levine - Part 4

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Dec 26-27)

December 25, 2020 02:18 pm 5 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 finalized new advertising and marketing rules for RIAs that will, for the first time, openly permit advisors to use client testimonials (and also to highlight third-party ratings) in their marketing materials.

Also in the news this week is a deep-dive look at the new "Coronavirus Stimulus 2.0" legislation that is winding its way through Congress (with everything from stimulus checks, to a new round of forgivable PPP loans, and a bevy of financial-planning-related changes from a lower AGI threshold for medical expense deductions to a coming reworking of the FAFSA form for student financial aid), and a look at the final version of the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule (and whether it may be delayed or unwound when the Biden administration takes office, given its controversial provisions permitting ERISA fiduciaries to begin to receive commission compensation for advice recommendations).

From there, we have several articles on client communication, including a discussion of how virtual/online meetings with clients are likely to evolve in 2021 (when they're no longer a requirement, but may still be a proactive choice for many client meetings), a look at what the research says about how best to engage prospective (and current) clients in meetings, and why one of the biggest drivers in creating positive rapport with clients and prospects is not how the advisor presents themselves or what they say but the energy they bring to the meeting in the first place.

We've also included some articles on gathering client feedback to refine your advisory firm, including some tips on how to gather client feedback (hint: surveys are great, but so are old-fashioned 'spontaneous' phone calls to check in with clients about how the firm is doing), the benefits of creating a Scorecard to track client feedback over time (and be able to spot trends), and why it's especially important to gather client feedback on sensitive subjects (even though it may feel awkward because of the sensitive topic... if it's potentially going to upset clients anyway, better to do so in a format where you can still get their feedback to shape a better outcome!).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of charitable giving (during this holiday season!): the first is a look at the recent announcement that MacKenzie Scott has donated a whopping $4 billion in just the past 4 months to organizations in need (and highlighting the unique data-driven approach taken to identify 384 different organizations that received financial support); the second explores the social dynamics of sharing your charitable giving and similar good deeds with others and when "virtue signaling" is a positive (or not); and the last shares the fascinating story of Chuck Feeney, who accumulated nearly $8 billion of wealth building a business empire (in the form of the Duty-Free Shops you see at international airports around the world!)... and has spent the last 38 years giving it all away, living now as an 89-year-old in an apartment he rents in San Francisco, and having inspired other billionaires (including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett) to create the Giving Pledge to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes as well!

Enjoy the 'light' reading, happy holidays, and Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate!)!

Complications To Undoing Unwanted 2020 RMDs From The “Same-Property Rule” And Other Factors

August 20, 2020 07:12 am 5 Comments CATEGORY: Retirement Planning

As an initial response to the economic devastation created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act back in March, a $2+ trillion emergency fiscal stimulus package. In addition to several notable provisions, such as direct government payments to taxpayers and the elimination of the 10% early withdrawal penalty on distributions from retirement accounts, the CARES Act also suspended required minimum distributions (RMDs) for 2020 for IRAs, 401(ks), and other defined contribution retirement plans.

Unfortunately, the CARES Act didn’t address those who had already taken their RMD(s) – or at least what they thought were RMDs at the time – earlier in the year, but in April 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-23, which started to address this issue. More specifically, the Notice extended the rollover window deadline for distributions taken on or after February 1, 2020 to the later of July 15, 2020, or (the regular) 60 days after the distribution was received.

On June 23rd, 2020, the IRS further expanded its relief for early-year would-have-been-RMDs, when it issued Notice 2020-51. Notice 2020-51 provided unprecedented relief for many taxpayers, by not only (further) extending the rollover window for distributions that would have been 2020 RMDs (but for the CARES Act) to the later of August 31, 2020, or (the regular) 60 days after the distribution was received, but also by allowing taxpayers to ignore the prohibitions on completing multiple IRA rollovers in a 365-day period (the once-per-year rollover rule) or a rollover of a distribution from an inherited retirement account, that normally apply. The cutoff date for this unprecedented relief, however, is rapidly approaching, advisors have been fielding a flurry of questions from clients regarding the rollback guidance.

As a starting point, many clients are wondering if they have any options available if they miss the deadline. Unfortunately, distributions received more than 60 days ago, or for which a rollover would violate the one-per-year rollover rule, or that were made from an inherited IRA (401(k), or other defined contribution plan) generally won’t be able to be rolled back after the August 31, 2020 deadline. The sole exception to the hard deadline of August 31,2020 is for IRA, 401(k), and other defined contribution retirement plan owners (not beneficiaries) who can treat an early 2020 distribution as a Coronavirus-Related Distribution. More specifically, such distributions, as defined by Section 2202 CARES Act, can be returned up to three years after the date of distribution.

