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Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Oct 8-9)

October 7, 2022 02:04 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 amid the current bear market, usage of robo-advisors and other digital advice tools has plummeted, according to a recent study. This suggests that some consumers will be looking to human advisors to better understand their needs and help guide them through the recent market volatility.

Also in industry news this week:

A survey suggests that a third of their advisors don’t use their firm’s internal technology tools, preferring to use third-party options instead
The SEC has brought charges against a former broker who sold his practice to an individual who ended up defrauding the seller’s clients

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

Defying popular wisdom, a research study argues that younger workers should delay saving for retirement, even if it means foregoing a company match
Why the creator of the “4% rule” is sticking with it despite the current bear market and elevated inflation
A new paper argues that an actual safe withdrawal rate for retirees is significantly less than 4% when taking into account return data from developed countries other than the United States

We also have a number of articles on practice management:

Five key metrics that underpin advisory firm sustainability
Why firms should look to leading indicators rather than lagging ones (like AUM) to better understand their growth prospects
Why it is important for firms to create a formal client feedback system and the most important questions to ask on client surveys

We wrap up with three final articles, all about the meaning of money:

How the dramatic changes in the American economy, markets, and personal balance sheets during the past few years have shown the challenges of achieving sustained, widespread prosperity
Why now could be a great time to spend and get enjoyment out of one’s money, despite recent market volatility
A survey shows how individuals in 17 advanced economies rank what brings them the most meaning in their lives

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 96: Handling Politically Charged Clients Who Make It Uncomfortable To Be Their Advisor

October 6, 2022 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

When it comes to politically charged discussions, financial advisors generally try to stay neutral and focus on providing clients with objective financial advice. Yet, while they seek to remain apolitical in their financial advice, the shifting political environment has made it increasingly common for more clients to express their political concerns and feelings with their financial advisors. While many advisors want to remain neutral, the recurring conversations about politics can be stressful, especially when the client and advisor have opposing political viewpoints. This can make it increasingly difficult for the advisor to work with these clients.

In our 96th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how to approach politically charged clients who may be difficult to work with, how to determine if a client’s fixation on their particular views interferes with the planning process, and, if needed, how to smoothly separate from clients and help them find a financial advisor that may be better suited for them.

As a starting point, it’s important to understand that for many clients who bring up politics, their concerns are often fleeting. If a client expresses serious concerns about politics and the potential effects it can have on their financial plan, the advisor may find it helpful to ask the client whether the subject can be put off until a later time so that the meeting can focus on the agenda at hand. If a client is adamant about their concerns, it may be a good idea for the advisor to perform a check-in to determine where their feelings are coming from. Some clients may be internalizing fears arising from what they see and hear in the media. These clients may just need someone to talk to, and the advisor can help by providing reassurance on the status of their financial plan.

However, there are other clients who may have a harder time letting go of their concerns, which can interfere with the work that needs to be done during the client-advisor meeting. If the advisor finds that working with these clients becomes increasingly difficult or stressful, it may be a good idea for the advisor to check in with their own emotional stress to understand whether the impact of the relationship is creating a strain on the advisor’s own mental health, and whether the strain is enough to warrant ending the engagement with the client. Importantly, if an advisor does determine that a client is not a good fit because of conflicting views, they can still approach the separation with compassion and empathy and part on good terms with the client by offering to find an advisor that is truly a better fit for them.

Ultimately, the key point is that not all clients may be a good fit for the advisor, and by understanding how to assess when they should terminate a client relationship, advisors can focus on giving all of their clients the best service possible – whether that means strengthening relationships with current clients or terminating relationships with unviable clients and guiding them to other resources that will support them. Because in the end, maintaining positive relationships is key to the financial advisor’s own success and mental health!

Automated Tax-Loss Harvesting Technology: Is The Value Overstated?

October 5, 2022 07:09 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Taxes

In recent years, numerous software solutions have sprung up that aim to automate the process of tax-loss harvesting. Both retail-focused robo-advisors and advisor-focused TAMPs have begun to offer automated tax-loss harvesting, which – by systematically checking for losses to harvest, typically on a daily basis – purports to increase investors’ after-tax returns by 1% or more.

But what the providers of automated tax-loss harvesting often don’t mention is that the actual value of tax-loss harvesting depends highly on an individual’s own tax circumstances. The 1%+ added value of automated tax-loss harvesting may be achievable in some ‘ideal’ cases, such as an investor who frequently contributes to their portfolio, has short-term losses to offset, and/or has many individual security holdings. But in other cases where those factors aren’t present, the added value of tax-loss harvesting is often much lower – which suggests that the value of automated tax-loss harvesting is less about the automation itself, and more about capturing losses under the right circumstances when the factor(s) that enhance the value of losses are present.

