Nerd's Eye View blog

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Aug 14-15)

August 13, 2021 02:54 pm 8 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a recap on where the latest legislation on the infrastructure legislation and budget reconciliation bill (with pending tax law changes) stands as it winds its way through Congress in the coming weeks, which is anticipated to culminate in final passage sometime in mid-September... and likely kicking off a fresh wave of fourth-quarter tax planning with whatever new tax rules are implemented.

Also in the industry news this week are a number of other interesting industry headlines:

California regulators fine Jefferson National $150k for not better overseeing the recommendations RIAs were making regarding its no-commission annuity, raising fresh questions of how no-load fee-based annuities will be overseen in the RIA channel
A Wall Street Journal article highlights the rise of new advisor fee models as an alternative to the 1% AUM fee (which is notable if only because the conversation has now made it all the way to the WSJ?)

From there, we have several retirement-related articles, including:

Why retirees should consider doing a 'Trial Run' of retirement before pulling the trigger for real
How ultra-HNW retirees are using the "Buy, Borrow, Die" strategy of using securities-based loans to (permanently) avoid capital gains taxes
Why the guaranteed income from an annuity may act like a 'license to spend' that helps retirees enjoy more of their money than a traditional portfolio-withdrawal-based approach

We've also included a number of articles on advisor marketing and sales:

How to do a quick test on your "referrability" as a financial advisor amongst your clients to their friends and family
How the rising competency of financial advisors means that prospects are more likely to choose us for other reasons, such as our personal connection and ability to quickly establish trust
The three questions to ask prospects to set the best agenda for a first meeting

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of managing our own behavioral biases as advisors:

How to overcome our brain's tendency to be overly optimistic about how long projects will take
Why it's unrealistic to expect our lives to be hassle-free and why it's better to focus on the 'optimal' amount of hassle instead
Why sometimes the best way to improve our situation is not to add, but to subtract instead

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 66: Helping Clients To Stop Maximizing Their Wealth And Set Goals To Enjoy It Instead

August 12, 2021 07:03 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Beyond offering technical expertise across the eight primary knowledge domains of financial planning, one of the most valuable services that financial advisors bring to the table is helping clients align how they use their resources with the things that are most important to them. Accordingly, advisors create an overlap between a client’s values and use of capital by helping clients identify, set, and achieve goals. Because, as the great American ‘philosopher’, Yogi Berra, once observed, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” However, for some, the practice of setting and achieving goals can easily become an end in and of itself, which makes it difficult for the client to get off the proverbial goal treadmill and focused on the things that they said were actually most important (i.e., what those goals were intended to achieve). Which raises the question: How can financial advisors help clients who are stuck in the cycle of setting and achieving goals channel their attention and energy towards the things they said were really most important to them?

In our 66th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss the various circumstances that might make it difficult for some clients to get off the goal treadmill, how advisors can help those clients who are perpetually unsatisfied and trying to reach towards the “next thing”, and how advisors can help clients who are nearing retirement find fulfillment outside of their career.

As a starting point, it’s important to acknowledge that sometimes it’s necessary to reevaluate and reset goals because clients may want something more or different than they thought they did at an earlier point or may achieve a goal and realize that wasn’t what they really wanted in the first place. But for clients who are stuck, the root cause of their issue may be that the goal they’ve been working towards all along may not have been the right goal in the first place (and as a result, no matter how hard they work, will never truly reach a point they’re comfortable with). Or, in other cases, it may be that the client has become addicted to the grind and can’t stop, which often turns out to be harmful to both the client and the people that matter most to them.

Such clients may benefit from (re)visiting a life-planning process (such as those offered by George Kinder or Money Quotient), or from an actual intervention, but for other clients, the problem may simply be that they do not know what to do with themselves once they’ve achieved their goals! Especially for those who are nearing (or at) retirement, and need to find satisfaction in something outside of a career that they might have spent the majority of their lives working in. For those clients, advisors can open the conversation by simply asking if they’ve given any consideration to how they’re going to focus their energy once they’ve reached financial independence, so that they’re retiring to something rather than away from something. From there, advisors can help clients brainstorm about the things that they might want to contribute to or do outside of work, and then task them to go try different things out and report back at their next meeting.

