CFP Board case - where advisors hold out as "fee-only" based on their RIA but have a commonly owned/related insurance entity to collect commissions anyway - may be far more widespread and common than realized. And in the meantime, these firms are placed in an awkward position with the CFP Board, with its existing precedent in the Camarda and subsequent Goldfarb cases to issue public letters of admonition when commission-and-fee firms hold out as "fee-only" - though notably, in this case there is no evidence that any the firms themselves have ever represented themselves as "fee-only", beyond the unfortunate fact that CNBC has misclassified them as such on its very public list of "Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms"!