Unfortunately, much of the technology dedicated to automated tax-loss harvesting fails to consider the individual tax circumstances that drive most of the true value of harvesting losses, and instead focuses on the portfolio-management aspect of efficiently capturing as many losses as possible. Which can be a problem when such technology advertises itself as an all-in-one solution for tax-loss harvesting with no additional effort required by the investor or advisor because, in reality, not all investors may benefit from tax-loss harvesting, and the crucial information necessary to decide whether an investor is (or isn’t) a good candidate for tax-loss harvesting is often the very information that automated tax-loss harvesting software fails to capture.

While there still can be uses for technology that automatically harvests losses – such as in the occasional circumstances where it really is beneficial to harvest as many losses as possible – many investors may be able to realize nearly the same value by harvesting losses tactically (that is, by recognizing when their circumstances might be beneficial for tax-loss harvesting, and harvesting losses only when those circumstances occur). And when factoring in the fees charged by those technology platforms, the value of such ‘tactical’ tax-loss harvesting might exceed the value the investor would have realized by relying on a technology solution to do it automatically!

Ultimately, the key point is that tax-loss harvesting is a tax planning strategy and not (just) a portfolio management strategy. What matters is not simply the amount of losses the investor is able to harvest – which most technology seeks to maximize – but that they are harvested when the investor is able to benefit the most from them. In this light, it may be worth spending a little extra time on the tax planning side before handing the process over to automation, to ensure that the losses harvested will be truly valuable in the long run.

#FA Success Ep 301: Guiding Clients To Design Their Rich Life With A Focus On Spending Dials Not Goals, With Ramit Sethi

October 4, 2022 07:03 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 301st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Ramit Sethi. Ramit is the author of the New York Times’s bestselling book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and the owner of the online platform of the same name that offers financial education content and programs to consumers so they can get refocused on their personal finances and the things they love.

What's unique about Ramit, though, is how he literally wrote the book (and subsequently launched an online educational platform and brand) on how consumers can not just learn more about their finances but change their financial behaviors, without focusing on a budget or setting retirement savings goals, and instead helping them focus their money more directly on what they envision to be their “rich life”… and the paths they can take to make that a reality.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Ramit helps people design their rich life through the use of spending dials, where, like a radio dial, he encourages people to turn up and spend extravagantly on the things they love (and cut mercilessly on the rest) so that they can enjoy their money throughout their life and not just after retirement, how Ramit was inspired while attending Stanford to write his book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, after gaining a decently sized audience from his blog that focused on teaching people about personal finance and realizing the potential for its growth as a brand, and why Ramit is unapologetic about his brand, its sometimes unique positions on money and financial behavior, and how he got comfortable charging thousands of dollars for his financial education programs as after years of fine tuning his product (because he knows that the people who are truly a good fit will find value in what he offers, and will know its worth).

We also talk about how Ramit’s interactions with people on his platform and on his social media channels has led him to increasingly focus not just on personal finance but how psychology plays a major role in the way people prioritize their finances and sometimes create unrealistic or unhealthy relationships with their money, why Ramit supports the use of financial advisors but is critical about the traditional AUM model many financial advisors implement and feels that advisors (and their clients) would benefit more from a model that is based on charging for behavioral management because, like hiring a personal trainer, clients are seeking more ways to be held accountable, and how the tough decision to let go of some of his trusted team due to a retrenchment in his business in 2016, forced Ramit to reevaluate his company’s internal processes, which, unexpectedly reinvigorated him and the team as they realized they needed to concentrate on the ways they can innovate and propel the company forward.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Ramit shares how, going through his own personal dilemma of talking to his fiancé about a pre-nup and experiencing firsthand how finances take shape in a marriage inspired Ramit to create a podcast that focused on couples and their money struggles so that he could bring to light the real conversations people, and especially couples, have when it comes to money and the alignment of values, why Ramit feels it is important for younger advisors to find what makes them unique early on and how they can market that uniqueness as a valuable differentiator when trying to find clients and build a successful practice, and why, after experiencing it himself, Ramit understands that entrepreneurs put undue pressure on themselves to be the core competency of their business, and how over time he has learned to delegate responsibilities to a great team of people so that his time can be better spent on the value he as the founder brings to the company and its ability to keep growing into the future.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Ramit helps people shape their “rich life” and focus on spending money on the things they love, why Ramit thinks financial psychology is a huge contributing factor in how we develop relationships with money, or why, despite writing a book and offering educational programs, Ramit gives most of his material away for free, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ramit Sethi.