Ultimately, the key point is that there can be several reasons that people get stuck on the goal treadmill, and while perpetual improvement is an admirable endeavor, at some point, setting, achieving, and resetting goals may prove to be a blocking point that prevents a client from aligning the use of their capital with the things that are most important to them. And by identifying those root causes, advisors can help clients get unstuck and move back towards creating the sort of value overlap they were hired to create in the first place. Because, at the end of the day, the endgame isn’t about helping clients not have any more goals after getting to the point they initially wanted to arrive at… it’s helping them set new goals that keep them moving forward, in a way that’s truly most meaningful to them!
Read More...

Storing Cryptocurrency Securely: The Safest Options For New And Experienced Investors

August 11, 2021 07:04 am 37 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

Since the first block of bitcoin was mined in January 2009, cryptocurrency has transformed from an obscure, experimental corner of the market to an increasingly popular investment option trying to become mainstream. Famous for its dramatic highs and infamous for its subsequent lows, cryptocurrency has fascinated many as a fast-moving corner of the market... capturing both media and more and more consumer attention, to the point that many advisors who may have once dismissed cryptocurrency as a legitimate investment option are being asked to reconsider it by a growing number of clients ready to take on at last a little risk. In fact, a recent FPA Trends In Investing survey found that one in four advisors have indicated that they have considered adding cryptocurrency to client portfolios—a massive increase from what was historically fewer than 2% of advisors interested. However, in order for advisors to have confidence in cryptocurrency as a sound client portfolio option, it is important to know how to do more than trade cryptocurrency; advisors must also understand how to securely store it.

Because while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin solve many unique technological challenges that have made entirely digital currencies infeasible before, cryptocurrency is not held in traditional brokerage accounts like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs, which presents unique challenges for securely storing cryptocurrency. In addition, unlike funds that are transferred via ACH and can be retrieved in the event that they were accidentally transferred between the wrong accounts, there is no central authority that can 'undo' an accidental cryptocurrency transaction. Instead, cryptocurrency is traded using public and private keys, which allow cryptocurrencies to be received and spent, respectively. While public ‘receiving’ keys can be used, generated, and distributed on a case-by-case basis without any personal risk, private ‘sending’ keys need to be securely guarded. If someone is trading in large amounts of cryptocurrencies, then the risk is even higher, and the keys will need to be safely stored in what is referred to as a (digital crypto) ‘wallet’. Yet at the same time, a key challenge with cryptocurrency storage is that the sophistication of the storage strategy used needs to also match the technical sophistication of the investor, as there’s a genuine risk of losing funds (or more specifically, permanently losing access to one's own cryptocurrency holdings) in the event that someone doesn’t quite know what they are doing.

So what is a safe option, then, for cryptocurrency storage? There are a wide range of storage options. In theory, one of the most secure methods possible is what’s known as a ‘paper wallet’- which refers to a wallet generated fully offline and stored in a physical format. However, the challenges of actually generating a paper wallet fully offline, and some technical aspects of how Bitcoin transactions actually work, make paper wallets a poor choice for most users. At the same time, despite the ease of use available from some wallets that can be installed on a computer, storing keys on a computer that has ever been connected to the internet is also a bad idea since an internet-connected computer can be compromised (and if that computer is the gateway to thieves permanently stealing one's sizable cryptocurrency holding, it is best to assume that any such computer has already been compromised!?).

Thankfully, there are two general cryptocurrency solutions advisors can give to their clients (or use) themselves. For the less tech-savvy advisor, using a reputable exchange or storage provider is emerging as a lower-risk solution—particularly as more mature firms are developing in this space. Such storage violates an ‘old’ cryptocurrency adage of “not your keys, not your coins,” since it is true that the service provider does have the owner's keys for (and therefore ultimate control of) the cryptocurrency funds, but for someone who otherwise would have limited ability to secure their funds, this may still be a better alternative, particularly if features such as 48-hour waiting periods are added before transactions can be made. However, for the slightly more tech-savvy user, hardware wallets are likely the ideal balance between security and the technical sophistication needed to implement a strategy. Hardware wallets are single-purpose computing devices that are designed solely to store cryptocurrency keys. The single-purpose nature of hardware wallets means that they can be used without fear of being compromised, even if a user is interacting with the wallet through a compromised computer. While there are some basic standards that users would want to ensure a hardware wallet meets, quality hardware wallets use a combination of security features that help ensure that someone’s coins are safe and retrievable even in the event that their hardware wallet is lost or stolen.

