As the visibility of social media continues to grow, many advisors have become skeptical about whether it represents a new trend for growing a business that's here to stay, or simply a fad that will soon be gone. Yet the reality is that when done best, social media isn't really a new strategy for growing a business at all, it's simply a new medium to facilitate the same strategy advisors have always engaged in: to become someone that people know and trust, to whom they would be comfortable to refer, and cultivating a network of prospective referrers. The difference is that with social media, the potential exists to reach both a larger and more focused network of potential target clientele, allowing the growth strategy to be implemented even more effectively. Read More...
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition starts off with an editorial from Bob Veres about whether the Financial Services Institute is going to find itself on the wrong side of history, defending the status quo broker-dealer model against the underlying trend towards fiduciary advice. From there, we look at a recent announcement of FPA's new PlannerSearch tool for consumers, a new CRM package for smaller advisory firms, a nice article about how to select the right CRM package for your firm, and some tips about how to run a seminar marketing strategy effectively to grow your practice. We also look at an interesting article about important conversations to have with your clients, that includes a lot of stuff financial planners already know but a few good tips as well, and a nice article by Roy Diliberto pointing out that the best way to get extraordinary results from your firm is to make your employees extraordinary by giving them the opportunity to succeed and making sure you, the business owner, aren't being part of the problem. This week's reading also includes three investment articles: one that suggests the fate of municipal bonds may be more tightly linked with equity returns than we realize; the second providing a nice primer on the European crisis and how we got to where we are; and the last suggesting that Europe's moment of truth may be arriving, and that they will not be able to substantively kick the can further down the road. We wrap up with a nice article from Robert Shiller - a prospective commencement speech for finance graduates that provides a nice reminder of both the challenges that finance must tackle in the coming years, and the underlying social purpose for why the finance sector exists in the first place. Enjoy the reading!
While the safe withdrawal rate research provides useful guidance to understand how much clients can safely spend as a baseline, it is based on historical index returns - even though in reality, clients cannot even invest directly in an index without incurring some investment costs, and many pay for the cost of a financial advisor in addition. As a result, many planners recommend that clients adjust their spending downwards to account for the costs and fees.
Yet the reality of the research is that while investment expenses do have a real cost, it has far less of a spending impact than most assume; a 1% expense ratio might reduce a 4% withdrawal rate not to 3%, but instead to 3.6%. This surprising result occurs because of the self-mitigating impact of investment expenses that are recalculated based on the client's account; when accounts are declining, the fees decline as well, while inflation-adjusted spending rises.
The end result is that while financial planners should not ignore the impact of expenses on sustainable spending, it's important not to overstate the impact, either, or clients may unnecessarily constrain their spending when they could be safely enjoying more of their money!Read More...
The foundation of investment education for CFP certificants is modern portfolio theory, which gives us tools to craft portfolios that effectively balance risk and return and reach the efficient frontier. Yet in his original paper, Markowitz himself acknowledged that the modern portfolio theory tool was simply designed to determine how to allocate a portfolio, given the expected returns, volatilities, and correlations of the available investments. Determining what those inputs should be, however, was left up to the person using the model. As a result, the risk of using modern portfolio theory - like any model - is that if poor inputs go into the model, poor results come out. Yet what happens when the inputs to modern portfolio theory are determined more proactively in response to an ever-changing investment environment? The asset allocation of the portfolio tactically shifts in response to varying inputs!Read More...
Although the tax laws have technically always required that, when investments are sold, the specific lots and their associated cost basis are identified to determine the amount of any gains or losses, in practice most clients have simply chosen after the fact - when the tax return is prepared - which shares were sold, selecting the lots that produce the most optimal tax result.
However, under new laws coming into effect, brokers and custodians will begin to automatically report transactions - including which lots were sold, the cost basis, the amount of gain/loss, and the date of acquisition and character of the loss - directly to the IRS, with sales locked in at the time the transaction settles. As a result, clients and their advisors must make proactive decisions regarding a proper method of accounting for portfolios, or run the risk that the "wrong" lots will be sold, with no way to remedy the situation after the fact!
And while the IRS does provide a default method of accounting that will apply, in reality most clients will find the default a sub-optimal solution. Which means the burden really shifts to clients and their advisors to put the optimal method in place... which first requires making the right decision about whether it's better to harvest gains or losses in the first place, depending on the client's situation!Read More...
As the baby boomers move inexorably closer to the point where they begin to retire en masse out of the workforce, so too does financial planning move closer to the point where the majority of experienced practitioners and firm owners will begin to exit the business. Industry guru Mark Tibergien estimates that as many as 2/3rds of all financial advisors may look to exit in the next 10 years, requiring more than 200,000 new planners to enter the industry just to keep the total number of practitioners even. Yet the reality is that so far, the industry appears to be woefully behind. As a result of this prospective workforce distortion, financial planning will potentially undergo significant changes in the coming years, and not necessarily for the good. In a "seller's market" for talent, large firms that can compete with both training and resources, and that have the profit margins to absorb higher compensation costs, will survive and grow; on the other hand, smaller firms may find themselves in a plight of being "stuck" small, unable to attract or even afford the young talent necessary to grow. And in the process, the greatest loser may be the majority of the American public, who simply will not be served when a dearth of planners inevitably causes the few practitioners that remain to be attracted to the most lucrative high net worth clients.Read More...
