Nerd's Eye View blog

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (May 10–11)

May 9, 2025 02:03 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 recent survey found that long-feared fee compression in the financial advice industry has yet to come to pass, though some advisors continue to see potential for small reductions in asset-based fees in the future. These results largely match results from the recent Kitces Research Study on Advisor Productivity, which found that the typical fee schedule for firms charging on a graduated basis remains at 100 basis points (bps) for client assets up to $1 million, then declines to 90 bps at $2 million, 75 bps at $5 million, and 60 bps at $10 million in assets. Nonetheless, amidst the potential emergence of artificial intelligence-powered digital planning offerings, advisors who lean into the areas of value that help them stand out from digital competitors and implement a curated offering of high-impact service offerings for their ideal target clients could help insulate themselves from the chance of future industry fee compression.

Also in industry news this week:

Younger Americans are eager for financial advice (and appear willing to pay for it) according to a recent survey, creating a potential opportunity for advisors who have the wherewithal and capacity to meet their planning priorities (which can differ from older, retirement-focused clients)
A study of advisors who are moms finds strong career satisfaction among this group, with equity ownership and established career paths among the factors contributing to their satisfaction with their position and firm

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

A mathematical analysis of Roth conversions identifies the factors that can make this strategy more likely to be successful for an advisor's clients
Seven reasons advisors might reconsider engaging in Roth conversions for a given client, from having a client who has strong charitable intentions to working with a client who puts a high priority on delaying taxation for as long as possible
How implementing "conversion cost averaging" or "barbelling" strategies for timing Roth conversions can provide financial and emotional benefits for clients

We also have a number of articles on advisor marketing:

Six key criteria for effective marketing strategies, from attracting an advisor's ideal target client to being repeatable
Marketing ideas for new firm owners who might have a lot of time (but little revenue), including holding in-person meetings to hone their pitch and website optimization
Key metrics advisors can use to evaluate their current marketing strategy and identify areas to adjust

We wrap up with three final articles, all about giving and receiving feedback:

20 tips for providing better feedback, from doing so in a timely manner to being willing to brainstorm potential solutions
How to recognize "hidden feedback" and uncover the true meaning behind sent by a peer or manager
Ways professionals can handle feedback like top-level athletes, including focusing on comments from a trusted inner circle to creating a system for implementing it to track self-improvement

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

6 Discovery Meeting Questions To Find Clients’ (Real) “Why” And Set Goals That (Actually) Resonate

May 7, 2025 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Psychology

For many financial advisors, an early planning conversation often includes asking clients to identify financial goals. But when clients are still emotionally weighed down by an immediate pain point – the source of their stress or uncertainty that led them to seek out their advisor in the first place – their ability to articulate meaningful long-term goals may be limited. What emerges instead is a practical-sounding to-do list that lacks inspiration. Which can leave both client and advisor feeling stuck: The client doesn't have the motivation to act, and the advisor struggles to guide the plan forward in a way that connects.

To help create better engagement, advisors often turn to frameworks like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound) goals – which can be great for implementation, but aren't always designed to evoke meaning or spark emotional connection. And when used too early, they risk leaving clients feeling overburdened with a pile of uninspiring tasks. Instead of inspiring change, the plan begins to feel like a chore.

A more effective approach is to start with the immediate stressor – the problem that brought the client in – and wait to develop an inspiring financial plan built on deeper vision-building during a second or third monitoring meeting. By then, the client has had a chance to feel some initial relief and develop trust in their advisor, creating the space for deeper reflection and more personally resonant goals.

In these later conversations, advisors can use carefully timed questions to guide clients into a more expansive mindset – exploring what their ideal life might look like, the kind of legacy they hope to leave behind, or the meaningful experiences they haven't yet had. Advisors can then transition to asking questions like, "What's one change you could make today that moves you toward that vision?", allowing the client to identify a single, manageable step they can take now.

To further support this process and help the vision-setting process resonate with clients, advisors can preview these conversations in advance, providing an agenda with some key questions they plan to ask and explaining how the conversation can be valuable to the client. During the meeting, a Statement of Financial Purpose can effectively capture what matters to the client in their own words. And leaving space for follow-up questions and shared reflection can encourage honest dialogue and build trust, which are key to effective vision-setting conversations. Because these conversations aren't just about uncovering what matters to the client – they're about co-creating that vision together, so the financial plan becomes a true reflection of the client's values and priorities – with the advisor playing an essential role in helping bring that vision to life.

