Nerd's Eye View blog

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Dec 17-18)

December 16, 2022 02:00 pm 1 Comment CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that CFP Board is forming a Competency Standards Commission in 2023 to review and evaluate its competency requirements for Education, Examination, Experience, and CE, which represents an opportunity for CFP Board to adjust its requirements, in alignment with the desires of the CFP community itself, to build confidence among the public that those with the CFP marks really will provide them with a consistently high level of financial planning advice!

Also in industry news this week:

While the FPA is going full steam ahead on its federal and state lobbying efforts to regulate the title “financial planner”, CFP Board is more focused on increasing recognition of the CFP marks
A recent survey suggests that Americans who use a financial advisor are less stressed than those who do not, but that the perceived price of advice is a deterrent to many (even those with significant assets)

From there, we have several articles on practice management:

Why it is important for advisors charging on a fee-for-service basis to regularly reassess their pricing, and best practices for letting current clients know about a fee increase
How advisors can benefit from reviewing their list of clients and letting go those who are no longer good fits for the firm
How firms can best leverage their internal data to improve the number of client referrals they receive

We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:

While weak stock and bond market performance has challenged advisors and their clients this year, these trends have likely increased the ‘safe’ withdrawal rate for new retirees
How the tontine, a centuries-old financial product has made a comeback this year as a way to mediate longevity risk
A recent survey indicates that Americans broadly feel like they are behind on their retirement saving, with those closest to retirement age most likely to think they need to catch up

We wrap up with three final articles, all about personal growth:

The lessons entrepreneurs and investors can take from the life and career of Warren Buffett
How individuals can best harness their willpower to achieve their biggest goals
While financial advisors regularly give advice to clients, more care is needed when giving unsolicited advice to friends and family

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 101: Where Are All The Proudly Premium-Fee Advisors?

December 15, 2022 07:09 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

For the better part of a decade, the financial services industry has anticipated the coming of fee compression, mainly due to the rise of robo-advisors offering low-cost automated wealth management services. Yet even though fee compression has not been fully realized to the extent the industry has generally expected, lower cost robo-advisor services have still compelled financial advisors to maintain relatively low fees. But when advisors continually add services as a means to differentiate themselves from other advisors, keeping fees low can prevent those advisors from maintaining high-quality talent and services, not to mention being able to reinvest in the business to grow and scale.

In our 101st episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss the challenges advisors face in setting fees commensurate to their service offerings and the importance of charging sustainable fees to help businesses flourish.

As a starting point, it’s important to understand that staying competitive doesn’t necessarily mean advisors need to have the lowest fees. Many advisors have focused on obtaining deeper levels of expertise in broader areas and offering more in-house planning services in those areas (e.g., tax and estate planning) to differentiate themselves. Yet, in order to sustain these value-added services, advisors need to be able to offer competitive salaries to retain the talent responsible for providing them! Which is important, as salaries have become more transparent, enabling employees to find positions that will offer them the salary compensation they feel they deserve. However, advisors who feel obligated to keep their fees low but who also feel the need to continually add services to justify their fees often risk losing employees (especially the ones that are most talented!) and create more challenges for themselves to maintain ongoing success.

Importantly, reflecting on the quality and types of services they offer can help advisors identify the right (i.e., accurately comparable) industry benchmarks to compare themselves with, so that the fees they charge for the services they provide are in alignment with what they are actually worth. And advisors who offer premium services can justifiably ask for premium fees, which means it can be completely appropriate for firms that go above and beyond to adjust fees higher than what they may have been originally charging!

Ultimately, the key point is that advisors who offer above-average services should be compensated accordingly, which may require charging above-average fees. And while raising fees may feel scary for advisors who fear they may be asking for unreasonable prices, it can be worthwhile to consider that a small step increase of just 10% (e.g., asking for 1.1% AUM instead of 1.0%) can still yield a significant rise in revenue that would provide capacity for better services, talent, and tools. Many advisors join the industry to help clients achieve their financial goals, and by charging the right fees that are commensurate with their expertise and value, they not only position themselves to remain competitive, but they also ensure that they have the means to sustainably grow their businesses!

