The FPA Annual Convention every fall is arguably the biggest event in financial planning each year. Typically drawing upwards of 3,000 attendees, it is certainly by numbers one of the largest conferences by far; although some of the custodial conferences (e.g., Schwab Impact) are competitive, FPA's is focused more directly on financial planning. This year, though, the FPA has rebranded the conference as FPA Experience, and conference chair Evelyn Zohlen is trying to take the event to a whole new level, with a huge focus on building community, and an effort to make it "the most interesting conference in the world" starting with a phenomenal promotional video!
There is way too much dogma surrounding annuity commissions. The commission argument against annuities is most often posed by registered reps, or investment advisor reps who stand to gain by keeping money out of annuities. In the spirit of fairness, I compared the commissions for annuities in general against the fees that would be earned by an advisor charging an AUM fee and came to a simple conclusion: the "annuities are bad because they pay high commission" argument simply needs to be retired.
As is often said, "financial planning is a process, not an event" and therefore is predicated on an ongoing relationship between the planner and the client. Yet the in-depth nature of a financial planning relationship presents challenges as well; it takes more time, it costs more money, and it becomes less accessible to many who either can't afford or don't want such a 'deep' relationship. But does it have to be this way? Could financial planning still deliver value even if it's NOT an ongoing relationship with an individual financial planner?Read More...
There is a prevailing view in the independent financial planning community that when financial planning is ultimately recognized as a profession, and is regulated on the basis that advice must be delivered in a fiduciary context, that the independent planning community will take the center stage, as big brokerage firms will be afraid of the fiduciary liability.
But what happens if the opposite occurs - if a major firm steps forward to embrace fiduciary financial planning and seeks to pose a credible challenge to the independents? How might big brokerage firms transition in a fiduciary financial planning world, and can them stem - or reverse - the current rising tide of defections out of the brokerage world?Read More...
If you've been to any session delivered by a practice management consultant in the past several years, you've probably need that to grow your business further, you need to standardize and systematize. In other words, you can't do everything differently for every single client and expect to keep growing much, because at some point your practice is so complex delivering 100 different services to 100 different clients that you just can't absorb the 101st without having your head explode (or alternatively, you couldn't possibly find the time to meet with the 101st prospect to try to get him/her as a client anyway).
In response, planners tend to complain: "But financial planning must be tailored to each individual's situation; and since every client is a unique snowflake unlike any other, so too must their financial planning experience/products/deliverables each be individualized, unique, and customized one client at a time."
Are there still ways to run an efficient practice in a world like this?
When it comes to my personal taxes, I am a chronic late filer. In my own defense, it is usually because some partnership or another could not get me my K-1’s by the deadline, so I go ahead and file the extension. Or maybe it’s because the pain of actually seeing my tax bill is too great and I find a way to defer that decidedly unpleasurable experience to a later date. This year I had a large tax liability associated with capital gains in my managed accounts, and since 100% of my money is invested in the Pinnacle DMG portfolio, I couldn’t help but think of other Pinnacle clients in the same boat. Since cutting a check to the IRS has the remarkable ability to focus my thinking about tax planning, I thought I would share a few of the thoughts that crossed my mind at the time.Read More...
