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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the announcement that the CFP Board is launching a new "Standards Resource Commission", a 13-person panel that will be tasked with creating guidance on the CFP Board's new Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct to help CFP professionals know what they actually need to do to comply with the new rules.

Also in the news this week was a controversial internal memo at Wells Fargo that going forward, clients will be given the option to "opt out" of permitting their broker to take their contact information if the broker leaves, in what critics are calling an effort by Wells Fargo to end-run the Broker Protocol without formally dropping out of it. And the IRS provided a preview of its new Form 1040, which – in light of all the deductions and credits eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 – is aiming to consolidate the 1040 itself, the short-form 1040A, and the 1040EZ, into a new shortened postcard-sized tax return... albeit with what will still be a lot of new worksheets to calculate the deductions and credits that remain.

From there, we have a number of marketing and business development articles, from a look at how improving at sales and business development first requires a mindset shift that it's about trying to share services that help (and why would you not be persistent in trying to offer real help to a prospect!), to advice on how to get better at networking, and some insights about what prospective clients actually want to see (and don't want to see) on an advisor's website.

We also have several retirement planning articles, including: a way to separate financial independence into multiple tiers depending on the nature of the lifestyle it can afford, and whether or how many trade-offs must still be accepted to make it work; how to think about and talk to clients whose struggle is not failing to save enough for retirement, but having saved "too much" yet being unwilling to spend and enjoy their wealth; and how to plan for and frame the cost of health (Medicare) insurance and medical expenses in retirement.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of the business of advice itself: the first explores how often the best "advice" that we can offer is simply to listen, help clients be heard, and only occasionally, maybe offer some tidbits of guidance if and when they truly ask for it; the second looks at how the shift to more behaviorally-oriented advice (as opposed to traditional investment and financial advice) can fundamentally change the nature of the questions we ask clients; and the last looks at research finding that perhaps there's such thing as being too empathetic with clients, and that the better way to connect with and help clients while avoiding burnout is not to empathetically feeling with them (and sharing their pain), but simply trying to extend kindness and compassionately feel for them, instead.

Enjoy the "light" reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a look at why, nearly 3 months after its surprising decision to vacate the DoL fiduciary rule, the clerk's office of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals still has not actually issued its official mandate to vacate the rule, raising the question of whether there may actually still be some other last-ditch effort afoot to save the rule... or if the clerk's office is simply backed up on paperwork, such that the final issuance will be coming soon.

Also in the news this week is a brief recap of the Financial Planning Association's Advocacy Day in Washington DC, where 85 FPA members spoke with Congressional lawmakers and their staff about raising the standard for financial advice (and advocating that "financial planner" should also be a protected term, along with financial advisor), and the launch of "Equita Financial Network" for women-led advisory firm owners who are seeking more infrastructure and support to launch and run their own independent advisory firms.

From there, we have a number of articles on the ongoing shifts in the broker-dealer industry, as May is the month that several industry publications issue their annual "top broker-dealer" lists and interview broker-dealer executives. Highlights include: the annual Financial Planning magazine survey, that highlights how the largest broker-dealers are adapting to the changing landscape as this year marks the first ever that fee-based revenue at the top-50 independent broker-dealers exceeds commission-based revenue; the annual ThinkAdvisor broker-dealer Presidents poll showing that in the near-term, most broker-dealers are struggling the most with technology and regulation, even as their advisors are struggling to attract new clients in an increasingly competitive environment; how the likely roll-back of the DoL fiduciary rule (and the non-fiduciary SEC advice rule) is giving a new wind to small broker-dealers, even as more and more large broker-dealers appear intent on rolling them up (which might not be a bad deal for those smaller broker-dealers in the end); how the burden of FINRA regulation is so cumbersome that not only are many advisors leaving broker-dealers to start their own RIAs, but now some hybrid broker-dealers are themselves considering whether to spin off their entire "legacy" broker-dealer and instead just focus on becoming mega-RIAs in the future; how Cambridge Investment Research embodies this trend by choosing to start eschewing broker-dealer terms like "OSJ" and "branch" as the majority of its advisors, and its revenue, now come from the fee-based side of the business; and how the increasing mobility of brokers is leading them to take a hard look at not just the costs of the broker-dealer that are subtracted from their payout grids, but all the additional ways that broker-dealers mark up their various investment solutions by 10bps - 25bps (or more in some cases).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of how the "politicization of everything" is making more and more of us have to deal with criticism and negative feedback, and the best way to handle it: the first is a Harvard Business Review examination of how various CEOs are handling the growing pressure of businesses to take public positions on controversial issues; the second looks at how, whether it's political criticism or simply personal criticism, there are better and worse ways for us to take in criticism to actually learn from it; and the third is a good reminder that, no matter what we do, someone will likely criticize it, so often the best approach is simply to try take it all in, figure out if there is a grain of truth that merits an adjustment, and then simply move on and focus on making whatever choice is right for you (may as well, if you're going to be criticized no matter what!).

Enjoy the "light" reading!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that financial advisor and fiduciary advocates are now calling for a delay in the public comment period for the SEC's new "Regulation Best Interest" for brokers, suggesting there's not enough time with the original August 7th deadline to properly test the effectiveness of newly proposed Form CRS disclosures. Also in the news this week is continued hubbub about the FPA and its beleaguered New York chapter, as the national organization not only terminates the prior chapter's affiliation agreement but is now also taking over its remaining assets, raising questions of just how much control the national organization should have over its nominally independent chapters.

From there, we have several marketing and business development articles, including a fascinating look at new research about what makes a client actually leave and find another advisor (hint: it's not about bad service, but a change in the client's life that leads them to lose faith that their existing advisor can handle their new financial situation), a study that finds younger clients are less satisfied and loyal to their existing advisors but are still more likely to refer (albeit through sharing content or advisor events, and not just providing a name/introduction), and a review of various platforms/solutions that advisors can use to outsource parts of their marketing.

We also have a few articles about money and financial behaviors, from a study finding that the odds of dying rise significantly when someone has a catastrophic financial loss (i.e., losing >75% of their assets in 2 years), to another study finding that there's so much pressure to "keep up with the Joneses" that when someone wins the lottery even their neighbors are more likely to declare bankruptcy (as they spend more conspicuously, and invest more aggressively, in an attempt to catch up), and the rising trend of marriage couples keeping separate bank accounts and not merging their finances (and instead simply showing their marital commitment with an agreement to split all expenses to their separate accounts instead).

This week includes a round-up of a few extra practice management articles too, including: how to properly pay yourself a salary (or not) depending on the type of business entity you use as a financial advisor; the "three pillars" for growing an advisory practice into a full-fledged business (organizational structure, entity structure, and [proper] compensation models); and how more and more advisory firms are hitting the crossroads where they must decide whether to hunker down and stay small, or aim to grow much larger, with all the trade-offs and changes that go along with a commitment to do so.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of the changing role of the advisor and money in our lives: the first looks at how technology is reshaping the role of doctors, in the near term by making them unfortunately more "clerically" oriented just to enter all the relevant patient data into their computers, but with the hopes that the technology will eventually free the doctors to focus more on their patients; the second explores why it's so hard to talk about money, and powerful questions to ask to better understand someone's finances and financial views (whether it's a family member, or a client); and the last is a fascinating perspective of how the nature of wealth and work has transformed over the past millenium, and how the rise of wealth and decrease of costs in common goods has led us to the point that we now struggle with how to manage and define our relationship with this thing we call "money".

Enjoy the "light" reading!

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