Simplify Decision-Making For Clients By Shifting The Perspective To Their Future Selves

December 14, 2022 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

Change is difficult, and when faced with the prospect of a change, many people opt to stick with the status quo. This is even true in the case of positive changes, such as a new job opportunity or relationship: Even though it might be very likely to make the person’s life better, it represents a departure from life as usual, and there is always the risk that the change won’t work out the way it was expected to. As a result, people are often reluctant to make decisions when doing so would result in a significant change; this can result in ambivalence about taking action to make improvements in one’s life – including the types of financial decisions that advisors work with their clients to make.

Advisors encounter this ‘status quo bias’ with clients who resist taking action on recommendations. Even though the client may agree with the advisor on the action they should take and understand the steps they need to follow, they might still hesitate to follow through on the strategy. And while it can be tempting to chalk this up to forgetfulness, disorganization, or a failure of the client to be fully convinced that the strategy is right for them, the client’s hesitation to act is often the result of their ambivalence and fear around change.

What’s often challenging for advisors in helping a client overcome their ambivalence is that the client is often already aware that their feelings may be irrational, so simply trying to convince them via numbers and logic might be counterproductive: the client doesn’t need to be persuaded that the strategy might be in their best interests; rather, it’s helping them come to terms with the emotional aspect of the decision. And so spurring the client to take action often requires the advisor to focus on helping the client work through their emotional response to the prospect of change.

While discussions around emotional topics can be difficult because of the likelihood of triggering a strong emotional reaction, one method that advisors can use to help their clients overcome their resistance is to ask them what their ‘future self’ would think about the decision. This reframing invites the client to imagine themselves after they have already made the change under consideration – effectively shifting the ‘status quo’ from the client’s current state to their hypothetical future self. And once the client is in that future frame of mind, they can view the decision as if it were in hindsight rather than as a change yet to come – allowing them to temporarily bypass the emotions tied to the change and helping them focus more objectively on the features of their life that are truly meaningful to them!

The key point is that, when entertaining and planning for a new idea or opportunity (e.g., a new job, house, or phase of life), it is common to just keep doing what we are already doing – and when what we are currently doing is working well enough, the emotional ‘cost’ of change often outweighs the potential benefits, even if the new opportunity is truly better. Asking the client what their future self would think can bring in a new perspective, helping to overcome emotional ambivalence in a non-invasive way.

#FA Success Ep 311: Unlocking Growth By Asking For A Referral Commitment And Then Showing Value, With Terry Parham Jr.

December 13, 2022 07:08 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 311th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Terry Parham Jr. Terry is the CFO and Co-Founder of Innovative Wealth Building, an independent RIA based in California, Maryland that oversees nearly $330 million in assets under management for almost 900 client households.

What's unique about Terry, though, is how, after nearly ‘failing’ out of the business because he was struggling to get new enough clients in his first 2 years, he changed his approach to asking for referrals by asking prospects upfront to commit to making a referral only after he showed them real financial planning value… and within 18 months his new approach had turned around his entire career to become one of the fastest-growing advisors at his entire company.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Terry’s approach to gaining more referrals (and minimizing any need for other prospecting efforts) by asking clients to commit in their initial introductory meeting that they would provide him a referral in the future if they found his financial planning recommendations to be valuable… and then followed up after the financial plan was delivered, and the value was provided, with the referral request for them to follow through on their part. We also talk about how, after leaving a former firm (and his referral sources), Terry decided to rebuild his practice through hosting dinner seminars on Social Security and Medicare with a third-party marketing solution that would send out the mailers, provided the presentation materials, and was able to consistently get $3M to $5M of new AUM from each event at a net marketing cost of less than $2,000 per event, and why Terry took a lot of time to confer with colleagues and conduct research on what makes an advisory business successful before ultimately going independent to create the value he really wanted to be able to provide to his clients.