At the end of the day, cryptocurrency is likely here to stay, and consequently will only receive more attention in the future. As a result, if someone is going to own cryptocurrency, appropriate security measures need to be taken to address the unique nature of how these assets are owned and held. Importantly, though, as the amount invested grows, so too does the need to safeguard those investments. This is especially true for those who are looking to invest not only for themselves, but also for others. But the good news is that ultimately, with a little bit of research, advisors can find a secure storage option that opens up an entirely new side of investing for their clients (and even themselves if they are so inclined)!

#FA Success Ep 241: Scripting A “Values-Based Financial Planning” Business Development Process, With Bill Bachrach

August 10, 2021 07:08 am 6 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 241st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Bill Bachrach. Bill is the Chairman and CEO of AdvisorRoadMap, which provides training and mentorship to help financial advisors better attract and communicate with their ideal clients.

What's unique about Bill, though, is that as the creator of the values-based financial planning framework and the father of the now-famous question - “What’s important about money to you?”- he pioneered a repeatable process to put a client’s values and goals at the center of the financial planning conversation at a time when the industry was still focused almost exclusively on product sales.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Bill’s “What’s important about money to you?” question not only gives advisors a powerful way to start a meaningful conversation, but also gives prospects an opportunity to communicate the value that they’re seeking from a financial planning relationship, how that opening question is just a part of Bill’s script for having values conversations with prospects to create a foundation of trust and, ultimately, helps advisors (as Bill puts it) rescue prospects from their current advisors, and how Bill uses his values roadmap as a deliverable to visually show prospects the steps that they can take in order to fulfill their most deeply held values and achieve their most important goals.

We also talk about Bill’s five prospect conversations (each of which occur during the first prospect meeting, including the Opening, Values, and Goals conversations, as well as All The Money and Commitment To Hire steps), Bill’s techniques and suggestions for leading those conversations without overly “controlling” the conversation, and how recording prospect conversations for later review not only helps advisors build even more trust and relevance, but also ends out helping advisors learn to listen more, say less, ask better questions, and answer prospect questions more effectively.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Bill shares his recommendations for helping prospects more concretely identify and define their goals, with not just the name, target date, and cost, but also the emotionally compelling words that describe what achieving that goal will feel like (to include on their financial roadmap), why Bill feels that it’s an advisor’s obligation to take full advantage of the financial planning tools that are available to them (and why doing so makes it even easier to “rescue” clients away from other advisors who don’t), and Bill’s view that trust isn’t a function of an advisor’s technical chops, but is instead a function of character, the ability to ask good questions, listen, and ultimately hold clients accountable to the advice that they’re given.

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Bill’s “What’s important about money to you?” question, his five prospect conversations, or how financial advisors can build trust, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Bill Bachrach.

What Makes Financial Advisors Happy And The Second Kitces Research Study On Advisor Wellbeing

August 9, 2021 07:01 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Personal/Career Development

The financial services industry has long presented itself as one with high earning potential. As the saying goes, “there’s a lot of money in the money business”. For financial advisors, in particular, the career is often held out as one where advisors have ‘unlimited’ income potential… or at least, an earnings opportunity that is limited only by the hours of hustle that the advisor is willing to put in to build their book of clients.

Yet, while the average established financial advisor does earn significantly more than the median US household ($192,000 versus $68,700, respectively, according to the latest Kitces Research study), what’s even more notable is that when it comes to overall wellbeing, the average financial advisor actually outscores the typical American on all 18 subscales of the Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving! In other words, the career of being a financial advisor isn’t only one of above-average income, but it is rewarding across all domains of wellbeing, from relationships to engagement to mastery and meaning… with a particular focus on self-efficacy and accomplishment. In other words, the career of being a financial advisor is particularly conducive to those who are good at setting goals and being able to take action to achieve them… who then work with clients to help them set and achieve their own goals, too!

Unfortunately, though, one of the hardest aspects of being a financial advisor is simply figuring out what path to pursue to be a financial advisor, in an industry with choices from employee to independent, broker-dealer to RIA, large national firm to local boutique (or even just hanging one’s own shingle as a solo advisor!). For which it seems that every successful financial advisor says “their” channel and business model is the best… and in practice, relatively few advisors change channels at all throughout their careers!