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (October 2022)

October 3, 2022 07:07 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the October 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 DPL Financial Partners has raised $20M of capital to continue scaling up its marketplace of no-commission annuities for RIAs, as the ongoing development of new fee-based products – combined with deepening tech integrations for annuities into existing RIA systems – is leading to a steady rise in the use of annuities by RIAs, with more than $1B of new flows via DPL in just the past 12 months alone.

And notably, the fresh capital comes in the midst of a recent rise in interest rates that may, for the first time in nearly 15 years – since before the financial crisis – give annuity products enough yield to be able to innovate new offerings and more competitive pricing. While the growth of DPL’s marketplace may itself usher in a greater level of annuity competitiveness, as companies are forced to compete for RIA attention not by offering the biggest commissions but by offering the best features and benefits to get through the RIA-as-gatekeeper.

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

Ethic Investing raises a $50M Series C round as values-based “personalized indexing” through direct indexing tools continues to gain momentum
Wealthfront’s acquisition deal with UBS falls through as incumbents still show they’d rather build than buy (at least at robo-advisor valuations)
Morgan Stanley rolls out a held-away account aggregation feature for its 401(k) plan advisors to provide more holistic advice within the plan to participants (before they ever have a chance to roll over to an independent advisor in the future!?)

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

RightCapital launches a new ‘Blueprint’ feature to create an Asset-Map-style visualization of the client’s financial household
Elements creates a “One Page Financial Plan” solution, not to replace the traditional financial plan, but to more meaningfully engage clients and even prospects with a better financial monitoring process (until it’s time for their next financial plan update)

In the meantime, we’re also gearing up later this month for several new updates to our new Kitces AdvisorTech Directory, including Advisor Satisfaction scores from our Kitces AdvisorTech Research and Integration scores from Ezra Group’s research!

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 (Oct 1-2)

September 30, 2022 02:02 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 a former Department of Labor official expects that it will take until next year for the agency to release new rules that would likely expand the number of financial professionals who must provide a fiduciary standard of care when providing investment recommendations for 401(k), individual retirement accounts, and other plans.

Also in industry news this week:

A recent survey suggests that high-income Millennials are more open to working with advisors than similar individuals in older generations
A new bill would make many parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 permanent, including its changes to tax brackets, the higher standard deduction, and the cap on state and local tax deductions

From there, we have several articles on advisor marketing:

How some of the biggest financial services firms are increasing their television advertising and how smaller firms can craft a scalable, cost-efficient marketing strategy
How firms are approaching the opportunities and potential pitfalls of the SEC’s new marketing rule, which will be enforced starting November 4
What advisory firms can do to make the most out of client testimonials and avoid negative reviews on third-party websites

We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:

Medicare Part B premiums are set to decline in 2023, providing seniors with a bit of relief in the current inflationary environment
The potential advantages of taking RMDs in stock rather than in cash during the current market downturn
Why the charges associated with guaranteed income products could be considered as the cost of insurance rather than fees

We wrap up with three final articles, all about work life:

Why some hybrid workers choose to come into the office on Fridays, from shorter commutes to more time with the copy machine
What ‘quiet quitting’ means for both workers and advisory firm owners
How ‘micro-breaks’ throughout the workday can help you avoid screen fatigue and stay energized

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

The Most Tax-Friendly States For Retirees: How To Compare State Income Tax Options For Retiring Clients

September 28, 2022 07:05 am 22 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

As an individual begins planning for retirement, one of the factors often considered is whether (and where) they might relocate to enjoy their retirement. When evaluating their potential options across the U.S., a state’s income tax rules can have a significant impact on where they might choose to live. The perception of a state as having high or low taxes could make it more or less attractive for someone choosing where to relocate, and those perceptions are often skewed by the state’s ‘headline’ tax rate (that is, the top tax rate imposed on the highest income tax bracket), meaning that states that don’t tax any income at all are often given extra consideration, while those that tax income at the highest rates tend to get crossed off the list fairly early.

In reality, however, the top marginal rates don’t usually tell the whole story – at least not for retirees. That’s because many states (including those typically labeled as “high-tax”) feature a slew of different tax breaks that can significantly reduce the tax burden for retirees in those states. As a result, the list of states where a typical (or even higher-income) retiree would pay very little or even zero tax might be much larger than what might be assumed based on the top marginal rates alone.