We also talk about how, early on in his career and on the verge of being fired, Terry realized he suffered from a lack of confidence and found that drawing for clients on a white board not only enhanced his ability to relay information and connect with his clients but also built his own confidence, why, despite winning multiple awards as a top producer, Terry decided to part ways with his former firm on principle and start over again because he didn’t like some of their corporate policies, and why Terry equates his transition to independence to the experience gained through dating, as by working for multiple firms over the first decade of his career he was able to learn what he liked and didn’t like, and was eventually able to realize when it was time for the next level of commitment (like moving from dating to marriage).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Terry shares the tension he felt when working at a large firm where he was expected to recommend “good enough” products and strategies when he really wanted to be in a position where he could truly say he was performing due diligence across all products to find the best solutions for his clients, why Terry believes that even though the financial services industry can be intimidating for newer advisors, it’s important to not focus on what others are doing and instead, leverage resources and put in the hard work necessary to earn your experience and learn what works for you, and why Terry believes that simply being a founder of an advisory business doesn’t mean he’s successful, as like raising a child, it is in continual hard work, mentorship, and improvement (even if it’s just incremental) that helps the business grow up to its full potential that really defines its success.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about why Terry never settled at his previous firms and eventually decided to launch his own firm, how Terry presented his value to prospective clients to gain referral commitments, or how Terry leveraged dinner seminars and third-party marketing teams to help him connect with more of the right types of clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Terry Parham Jr.

Announcing Expanded IAR CE And Price Updates And The State Of The (Nerd’s Eye View) Blog

December 12, 2022 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

Financial advisors have had to navigate many challenges in 2022, from an inflationary environment, the likes of which we have not experienced in decades, to weak stock and bond market performance. Here at Kitces.com, we have sought to provide advisors with the insights and education they need to help their clients (and their firms) navigate these uncertain conditions, from blog posts and podcasts on these trending topics to the continued expansion of our Kitces Courses and our popular monthly Office Hours and webinars.

Earlier this year, we introduced our own Investment Adviser Representative (IAR) CE programs that allow those in the growing number of states that have adopted the NASAA Model Rule to meet their 12 hours/year CE requirement. Combined with the continued availability of CE credit for CFP certification, CPA and EA licenses, and various Investment & Wealth Institute (IWI) and American College designations, Kitces Premier Members have a wide variety of opportunities to fulfill their CE requirements.

To keep pace with the current inflationary environment (which also comes with a new CFP Board fee for CE credits and rising staff costs), the Kitces Members Section will be implementing a concomitant $20/year increase in its annual membership fee for Premier Members in 2023, from $149/year to $169/year (the first increase in 3 years!). In addition, Kitces.com will be required to collect a new $36/year “IAR CE Reporting Fee” from advisers who choose to earn IAR CE with Kitces.com to cover the new mandatory reporting costs being imposed on CE providers reporting CE credits completed by IARs.

Notably, as part of the pricing change, we will be making significant investments into the back end of the Kitces platform on behalf of members as well, including hiring a new Senior Director of Platform and Product, who will lead our 2 full-time developers in a significant overhaul of the underlying architecture of the site, to make it faster and easier to navigate in the year(s) to come! We will also be hiring a new Director of Advisor Education, Instructional DesigNerd, and Director of Advisor research soon to support our efforts to provide the best educational content for Advicers. Advisors can also look forward to the release of our newest Kitces Course, “How To Review Insurance Documents To Ensure Clients Understand Their Risk And Address Gaps In Their Coverage” in early 2023, and can take a look at new investments in our AdvisorTech Directory, including the addition of AdvisorTech Satisfaction scores and Integration scores.

In 2023, Kitces Premier Members will also get to experience new formats for our monthly Office Hours sessions, which will include “Software Showcases” to help advisors select between tools in key AdvisorTech categories, as well as “Advisor Makeover” sessions, where industry consultants and I will give advisors real-time feedback on their websites, pricing, firm finances, compensation structures and more!