However, as our 2020 Kitces Research study on Advisor Wellbeing reveals, not all advisor channels and business models are truly equal when it comes to advisor wellbeing. Instead, the reality is that the ‘best’ channel and business model for an advisor depends on their own intrinsic motivators and preferences. For instance, advisors who greatly value their autonomy may eschew the wirehouse model and pursue independence, while those who value income the most will tend to start their own firm (even though doing so is far more time-consuming), while those who value their time over just maximizing income may prefer an employee career path rather than trying to ‘eat-what-you-kill’ as an advisor who has to get their own client base.

In order to explore this further, we’re excited to announce our latest 2021 Kitces Research study on Advisor Wellbeing, specifically to delve more deeply into the intersection of what leads to the greatest levels of happiness and wellbeing as an advisor, and the motivators that lead us to become financial advisors (and to choose certain channels and business models over others). Notably, this year’s Wellbeing survey is shorter than our ‘typical’ Kitces Research study, and it’s our hope that every advisor will take a few minutes to share their own experiences and perspectives for this important research!

Thanks in advance for your participation and willingness to contribute!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Aug 7-8)

August 6, 2021 02:48 pm 2 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the industry buzz about a financial advisor who was called out by a popular TikTok influencer for "racist hiring practices" after suggesting that her mostly-white clients wouldn't want to work with an advisor of color... leading to the advisor's termination by her broker-dealer, and a broader industry discussion about what advisors should do if they have racist clients (from trying to accommodate them as best the firm can, to outright terminating the client).

Also in the industry news this week are a number of other interesting industry headlines:

A State Street study finds that nearly half of investors think financial advisor fees include the underlying cost of the mutual funds and ETFs they recommend
An Oliver Wyman study highlighting that the four frontiers of differentiation for investment management are now customization (i.e., direct indexing), private markets, ESG, and crypto

From there, we have several investment-related articles, including:

Examples of how some advisory firms are beginning to implement direct indexing strategies with clients, from ESG to tax-loss harvesting
One advisor's experience in angel investing in pursuit of the infamous 100-bagger (an investment that produces a 100X return)
The benefit of having a 'too-hard' pile for investments (opportunities that might be compelling, but just aren't worth the time and effort for their incremental return opportunity)

We've also included a number of articles on better engaging clients and articulating the value of the advisor's advice:

How to get clients more engaged with the financial planning process itself, from an "Initial Engagement Plan" one-pager to having "Get Organized" meetings
How to handle the fact that clients often need behavioral coaching even as they state that they don't want it
Breaking apart the value advisors provide into the domains of "useful knowledge" and "avoiding mistakes" (and translating that value into client-specific examples based on their own circumstances and prior experiences)

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of finding your own path to advisor success:

Why it's "OK" to be profitable (even and especially as scrutiny grows on the fees that advisors charge)
Reflections from one advisor on what he got right and wrong in his own multi-decade journey of building an advisory business
Why it's so important to avoid looking to others for success and define it in your own terms instead, so you can "play your own game"

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Leveraging 529A ABLE Accounts For Disabled Beneficiaries To Gain The Emotional Benefits Of Greater Financial Autonomy

August 4, 2021 07:08 am 15 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

In 2014, Congress created the IRC Section 529A plan under the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act. Similar to 529 plans for college savings, the 529A “ABLE” account provides the opportunity to generate tax-deferred growth, and that growth can ultimately be withdrawn tax-free for “qualified” expenses. Which for 529 plans are qualified education expenses… while 529A plans provide tax-free withdrawals to cover qualified disability expenses (for beneficiaries who were first disabled prior to the age of 26).

Beyond the opportunity to generate tax-free growth for qualified disability expenses, though, one of the key benefits of 529A plans is that they are not treated as a countable asset for a wide range of government benefits programs, from SSI (Supplemental Security Income) to Medicaid (and its associated waivers for other support programs), Section 8 housing, electronic benefit transfer programs (for food support), and more. In fact, the government benefits that are preserved when disabled beneficiaries accumulate assets inside a 529A plan can be worth significantly more than the tax-free growth itself.