Meanwhile, some clients have asked what their options are if they took more than the required minimum distribution and would now like to roll those back. Unfortunately, unless such individuals are still within the 60-day window, or they can treat their distribution as a Coronavirus-Related Distribution, the portion of their distribution in excess of what would have been their 2020 RMD will not be eligible for return.

Another very common question has been around what happens when a client took an in-kind distribution earlier this year to satisfy their required minimum distribution. In many instances, the value of the distributed asset may have appreciated substantially since they were distributed. If the distribution was made from an IRA, retirees must return the same property that was taken out (as if the distribution was never made in the first place), regardless of how much the value of the property increased (or decreased) in the past few months. For those who may have already (incorrectly) returned cash to try and complete a rollover of the in-kind distribution, two steps are required to ‘fix’ the ‘problem’ without any penalties. First, the same property must be rolled back by the August 31, 2020 deadline. Second, the cash, along with any gain/loss attributable must be distributed as an excess contribution, by October 15, 2021.

Ultimately, the key point is that time is running short to return unwanted RMDs from retirement account, and while it’s possible for a limited number of retirees to classify prior distributions as Coronavirus-related distributions, the majority of individuals must take action by August 31, 2020 if they are to rollover an early year distribution that would have been an RMD, if not for the CARES Act. And while it’s possible that further relief for such amounts may be included in future stimulus bills by Congress, retirement accounts have already been specifically addressed with historic guidance, making it less likely that we’ll see future RMD relief from either Congress or the IRS.

Announcing New CFP Ethics And Enrolled Agent CE, And A Potential Kitces Virtual Marketing Summit!?

June 29, 2020 07:07 am 7 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

2020 hasn’t gone exactly as planned. From the COVID-19 global pandemic and ensuing pivot to a work-and-school-from-home model, to the stunning market crash and (even-more-stunning?) subsequent rebound, and the civil unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd, this year has presented multiple challenges. Yet, those challenges have also presented opportunities for growth, not only personally and professionally, but also for our society. Here at Kitces.com, we’ve had to make several adjustments on the fly amid conference cancellations and the shifting needs of the advisor community, but throughout, we have continued to focus on growing our platform in order to provide you, our readers, an ever-increasing array of content and solutions to help you be better financial advisors!

With that, I am excited to announce that, as part of a new pilot program with the CFP Board, this month’s June articles on the Nerd’s Eye View Blog about the CFP Board’s new Standards of Conduct are now eligible for a full 2 hours of CFP Ethics CE! Similarly, we are also happy to share that we’ve expanded our CE credit offering to cross-apply a full 16 hours of CE credit for Enrolled Agents (on top of the CFP and IWI continuing education credits we offer) for our articles that – as specified by IRS guidelines – cover Federal taxation.

In addition, we have some exciting news around new (and existing) Kitces team members. Jeff Levine formally became a full-time member of the team, assuming the role of Lead Financial Planning Nerd and expanding his capacity as both a writer for the blog and a Kitces speaker (at both live and virtual events). Sarah Keese, our new External Engagements Manager, is now handling every aspect of our speaking and consulting engagements and has also become the main point of contact for our rapidly growing number of Members Section advisors. Finally, Hannah Collman is joining the team this month as our Associate Financial Planning Nerd and will be supporting Jeff Levine with financial planning research, crafting presentations for events, as well as many other endeavors on our platform.

As part of our mission to help real financial advisors become better and more successful, part of my efforts over the years have included helping various vendors and advisor platforms in the industry better understand macro trends and opportunities. Unfortunately, though, there are only so many hours in the day – which has led to a growing waiting list for my Consulting time – and as such, we are expanding our consulting capacity by launching the Kitces Consulting Consortium and partnering with Craig Iskowitz of the Ezra Group, who will be available to provide his consulting expertise and insights around FinTech with larger advisory enterprises, from large RIAs and broker-dealers looking to make strategic technology decisions, to FinTech vendors themselves trying to iterate their products and identify advisor market opportunities, and private equity and other investment firms looking for market research and insights into industry trends.

In the meantime, we’ve also spent much of the second quarter revamping our speaking services for a virtual world, and have participated in literally dozens of educational webinars (both for various industry organizations as well as on our own platform in our Members Section) and a growing number of virtual keynotes.