Ultimately, though, we are still just getting going with the ongoing growth of the Kitces platform as we continue to execute on providing Advicers with relevant content across our 4 strategic pillars: Navigation, Education, Research, and Development (and yes, our organizational strategy really does spell out N-E-R-D!). All in pursuit of our mission: Making Financial Advicers Better, And More Successful. I hope you’ll continue the journey along with us in 2023 and beyond!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Dec 10-11)

December 9, 2022 02:04 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 amid concern that retail investors are paying ‘hidden’ fees in the form of suboptimal execution of their trades, the SEC is preparing to propose a “Regulation Best Execution” rule that would, among other measures, establish a best execution standard for brokers. Though given that potentially conflicted practices such as ‘payment for order flow’ are a source of revenue for brokers, such regulation could portend a shift back to explicit transaction fees as they seek to maintain their top line.

Also in industry news this week:

A recent survey indicates that retirement plan sponsors currently using financial advisors to support their plan are overwhelmingly satisfied with the service they receive, which also leads to improved retirement savings for their employees
Recruitment has become the top concern for RIAs, according to a Charles Schwab survey, outpacing client acquisition through referrals and other priorities for the first time in the history of the study

From there, we have several articles on practice management:

Why creating a defined employee value proposition could be the key for RIAs to attract and retain talent in the current tight labor market
The key questions aspiring partners can ask themselves to determine whether becoming a partner in their firm is the right course for them
Why firm owners looking to sell might find fewer potential buyers and receive less favorable deal terms in the current interest rate environment

We also have a number of articles on cashflow management:

How advisors can help couples navigate the decision of whether to combine their finances or keep them separate
A four-step process that advisors can use to help clients who tend to overspend
Strategies parents can use to encourage their children to have a healthy relationship with money

We wrap up with three final articles, all about career and personal management:

How to make tough decisions when facing a career crossroads
Five research-derived strategies for getting promoted
Why going on a “self-date” can provide a sense of solitude and relaxation for those with hectic lives

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Performance Advertising Guidelines For Investment Advisers Under the SEC’s New Marketing Rule

December 7, 2022 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Regulation & Compliance

For investment advisers looking to attract prospective clients, advertising the performance of their investment strategies would be a logical way to market their services (at least if they had strong historical returns!). But for many years, advisers looking for guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding what kind of performance advertising was permissible had to rely on fairly general guidelines and SEC staff statements in the form of “no-action” letters. But now, as part of its recently overhauled Marketing Rule (which also clarifies the rules surrounding investment adviser testimonials and endorsements), the SEC has codified its previous guidance regarding performance advertising into a single, fairly prescriptive rule.

To start, while the Marketing Rule contains seven general prohibitions applicable to all investment adviser advertising activities (including testimonials, endorsements, and third-party ratings, covered in a previous Nerd’s Eye View post), there are seven additional prohibitions applicable specifically to performance advertising. The first rule prohibits advisers from presenting gross performance without also presenting net performance with at least equal prominence, so that investors can assess returns that are actually received, net of fees and expenses paid in connection with the adviser’s services, and helping prospective clients better compare returns across different advisers.

The Marketing Rule also requires performance results to be presented consistently over 1-, 5-, and 10-year time periods (or the time period the portfolio has existed, if shorter than a particular prescribed period) preventing advisers from cherry-picking time periods that would make their returns appear more favorable. Furthermore, investment advisers may generally reference the performance results of related portfolios only if all related portfolios are included in the advertisement. Further, an investment adviser is prohibited from advertising performance results of a subset of investments extracted from a portfolio unless the advertisement provides, or offers to provide promptly, the performance results of the total portfolio from which the performance was extracted.