Nonetheless, the opportunity to accumulate inside of a 529A plan is very important, as ABLE account assets may provide the crucial ‘transition support’ necessary to navigate benefit purgatory – that challenging point where a disabled individual begins to work and generates enough income to disqualify themselves from support programs, when they might not actually have enough income to fully support themselves. In other words, saving into an ABLE account can be a crucial pathway for those who are trying to reach the point of being financially self-sufficient and avoiding the need to rely upon (and be subject to the constraints of) government programs.

And even for those disabled individuals who may not be able to achieve financial autonomy, ABLE accounts make it possible for beneficiaries to achieve a greater level of financial autonomy, by being able to draw directly upon their own assets (that don’t have to be immediately spent down to remain qualified for government aid), without needing to necessarily go the pathway of conservatorship or guardianship. Which makes 529A plans especially helpful in a framework of supported decision-making to develop greater autonomy and self-confidence for the account beneficiary.

Notably, though, because ABLE accounts often support ongoing spending far more directly than most other types of tax-preferenced accounts (that more often make fewer larger distributions, such as for college tuition or a year’s worth of retirement spending), it’s important to evaluate exactly how a prospective 529A plan actually facilitates payments. Fortunately, though, a growing number of 529A plans provide debit cards that allow beneficiaries to access and utilize their funds directly (which also helps to ensure the assets don’t get deposited into a bank account that itself could disqualify the beneficiary from government programs), while also providing some controls to ensure beneficiaries don’t accidentally ‘overspend’ their limited resources too quickly.

Ultimately, the key point is to recognize that 529A plans are about more than ‘just’ accumulating assets for a disabled beneficiary on a tax-preferenced basis, or preserving the beneficiary’s ability to utilize crucial government programs. Instead, ABLE accounts also provide a pathway to developing the self-confidence and financial autonomy of the beneficiary, as part of a supported decision-making approach, which over time can provide far greater emotional benefits than the mere financial benefits alone.

#FA Success Ep 240: Driving Client Growth By Communicating Solutions In Practical Terms, With Thomas Gau

August 3, 2021 07:04 am 10 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 240th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Thomas Gau. Tom is a financial advisor at Materetsky Financial Group, a hybrid-RIA located in Boynton Beach, Florida, that manages $525M in assets under management for just over 500 clients.

What's unique about Tom, though, is the way he translates abstract financial planning strategies into very concrete and practical terms that he can enthusiastically communicate to address the very specific tax and estate planning needs of his retiree niche clientele.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Tom’s quintessential client communication and persuasion skills landed him on the radar of Malcolm Gladwell (who profiled Tom in his book “The Tipping Point”), how early in his career, as he expanded his focus beyond his accounting services as a CPA, Tom decided that he needed a niche, focusing first on retirees and then niching down even further to a concentration on the tax ramifications of retirement distributions, and why Tom feels that the best way for financial advisors to differentiate themselves to prospective clients isn’t by discussing investment solutions, but by offering to help with specific tax planning issues, because, as Tom points out, “investments are a matter of opinion, but taxes are a matter of fact”.

We also talk about how Tom utilizes educational workshops to get in front of prospective clients as well as the specific strategies he uses to create awareness for and interest in his workshops, why Tom feels that the three keys to having a successful advisory practice include having a solution to a common pain point felt by a specific target market, being able to easily implement that solution, and making sure that the issue involves a not-insignificant amount of money, and why Tom believes that most financial advisors still underappreciate how addressing advanced planning topics with their clients can be a powerful differentiator against a vast number of advisors in the industry who are still generalists.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Tom shares what led him to turn his business development success into a Coaching Program for other advisors, the surprising consistency in the issues that retirees face regardless of their locale as Tom builds an advisory firm for the third time in a new location after selling the first two, Tom’s philanthropic efforts in less fortunate countries (which also makes him appreciate all the more the abundance in his own life), and how, at the end of the day, Tom finds that it’s his enthusiasm and passion, even more so than his tax and estate planning focus, that gets prospective clients excited about working with him.

So whether you’re interested in hearing the story behind Tom being featured in “The Tipping Point”, the advice he offers around how financial advisors can differentiate themselves, or how he runs his educational workshops to generate new business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Thomas Gau.