Ultimately, the key point is that the best financial plans don't just help clients save more, spend wisely, or retire on time – they spark excitement for what's ahead. When clients can see what's possible and feel truly connected to that vision, follow-through becomes less of a task and more of a natural next step. And when advisors make space for those conversations – not too early, but at just the right time – planning stops being a checklist and starts becoming something transformational!

#FASuccess Ep 436: Hiring A Branding Firm To Figure Out The Best Way To Connect With Your Ideal Clients, With Nicole Gopoian Wirick

May 6, 2025 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 436th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Nicole Gopoian Wirick. Nicole is the president of Prosperity Wealth Strategies, an RIA based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, that oversees $70 million in assets under management for 40 client households.

What's unique about Nicole, though, is how she hired a branding consultant soon after going out on her own as an independent advisory firm to help her create a unique brand identity that reflects her approach to financial planning, has helped her attract and connect with clients who fit her ideal client persona, and now serves as the filter for evaluating whether any marketing strategy if even worth her time to pursue.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how the branding consultant encouraged Nicole to first take a step back and explore big picture questions for what she wanted from her firm (such as what an ideal day would look like for her) rather than just starting with the characteristics of her target clientele, how Nicole (based on the results from this exercise) then created her "brand DNA" (which as Nicole puts it is "compassionate conversations coupled with planning tenacity") that serves as the bedrock of both her business plan and her marketing plan including social media and even speaking engagements (and helps her save time by avoiding marketing tactics that don't fit with her brand identity), and how Nicole incorporates her branding and the language on her website to attract prospects who fit her ideal client persona of those with $2 million to $10 million in investible assets and an interest in going deep on complex financial planning issues (particularly around estate planning, legacy planning, and philanthropy).

We also talk about how Nicole, from the early days of her firm (when she had fewer clients and more time) proactively reached out to centers of influence (such as attorneys and CPAs) and tapped into her own personal network to build connections that have led to client introductions over time (even though most didn't produce immediate results), how Nicole's planning focus on going deep into estate and legacy planning issues has built a high level of trust with her clients that has led to subsequent referrals to other members of the same family, and why despite all the branding and marketing effort, Nicole does not intend for her website to be the first interaction that brings a prospect in to her… but is crucial nonetheless because even referrals still want to validate by checking her out online to affirm that she would be a good fit for them after being introduced.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Nicole shares how she is evolving her branding to be less founder-centric as she seeks to expand her advisory team beyond herself, how Nicole uses executive summaries (presented to clients in PowerPoint) to explain financial planning recommendations (leaving the output of planning software as an appendix for the few clients who do want to dig into the numbers), and how Nicole handled the ups and downs of breaking away from a larger advisory firm to start her own from scratch, including how she found motivation from being active (for example, by successfully onboarding a new client) rather than just tracking her marketing efforts alone.

So, whether you're interested in learning about hiring an external branding consultant to shape an advisory firm's brand, putting a firm's "brand DNA" into practice in marketing, or how going deep into estate and legacy planning can help build a high level of trust with clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Nicole Gopoian Wirick.

Altruist Raises $152M To Compete With “Big 2” RIA Custodians (And More Of The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech – May 2025)

May 5, 2025 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the May 2025 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 Altruist has announced a $152 million fundraising round, the latest in a steadily increasing series of capital raises as it has built out new technology features to compete with the "Big Two" custodians of Schwab and Fidelity – leaving the big question of what it intends to do with this fresh round of capital, whether it's implementing (even more) new features, improving its existing product, or acquiring competitors in the ever-competitive race for custodial market share?

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

Charles Schwab has taken a minority stake in estate planning platform Wealth.com as it seeks to offer estate document preparation to its retail investor clients – which on the one hand gives Schwab a value-add that could keep its retail clients from switching to advisors for longer, but on the other hand may not be that much of a value add to begin with since most clients only update their estate documents every 10–15 years
Flourish has acquired Sora, which helped advisors in aiding their clients in comparing and securing debt from mortgages to student loans to business loans, in the latest sign that the idea of "Liability-Management-as-a-Service", while appealing in theory since most clients hold debt of some kind or another, falls flat in practice since most advisors would rather refer out clients to a third-party loan broker than have in-depth debt planning conversations themselves
A new startup called Wing is launching a consumer-facing "robo planning" app that provides automated personalized financial planning recommendations based on the user's inputs – but as the original crop of "robo advisors" realized nearly a decade ago, it's hard to profitably serve financial planning clients on a mass-market scale if there's not an efficient way to market to and acquire those clients

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

The financial planning platform Libretto has announced a new feature enabling advisors to create "one-click" personalized client letters based on the client's data in the software, representing a potentially valuable use of AI technology that doesn't require the user to master prompting a chat box but instead simply gives them the output they need out of the box
Amid talk about "agentic AI" tools being the next big AI evolution on the horizon, it's worth reflecting whether agentic AI is really something that advisory firms need, or whether – given the highly process-driven nature of most financial planning business – it's really just better automation and integration features are needed to help make advisors and their teams more efficient

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular "Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map" (and also added the changes to our AdvisorTech Directory) as well!