The SEC has heavily scrutinized the use of hypothetical performance in advertising for many years, and its restrictive stance is codified in the updated Marketing Rule. What actually constitutes hypothetical performance is quite broad and essentially includes any performance result that was not actually achieved by a portfolio of the investment adviser, and its distribution is limited to investors who are considered capable of independently analyzing the information and understanding the associated risks and limitations. Two final prohibitions under the Marketing Rule include restrictions on the use of predecessor performance (e.g., performance by an investment adviser before it was spun out from another adviser or by its personnel while they were employed elsewhere), as well as advertising that explicitly states or implies that that the calculation or presentation of performance results has been approved or reviewed by the SEC.

Ultimately, the key point is that the SEC’s recently overhauled Marketing Rule provides a consolidated set of guidelines for advisers to understand how RIAs are permitted to use advertising. Though, given the potential for future SEC guidance clarifying the new rule, or even possible Risk Alerts summarizing common deficiencies and best practices it observes during the course of its upcoming examinations, advisers looking to use performance advertising will want to pay close attention to how it is enforced in practice!

#FA Success Ep 310: Filtering Down To The Most Impact-Weighted Work To Scale Client Value, With Natalie Taylor

December 6, 2022 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 310th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Natalie Taylor. Natalie is the owner of Natalie Taylor Consulting Services, an independent virtual RIA, and is also the Head of Financial Advice for Monarch Money, a personal financial management tool that helps consumers track their spending and net worth over time.

What's unique about Natalie, though, is how, during her years of working for a FinTech company, she realized that providing valuable financial advice that is more affordable for the masses ultimately requires collecting only the data, and delivering only the advice, that will provide the greatest amount of impact and value to the client… and filtering out the rest that just isn’t cost-effective advice for the end consumer.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how, while working for LearnVest, Natalie realized that their financial advisors were much more limited by the constraints of data, time, and fees, than the traditional advisor, which inspired her to develop a framework that focuses on providing only the most impactful financial advice to help clients move forward right now, how while also working at LearnVest, Natalie developed a ‘brand voice guide’ to help all of their advisors communicate advice to clients more consistently, that revolved around 5 principles for advisors to implement during the advice delivery process (including “be the Coach”, “be the Expert”, “be the Cheerleader”, “wide lens/narrow lens”, and “listen and direct”), and how the acquisition of LearnVest by a large financial services company, and the repurposing of its technology tools, ultimately led to Natalie leaving and having to dismantle the advice offering she originally helped build and develop.

We also talk about how, in the early stages of Natalie’s career, she felt that as a young advisor she was not prepared to give advice at the level of an expert and instead switched firms to work with a mentor who recognized her talents and gave her more opportunities to work with higher caliber clients (and really build her confidence with them), how, after leaving LearnVest, Natalie focused on speaking engagements and consulting but reached a crossroads as she recognized she missed the type of direct impact she had for clients in her previous roles that doesn’t come from consulting alone, and how Natalie realized that she did not have to choose between her desire to provide a breadth of impact through a FinTech or a depth of impact with personal financial planning and instead chose to do both, by splitting her time between the launch of her own independent RIA while simultaneously joining a personal financial management tool company, Monarch Money, as the head of financial advice where she could help them systematize advice for the masses.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Natalie shares how working in FinTech and at an RIA helped her understand how important it is to balance between advice that is exact and solutions that may not be as ideal but helps the client actually move forward and take the next positive step, why Natalie believes it is important for newer, younger advisors to not get discouraged by the uncertainty of career paths and instead concentrate on getting clear on what values are important to them and using those values as a filter to find the next steps on their paths, and why Natalie believes the key to her success stems from developing her own personal list of 6 core values that she and her husband use to filter their major family and career decisions… and review each year to ensure the ongoing decisions they are making are still in alignment with what is really most important to them, and can keep propelling them forward in their careers and their lives.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Natalie dealt with having to dismantle the FinTech she helped develop, why Natalie ultimately decided to work simultaneously for a FinTech company and her own RIA, or why Natalie focuses her work on the meaningful impact she can provide in her clients’ lives, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Natalie Taylor.