In fact, as the industry becomes more comfortable with virtual conferences, we are even kicking around the idea of hosting our own “Kitces Virtual Marketing Summit” to help advisors learn more about how to market and network in a world where the traditional methods aren’t practical (or even possible) anymore. If you’d be interested in participating as an attendee, please let us know and we’ll keep you posted as we develop the prospective agenda!

We’ve seen some tremendous growth here at Kitces.com over the past 12 years (and especially in the past two as our team has grown!), and while these are challenging times, I am more excited than ever for the opportunities that lie ahead to serve the advisor community, and to help Real Financial Advisors Be Better And More Successful. So, stay tuned for more announcements, more ways to interact with our platform… and more opportunities to join the growing Kitces Team!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (June 27-28)

June 26, 2020 03:00 pm 2 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that the CFP Board has been gearing up for its new Standards of Conduct and June 30th enforcement date by launching a comprehensive background check on all 87,000 of its CFP certificants... finding 1,240 that already have potential misconduct in their regulatory reviews or background checks and allocating a whopping $5M over the next two years to investigate them and begin to clean out its own potential 'bad apples'.

Also in the news this week is some surprise relief from the IRS that anyone who took an RMD earlier this year (all the way back to January 1st) that proved to be unnecessary because the CARES Act suspended 2020 RMDs will now have until August 31st to "undo" the RMD and roll it back into their retirement account (even if it's for an inherited retirement account or would otherwise violate the once-per-year rollover rule), and a new industry study finding that the overwhelming majority (78%) of the mass affluent are already using a financial advisor and only 1% of them are dissatisfied with their advisors (suggesting that advisors are generally serving clients well, but that it may be increasingly difficult to get new clients with so many already attached to advisors they're satisfied with!).

From there, we have a number of articles around industry trends, including a look at the slow-but-steady growth of financial planning across the broader financial services industry, a glimpse of just how much money brokerage platforms are still collecting from asset managers behind the scenes in various revenue-sharing and shelf-space agreements, and how ongoing competition and especially consolidation in the RIA custodial world may soon drive a new wave of advisor migrations.

We also have a few marketing-related articles, including: tips on how to leverage any expert content you've created by 'repurposing' it across an advisor blog, social media, videos/YouTube, and podcast; suggestions on what to do to make your advisor website more compelling (hint: treat it like your professional in-person office space and make it look professional); and some new technology tools to help support the advisor marketing process (from Loom for quick videos to Zapier to connect email marketing and advisor CRM systems and Linkfire to more readily share a podcast).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of personal creativity and originality: the first explores how not fitting in and "being a weirdo" can actually support creativity; the second looks at how ADHD is also increasingly being linked with creativity and divergent thinking; and the last examines a recent study that finds we all tend to systematically underestimate our own originality, and that the average person is actually far more creative than they give themselves credit to be, as long as they spend at least a little time iterating on thinking of new ideas (because the first or second idea isn't always original, but the 5th or 6th almost always is even if we don't realize it!).

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

New Rollover Rules For Unwanted 2020 RMDs Under IRS Notice 2020-51… Welcome Relief And A Troubling Precedent

June 25, 2020 07:08 am 28 Comments CATEGORY: Retirement Planning

In response to the coronavirus global pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020. A more-than-$2-trillion-emergency fiscal stimulus package, the CARES Act was enacted to ease the effects of the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing a wide range of relief efforts to help individuals, businesses, healthcare entities, and state and local governments meet short-term cashflow demands. Among the many provisions provided by the CARES Act was the suspension of Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) during 2020. But since the CARES Act wasn’t passed until March 27, 2020, many individuals had already taken what they thought, at the time, were their 2020 RMDs!

Not surprisingly, many of those retirement account owners and beneficiaries wanted to ‘undo’ those distributions that were no longer RMDs and put them back into a retirement account. For some retirement account owners, that was possible by making a 60-day rollover. But for retirement account owners whose 60-day rollover window had already closed (including the extended window for distributions made on or after February 1, 2020 by IRS Notice 2020-23), or where such rollovers would have been a violation of the once-per-year rollover rule, or where distributions were made to non-spouse beneficiaries, there appeared to be no way to ‘unring’ the RMD ‘bell’.

Cue IRS Notice 2020-51…

On June 23^rd, the IRS released “Guidance on Waiver of 2020 Required Minimum Distributions” (Notice 2020-51), which ultimately solved all the problems noted above, allowing anyone who took a distribution (that, but for the CARES Act, would have been a RMD) to rollover that amount until August 31, 2020 .