State tax breaks for retirees usually come in 4 flavors: no income tax at all; exclusion of Social Security income from taxable income; exclusion of pension or retirement plan withdrawals; and additional exemptions, deductions, or credits for all taxpayers above certain age thresholds. Every state in the U.S., plus the District of Columbia, features at least one of these types of tax breaks benefiting retirees, and many have more than one, meaning that retirees with a combination of Social Security, pension, and even other types of income (like dividends and interest or income from working a job) will almost always pay a lower overall tax rate on their income than those who are still working full-time.

The tricky part, however, is navigating the many nuances and exceptions included in the different tax codes of the 50 states. Many states either have income-based limitations on the tax benefits that higher-income retirees can realize, while others cap the total amount of retirement tax benefits that an individual can use (for example, by setting a maximum amount of combined Social Security and/or pension income that can be deducted from a taxpayer’s income). As part of the final decision, therefore, it’s often advantageous to do more in-depth tax planning to recognize some of the planning opportunities or pitfalls that could come with retiring to a certain state.

The key point is that even though it might not be necessary to attain a thorough grasp of all 50 states’ tax policies, knowing some of the key elements to look for when considering a given state – like whether or not (and how much) Social Security or retirement plan income is taxed; the treatment of interest, dividends, and capital gains; and what other potential deductions or exemptions might be available for taxpayers after a certain age – can create a deeper understanding of the true impact of income tax from living in a certain state. And for some future retirees, it might even expand the potential list of states beyond what they previously considered affordable!

#FA Success Ep 300: The Evolution Of The Advice Business At Scale And The True Power Of Brand, With Joe Duran

September 27, 2022 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 300th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Joe Duran. Joe is a Partner and Co-Head of Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management Group, a national wealth management firm within Goldman Sachs which oversees more than $100 billion in assets under advisement for tens of thousands of client households.

What's unique about Joe, though, is how he founded United Capital, built it to become one of the largest independent wealth management firms in the country on a path to disrupt the established incumbents, but ultimately decided to sell the firm to Goldman Sachs in pursuit of the next level of national scale… and in the process has been able to witness firsthand the power that true economies of scale and a recognized national brand can bring to an advisory firm’s ability to grow.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Joe has witnessed firsthand as an advisory firm owner, and now a partner at a leading global investment management firm, how the financial services industry is evolving in real time as more banks and brokerage firms are truly adopting financial planning and implementing advisory services at national scale and reach, how Joe sees the strategic shift of national firms into the advisory business is leading them to engage in significant mergers and acquisitions into 401(k) plan providers and stock plan administrators as a way to reach the next generation of clients during their working years before independent advisors ever get a chance to work with them when they’re ready to retire, and why Joe feels that independent advisors are underestimating the power of a brand as when it is well known what a firm stands for and why they matter, it makes it easier to stand out, connect with and retain clients, and also to recruit talent.

We also talk about why, after nearly two decades, Joe decided it was best for his firm, United Capital, to be acquired by Goldman Sachs so that he could leverage their larger teams, technology, and brand power to expand services to more clients across the globe, why Joe feels that financial advisors are doing a disservice to themselves and their clients if they are not investing more in FinTech and utilizing it to develop more efficient processes as it is needed to compete with larger institutions and their service offerings, and why Joe believes that the real threat to advisory firms is not fee compression, per se, but the pressure of expanding the value of what they do to justify the fees they charge, and how as a result advisory firms will have to find new ways to differentiate themselves through more specialized service offerings and implementation (including tiered services) to be able to continue to scale and grow.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Joe shares how, in the early stages of United Capital and during the 2008 economic crisis, a private equity investor failed to fulfill their funding commitment and forced Joe to not only raise capital for his firm, but forced a decision to cut executive compensation by 70% so he could avoid instituting mass layoffs, why, even though many advisors fear robo-advisors will replace human advisors one day, Joe is confident that as long as complexity is high and the cost of being wrong is high, there will always be a place for humans in the advisory world, and why Joe believes that navigating a successful career path involves an equation of having expertise, discipline, and above all, self-awareness of what it takes to really create deeper, more intimate relationships with clients and those around us.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Joe is navigating his position now at Goldman Sachs after the acquisition of United Capital, why Joe feels it is important for advisors to establish a brand to remain competitive with banks and brokerage firms entering the advisory space, or why Joe believes that scaling and growing a firm begins with asking for the compensation that is directly related to the value of service offerings, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Joe Duran.