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (August 2021)

August 2, 2021 07:06 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the August 2021 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 big news that Vanguard has apparently decided that direct indexing is the future, making its first-ever external acquisition of direct indexing platform JustInvest after an initial pilot program with RIAs quickly brought in more than $1B of AUM. Of course, the reality is that if Vanguard is going to put its full scale of resources behind JustInvest and distribute the direct indexing offering to its $3T of assets with financial intermediaries, then it may cause direct indexing to become the future, even if it wasn’t going to be already. Yet on the other hand, with Vanguard deciding to break the mold and acquire externally in an apparent move to quickly “catch up”, it appears that even Vanguard sees both momentum in direct indexing… and an apparent threat to its own core business of index mutual funds and ETFs that it wishes to head off at the pass?

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

Vestwell raises $70M of capital as their 401(k) technology platform for advisors gains momentum
SIMON Markets raises $100M of capital to fund their rapidly growing marketplace of risk-hedged investment solutions for advisors
Harness Wealth raises $15M to fund a new advisor lead generation service focused specifically on consumers with significant equity compensation
Orion launches a new “3-Dimensional” risk tolerance assessment tool that aims to cover tolerance, capacity, and a client’s ability to keep their composure (or not) when markets turn volatile
Morningstar launches its own new Risk Score ecosystem to help translate ‘abstract’ risk tolerance scores into concrete portfolios that advisors can implement

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

RIA In A Box launches a new social media archiving platform to complement its growing suite of compliance tools
The T3 Advisor Technology conference launches a new “WealthTech DevCon” in partnership with INVENT.us to expand the AdvisorTech dev community
Fidelity launches a new “Sherlock” data tool for cryptocurrency, but it’s not clear if advisors will trade it
Carson Wealth gets a ‘tech multiple’ for its RIA business by building its own client portal as large advisory firms increasingly look to add their own layer of proprietary technology value

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 (July 31-Aug 1)

July 30, 2021 02:41 pm 3 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the industry news that the CFP Board is proposing updates to its disciplinary Sanction Guidelines and Procedural Rules, which would make the Failure To Report a disciplinary violation to the CFP Board result in a public censure (not just a private one)... and even more significantly, that the CFP Board is seeking input on whether it should begin to apply monetary sanctions on CFP professionals for violations of its Standards of Conduct, where the fines it levies would be used to fund subsequent enforcement as the CFP Board continues to try to weed more 'bad apples' from its ranks. (For those who are interested, a public comment period will be open until September 21st for those who have something to say about it!)

Also in the industry news this week are a number of other interesting industry headlines:

The SEC announces a series of fines, ranging from $10,000 to more than $90,000, on both RIAs and broker-dealers that still aren't distributing Form CRS to clients and posting it for prospects on their website as required under Reg BI
A new research study finds that more and more consumers are seeking financial planning advice, and that younger clients are actually the most likely to be seeking out a new financial advisor now

From there, we have several articles on advisor marketing:

The latest Schwab benchmarking study shows that the top growth firms are the ones most effectively leveraging digital marketing strategies to outgrow their peers
Why financial advisors need to have a sound financial footing themselves to get clients (or else your need to close the prospect and get the sale will end out killing the deal)
The beliefs that hold advisors back from getting referrals, including that most clients actually do want to refer their advisor, but don't because they're not sure who they know that would qualify for their advisor's minimums

We've also included a number of retirement-related articles, including:

How retirees are increasingly seeking 'non-financial' retirement advice, because the factors that most drive wellbeing in retirement are a function of health and wellness (not finances)
How retirement dreams can quickly cascade down into 'retirement hell' for those that struggle with having too much free time
Confessions of a young tech multi-millionaire about how she struggled greatly when an IPO suddenly brought her an 'unexpected' $6M fortune

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of what it takes to build wealth and how it benefits us:

How 'true' wealth is about being able to control our time, have freedom to say what we want (without fear of reprisal from work), and simply not need to worry about money anymore
A Northwestern University study on siblings and twins shows what appears to be a causal effect between mid-life money (in our 40s) and our subsequent longevity
The "Go Big, Then Stop" approach to saving for retirement (because if you save enough early enough, you literally don't have to keep saving at all to retire, and can simply let the early compounding take over!)

Enjoy the 'light' reading!