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (December 2022)

December 5, 2022 07:06 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the December 2022 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

This month's edition kicks off with the news that Savvy Wealth has raised an $11M Series A round to compete in the new category of ‘tech-enabled RIA’ – where the firm will use the bulk of its capital to develop its own in-house fully-integrated advisor tech stack, in the hopes that a better technology experience will both attract advisors to work for the firm, attract consumers to want to be clients of the firm, and enable their advisors to service more clients (and be more productive) with the firm.

Notably, though, the reality is that while few would argue that today’s ‘best-of-breed’ approach of cobbling together independent advisor technology solutions is perfect, advisory firms on average have continued to run remarkably healthy 25% - 30% profit margins, suggesting that while the technology may not be perfect, it’s not that broken, either. With a select number of ‘all-in-one’ solutions that form a consistent hub (around which the rest of the advisor tech stack is at least reasonably integrated), and a subset of tasks that can be solved with just a little extra administrative support, it’s not clear whether firms like Savvy can build technology that really materially alters the productivity and profit margins of a tech-enabled RIA. Not to mention that for most firms, the biggest inhibitor to expanding reach and growing faster is not its back-office technology efficiencies, but the cost of attracting new clients in the first place… which raises the question of whether Savvy is bringing (or raising capital to fund) an operational solution to what is still first and foremost a marketing problem?

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

DPL Partners launches a new advisor-matching solution to solve for the inbound demand of consumers increasingly seeking out a new crop of no-commission annuity products
InvestCloud launches a new Advisor Connect solution that will allow larger advisor enterprises to embed an advisor-matching system into their own websites (presuming that the enterprise has a steady supply of prospects to go through the matching process!?)
IncomeLab’s LifeHub wins the ‘Best-In-Show’ award from the XYPN AdvisorTech Expo with an interface that consolidates the client’s entire financial life down to a single screen (that clients can then engage with to drill deeper)

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including:

eMoney Advisor launches a new Explore feature that helps clients move past just planning for their goals and instead have the opportunity to see what other goals might even be possible in the first place
BlackCloak offers a new ‘concierge cybersecurity’ solution for the most affluent clients of financial advisors who may want to spend a little more to protect themselves as potential ‘high-value’ highly-visible targets for hackers.

In the meantime, we’re excited to announce several new updates to our new Kitces AdvisorTech Directory, including Advisor Satisfaction scores from our Kitces AdvisorTech Research, and the inclusion of WealthTech Integration scores from the Ezra Group!

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular “Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map” as well!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Dec 3-4)

December 2, 2022 02:08 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with a research study suggesting that the market volatility experienced in 2022 could increase demand for financial planning services. This increased demand could be particularly acute among younger investors (who might be experiencing an inflationary environment and sustained market downturn for the first time) and those nearing retirement (who might seek professional guidance to ensure their retirement plan is secure).

Also in industry news this week:

Why a former SEC official expects the regulator to come out swinging when it comes to enforcing its new marketing rule
Why wrap fee programs appear to be in the crosshairs as the SEC begins to enforce Reg BI

From there, we have several articles on practice management:

The three essential skills firm owners need to build the right team, including why it is important to always be on the lookout for potential employees
Why it is important to identify the specific skill sets of firm employees and ensure that they are in sync with the requirements of their position
Why an incentive compensation program can be superior to a broad-based cost-of-living adjustment for both firms and their employees during the current inflationary period

We also have a number of articles on investments:

How launching an ETF can create efficiencies for advisors and their clients alike
A breakdown of the potential costs and benefits for advisors considering launching their own ETF
Why some RIAs are converting their SMA strategies into ETFs

We wrap up with three final articles, all about time management:

How to say ‘no’ to taking on extra work without burning any bridges
Why outsourcing or automating certain tasks can allow you to focus on what’s most important
How to set appropriate boundaries during the holiday season and beyond

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!