While the IRS released Notice 2020-23 in April 2020, which extended the 6o-day rollover rule for distributions taken on or after February 1, 2020 to the later of 60 days after receipt of the distribution or July 15, 2020, individuals who took distributions prior to February 1 were excluded from the opportunity and were still unable to rollover their unwanted distributions. Notice 2020-51 provides even further 60-day rollover relief, by extending the 60-day-rollover window for all unwanted 2020 RMD distributions to the later August 31, 2020 date or 60 days after receipt of the distribution).

Notice 2020-51 provides further relief by excluding rollovers of amounts, that if not for the CARES Act would have been 2020 RMDs, from being counted as a rollover for purposes of the once-per-year rollover rule. Finally, while beneficiaries are explicitly prohibited from completing 60-day rollovers under the law, Notice 2020-51 essentially allows beneficiaries to temporarily ignore this portion of the Internal Revenue Code and rollover their 2020 inherited ‘RMDs’ until as late as 8/31/2020.

Ultimately, the new guidance just released by the IRS provides a fair and favorable outcome for people who took their RMDs earlier this year, as those individuals should not be penalized for being proactive and complying with the RMD rules early during the year. However, this is an unprecedented and potentially troubling move by the IRS, given that they do not actually have the legal authority to make this change (it is technically the job of Congress to create and amend laws). The IRS’s action can arguably be interpreted as circumventing well-defined statutes prescribed by the Tax Code, Tax Court decisions, and its own long-standing guidance via Private Letter Rulings (PLRs). While it’s unlikely that anyone will take issue with the IRS’ attempt to be fair and equitable, there’s little question that they seriously stretched their legal authority when issuing this Notice, which may set a troubling precedent moving forward.

How RIAs Can Determine If They Need To Disclose PPP Loans on ADV Part 2A

April 30, 2020 08:47 am 11 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Last month, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, providing Americans with $2+ trillion of emergency fiscal stimulus funding in response to the economic damage caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Part of the Act included the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which initially authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans intended to be used by small business owners to pay their employees during the crisis. However, the overwhelming demand for PPP loans depleted funds in a matter of just a few weeks, leading to an additional round of funding of $310B made available in late April 2020.

Accordingly, small business owners still have the opportunity to apply for funding, leaving many financial advisors faced with the decision over whether to apply for a PPP loan themselves. As while loans are intended for small businesses (with 500 or fewer employees) experiencing economic uncertainty resulting from COVID-19 who need the funding to continue business operations, advisors who receive loans also need to determine whether their loans are disclosable events.

For brokers regulated by FINRA, PPP loans are not considered disclosable events for purposes of Form U4 Question 14K, as FINRA determined that forgiveness of the PPP loan does not constitute a “compromise with creditors” because the potential for loan forgiveness is part of the original terms of the loan.

On the other hand, RIAs must disclose their PPP loans on Item 18 of the ADV Part 2A if the loan constitutes a “material fact” pertinent to the advisory relationship. In most cases, if PPP loans are used for the intended purposes of covering payroll expenses for persons performing primarily advisory functions, the loan would be considered a material fact relating to the advisory relationship. Accordingly, RIAs should be prepared to disclose their PPP loans on their ADVs.

However, while PPP loans should likely be disclosed in most circumstances, RIAs may be able to avoid such disclosure in limited situations. For example, a firm could try to avoid disclosure by claiming that the funds were obtained primarily due to the economic uncertainty posed by COVID-19, but not necessarily because they were “required”. This argument, however, may be difficult to make given the Small Business Administration’s requirement of certifying a PPP loan as necessary due to the current economic uncertainty cause by the COVID-19 crisis.

Another way that an RIA may be able to justify not disclosing receipt of a PPP loan on their ADV Part 2 would be by claiming that funding was used for the payroll of employees who were not directly involved in advisory functions (e.g., staff involved in marketing, events, receptionist duties).

Ultimately, the key point is that because RIA firms and brokers have different criteria for disclosure events, the requirements to disclose PPP loans are different for each. For brokers, the principal question is whether a compromise with a creditor has been made, whereas for RIAs the question is whether the event has a financial impact that materially (or potentially) impacts the ability to fulfill obligations to the client. As such, FINRA brokers are not required to disclose PPP loans on their U4 Forms (assuming they are used according to the original terms of the loan) but RIAs, regulated by the SEC, should lean heavily towards disclosing their PPP loans on Part 2A of their Form ADV.