The Market For “Lemons” In Financial Advice: How Higher Standards Can Lower Costs And Increase Access To Advice

September 26, 2022 07:05 am 5 Comments CATEGORY: Planning Profession

In a now-famous 1970 paper, economist George Akerlof used the market for used cars to demonstrate the negative effects that can occur when there are significant information asymmetries between buyers and sellers of a good or service. He highlighted the market for used cars at the time, where, because consumers could not be sure of the quality of a used car they were offered, they were only willing to pay the price of a car in average condition, driving out sellers of high-quality used cars (“peaches”), who were not willing to accept the average price for their above-average product. At the same time, sellers of low-quality cars (“lemons”) were incentivized to enter the market, as they could receive a price greater than the actual value of their used car. This information asymmetry led to a negative cycle where more low-quality cars would enter the market, driving down consumer trust (and the price they were willing to pay) and even leading to a market of lower-quality cars.

The financial advisory industry is not immune to the same problems faced in Akerlof’s used-car market. Given the wide range of professionals who can call themselves ‘financial advisors’ – from someone whose business is selling insurance policies to a financial planner who sells financial advice itself – consumers can have difficulty understanding the type and quality of service they will receive from a given ‘advisor’. And just as the uncertainty of quality reduced the car buyers’ willingness to pay for high-quality cars in Akerlof’s analysis, the wide variance in advisor quality can also be likely to lead to a lack of trust among consumers.

But this also suggests that if standards in the market for advisors were raised (thereby increasing consumer trust), exceptional advisors could spend less money on differentiating themselves from advisors with lower standards, creating the opportunity for reduced marketing and business expenses that could be passed along in the form of lower costs for consumers (potentially opening up advice to a wider pool of clients!) and even allow for higher-quality advisors to enter the market. In fact, even a relatively modest shift to a higher-trust environment (which may be achieved by enacting higher standards) that just partially reduces the incredibly high client acquisition costs of financial advisors could more than offset the entire cost of fiduciary liability insurance from those higher standards!

In his paper, Akerlof suggests three strategies that could be used to counteract the effects of quality uncertainty and increase consumer confidence: licensing, quality guarantees, and branding. Accordingly, advisor licensing could mean establishing a requirement involving a professional designation like the CFP certification for those who provide financial advice. A quality guarantee could be implemented through a broad-based fiduciary standard (as advisors are understandably unable to offer outright performance guarantees), which can increase trust among consumers. And when it comes to branding, limiting the use of the title “financial advisor” and “financial planner” to those who are solely in the business of providing advice (rather than primarily selling products) and who meet certain competence and ethical standards would increase consumer confidence as well.

Ultimately, the key point is that information asymmetries that reduce consumer trust are common in the financial advisory marketplace, and raising industry standards of conduct could not only improve consumer confidence in advisors, but also reduce marketing costs for advisors trying to gain consumer trust. Because, in the end, helping consumers differentiate between advisor ‘peaches’ and ‘lemons’ can improve the public’s experience with financial advice and, at the same time, reduce marketing expenses for advisors, which in turn can reduce the total cost of advice and attract prospective clients from a broader pool willing and able to work with an advisor, as access to quality advice increases as well!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Sept 24-25)

September 23, 2022 02:01 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 the SEC has issued a risk alert putting advisors on notice that examiners will be conducting a number of reviews to evaluate how firms are complying with the Commission’s new marketing rule, which it will begin to enforce starting November 4. While the new rule allows financial advisors to proactively use testimonials (from clients), endorsements (from non-clients), and highlight their own ratings on various third-party websites, the SEC’s warning suggests that advisory firms will want to take care to abide by the compliance requirements linked to the new rule.

Also in industry news this week:

How advisors can serve clients of the millennial generation who have seen their income and wealth grow as they have gotten older
A survey shows that more RIAs are outsourcing investment management, and that those who do are largely happy with the decision

From there, we have several articles on insurance and investment planning:

Why the chair of the Senate Finance Committee has taken an interest in the private placement life insurance market
A new designation is available for advisors looking to serve clients with nonqualified deferred compensation plans
How DPL Financial Partners’ growth is a sign of advisor interest in fee-based annuities

We also have a number of articles on advisor marketing:

The latest trends in advisor marketing, from the continued dominance of client referrals to the return of in-person gatherings
How advisors can pull off an event that can increase client loyalty and attract new prospects
Why some firms are thinking twice about taking advantage of the SEC’s new marketing rule right away

We wrap up with three final articles, all about business ownership:

Why business owners with strong technical skills limit their profitability by spending too much time working in their business rather than on it
The advantages and disadvantages of ‘renting’ versus ‘owning’ your career
Why focus and intense curiosity are common traits among some of the most successful business leaders

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!