Should Financial Advisors Accept (And Disclose) Paycheck Protection Program Loans?

April 23, 2020 09:52 am 59 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Last month, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2+ trillion emergency fiscal stimulus package, with the intention to mitigate the economic damage created by the Coronavirus pandemic. For many individuals and small business owners who are facing financial hardship, including many financial advisors themselves, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which originally authorized $349 billion in forgivable loans, is a compelling opportunity offered by the CARES Act providing much-needed financial relief.

While the initial round of funding was quickly depleted (as funds were exhausted only 2 weeks after applications were first accepted), Congress is now considering renewing PPP funds with an additional $310 billion. While the opportunity for relief with a loan (potentially one that is tax-free and forgivable, depending on how it is used) is attractive, the question for many financial advisors is whether or not they should take a loan in the first place, as there are many factors for advisors to consider.

First is whether the funds being requested are truly necessary to keep the business running, and whether the advisor really does need the funds as much as the next person in danger of losing their business. PPP funding is forgivable only if used for specific purposes (namely, payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, and interest on other loans incurred prior to February 15, 2020); importantly, loans are not intended to serve as a ‘rainy-day’ fund or as reserves for future anticipated hardship.

Another important consideration that advisors should make is around disclosure requirements. As while PPP loans are not required to be disclosed in item 14K on FINRA Form U-4, they may need to be included in Item 18B of the Adviser’s ADV. Furthermore, while the ADV disclosure is not considered a derogatory mark against the advisor by regulatory agencies, clients (or potential clients) may feel otherwise. However, the manner in which the advisor chooses to present themselves to clients can influence their perception of the disclosure (e.g., some advisors who openly talk about the loan with clients have encouraged those who also need financial relief to apply for a loan; this approach has worked well to inspire some clients).

Ultimately, the key point is that the PPP has been (and, if more funding becomes available, can continue to be) a valuable resource that may help financial advisors in financial distress caused by the Coronavirus. While there are many considerations to make before choosing to apply for a loan, advisors should think quickly and be ready to apply for funding should more funds become available.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Apr 4-5)

April 3, 2020 02:57 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, even as the country is still absorbing the outcomes of last week's $2 trillion CARES Act stimulus, President Trump has begun to advocate for another $2 trillion round of stimulus, this time focused on major infrastructure spending that both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged is long overdue, but raising the question of whether the parties can come together to pass such bipartisan legislation on the heels of what has already been the largest economic stimulus legislation in history.

Also in the news this week is a flurry of focus on the new Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the CARES Act as it opens its application process today with the potential for small businesses (including advisory firms) to receive up to $10M in tax-free forgivable loans to support their employees (but on a first-come first-served basis and the risk that the $350B allocation will have more demand than dollars to allocate), and the news from the SEC that, despite economic turmoil and business disruptions, it is sticking with its June 30th effective date for Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI).

From there, we have a number of articles about how advisors are managing the current investment environment, including a discussion of how rebalancing software has found its moment to shine amidst the pressure for rapid rebalancing trades where taking days, or even just hours, to queue up trades can result in a material difference in price, and how market turmoil is leading to an uptick of interest in third-party models and even entire TAMP platforms, as small-to-mid-sized advisory firms realize the time challenges of doing both a burst of reallocating portfolios and reassuring clients at the same time.

We also have a few articles on the current work-from-home environment, including tips about how to avoid "Zoom bombing" (where hackers can interrupt your Zoom meeting with offensive material!), tips on how to improve your webcam setup to be a little more visually flattering, and some additional suggestions on how to remain productive when (suddenly) transitioning to a new work-from-home environment.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of leadership in these challenging times: the first explores the importance of developing team members to have their own autonomy to take risks and make decisions (especially in a bear market when there's too much to be done for the firm owner to make all the decisions); the second explores how fear in the midst of business risks can unwittingly cause advisory firm owners to clamp down at the exact moment it's crucial to empower employees more; and the last provides some helpful tips about how to be an effective leader in times of crisis... including recognizing that even if your advisory firm is not in trouble, employees don't necessarily know that, and still need enhanced communication from the leadership, if only to give them confidence that the firm really will be OK!

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Announcing New Members Section Tiers And Re-Visioning Nerd’s Eye View For The 2020s

January 13, 2020 07:07 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

When the 2010s began, the primary business of Kitces.com was selling $149/year subscriptions to The Kitces Report, our paid monthly newsletter on advanced financial planning topics that provided CFP CE credit. And ‘on the side’ we launched the Nerd’s Eye View blog, as a way to share content on industry trends and practice management – content that might help advisors to be more successful but wouldn’t necessarily be eligible for CFP CE.

Over the past decade, though, the Nerd’s Eye View blog grew exponentially – now to more than 250,000 unique visitors every month – driving a shift of our content to be increasingly available for free through the blog, and The Kitces Report to become part of a broader “Kitces.com Members Section” that offered fewer newsletter issues but also with other ways to earn CE credit (including CE credits for the Nerd’s Eye View blog and a growing library of webinars).

Now, however, the growth of the Kitces.com platform is allowing us to expand the Members Section even further. Beginning in February, our Basic tier will provide a series of new webinars available every month (in addition to CE opportunities for our Nerd’s Eye View blog content), and the Premier tier will gain access to all of our webinar (and The Kitces Report) archives, a new Kitces Graphic Library for advisors to use our blog graphics with their clients and prospects, and a new private Members-Only Office Hours for the advisor community to ask questions of Michael and the team directly. In addition, Kitces.com will soon be part of a pilot program to develop written CFP Ethics CE, which should become available to both Basic and Premier tiers in the second quarter!

To support the growth of the Kitces.com Members Section, we’re also excited to announce a number of new additions to the team, including Erica Crane as our new Senior Technical Editor, Matt Nelson as our new Director of Advisor Education, and promotions for Jeff Levine (now officially our ‘Lead Financial Planning Nerd’) and for Rachel Zeller (from Operations Manager to Managing Director)… with more hires anticipated in the coming year as we continue to expand the Kitces.com services to the advisor community!

As ultimately, the reality is that we’re still just getting started here at Kitces.com. While the decade of the 2010s was about a mission of “Advancing Knowledge in Financial Planning”, in the 2020s we’re expanding our mission further to “Helping Financial Advisors Be Better, And More Successful” – better in the technical knowledge of financial planning and the skills to deliver that advice, and more successful in your career, your business, or whatever it is that ‘success’ means to you. Which means in the 2020s you’ll see not only our ongoing educational Nerd’s Eye View content, but also more Research on best practices in being a successful financial advisor, more Resources to help you be successful in your career or business, and new programs to help you further build your financial planning skills.

I’m so thankful to all of you, our readers, for joining us on the journey this far, and I can’t wait to share more of what we’re working on in years to come!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Dec 28-29)

December 27, 2019 02:54 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a deeper-dive look at the SECURE Act (now that it is officially signed into law), as advisors get up to speed on the real-world planning implications and conversations that must happen with clients in the coming year. Also in the news this week is a major across-the-board fee cut from DFA, which ultimately amounts to 'just' 1-8 basis points of fee cuts and an asset-weighted cut of just 8% of their fees, but still sends a signal that even DFA is feeling the growing pressure of fee cuts (though in the end, such cuts may hurt DFA's competitors even more?).

From there, we have several articles on cash flow and spending behaviors, from an "investment pyramid" of the areas to focus on first (i.e., set goals before trying to focus, have good savings habits before worrying about asset allocation, etc.), the second looks at how complex strategies can help create wealth but it's crucial to fix the 'simple' behaviors first (most notably, spending less than we make and having ongoing savings!), and the last examines the research around whether the shift to cashless "e-money" through smartphones will lead us to lose control of our spending (hint: perhaps not, as seeing the money subtracted from our e-wallet immediately may still yield the digital equivalent of the pain of paying [with cash]).

We also have a few articles on marketing, from why email is not dead but buying email lists is (and how to build your own email list instead), what "marketing brand archetypes" are and how they can help you refine your marketing messaging, why paying for "reach" to get your marketing message out more widely isn't necessarily a good idea (it's about reaching the right people, not just more people), and how you can get through a marketing (or writing) mental block by trying to picture one specific person you're aiming to help (and then craft your messaging to be relevant and on-target for that specific person... and likely everyone else similar to them who may also need your help!).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of New Year's resolutions and habit change: the first explores the research about why it is that New Year's resolutions (and habit change in general) so often fails; the second delves even further into the problem with trying to make "SMART" concrete new Year's goals (instead of trying to appeal to our own 'superordinate goals' of what we aspire towards); and the last provides some even more concrete tips about how to actually get more done in the coming year as 2019 comes to a close.

Enjoy the 'light' reading!