*To submit a request for inclusion or updates on the Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map and AdvisorTech Directory, please share information on the solution at the AdvisorTech Map submission form.

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (May 3–4)

May 2, 2025 02:00 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 CFP Board announced this week that it will raise its annual fee for new and renewing certificants by $120 to $575 in order to help fund its public awareness campaign to promote the CFP brand with the public and encourage consumers to seek out CFP professionals when looking for a financial advisor. While CFP board highlighted the improved brand recognition and desire to work with a CFP professional amongst the public since its public awareness campaign began in 2011, some certificants have questioned whether the fee increase (which comes on the heels of a $100 hike in 2022) and the promotional campaign it supports will lead to more clients (and revenue) for their individual practices.

Also in industry news this week:

A majority of financial advisory clients feel reassured by their advisor in the current market environment, according to a recent survey, with advisors pursuing a mix of 'high touch' and 'low touch' communication methods
A FINRA proposal that purports to streamline regulatory obligations regarding outside business activities and private security transactions could lead to significantly higher compliance requirements for certain broker-dealers and unaffiliated RIAs who use their brokerage services, according to some industry participants

From there, we have several articles on investment planning:

How advisors can evaluate gold as a potential part of client portfolios as it hovers around record-high prices (in both absolute terms and relative to inflation)
While U.S. Treasuries are sometimes referred to as 'risk-free' assets, the experience of the past few years has demonstrated the value for advisors of aligning duration with client cash flow needs
An analysis of how buffer ETFs have performed against different benchmarks finds mixed results for these products, which have expanded in number and variety in the past few years

We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:

Survey data suggest that many individuals underestimate the chances that they will need high intensity long-term care during their lives (while others overestimate the odds, which could lead them to underspend in retirement)
An analysis of long-term care insurance policyholder data finds that 38% of those with standalone policies claim benefits by age 79, while 88% have claims before age 90
Key questions that can help clients determine the right retirement community for their needs (and to help their financial advisor assess the financial implications of different fee models)

We wrap up with three final articles, all about money and wellbeing:

A four-step method to most effectively transform money into lasting memories with loved ones
Why an individual's wealth extends beyond just financial assets and how advisors can encourage clients to consider how they might maximize their time and healthy years as well
While a client might be able to afford a major purchase (e.g., a ski chalet), assessing whether it will lead to greater overall wellbeing, or, alternatively, more stress, is more challenging

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 163: Overcoming Objections When Clients Reject The Recommendation By Asking What You Missed

May 1, 2025 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Advisors spend a lot of time crafting their financial advice recommendations – and how they deliver those recommendations – for their clients. These ultra-personalized suggestions are central to what makes financial advice valuable and can have a significant impact on a client's life. So, what happens when a client doesn't act on that advice – especially when their inaction can compromise their financial and holistic wellbeing?

In our 163rd episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards explore how to engage more meaningfully with clients who don't implement the financial advice they receive – by asking what the advisor may have missed the first time around.

Many advisors receive training to overcome objections from prospects when learning how to sell advice and gain clients. However, they rarely have access to training that addresses the objections – or silence – from long-term clients. And these objections can often show up differently: Some clients will voice disagreement openly, while others may appear to agree with the advisor's recommendations and reasoning in the moment, only to quietly fail to follow through.

Inaction can be a sign that the advisor misunderstood the client's real priorities. For example, an advisor might assume a client would prioritize long-term financial stability, when in reality, their focus may be on supporting loved ones in the present – even at the expense of their own future financial security. While both perspectives stem from good intentions, the mismatch can lead to recommendations that technically make sense but don't resonate emotionally. The key is to uncover this disconnect – not by asking, "Why didn't you implement?", which can feel accusatory and cause the client to react defensively, but instead using open-ended questions like, "What did I miss?", "What's going on?", or "How can I be helpful here?" These kinds of questions set the stage for collaborative conversations that make space for mutual investigation and problem-solving.

Often, the issue isn't a lack of clarity or explanation – it's that the advice may have focused on a goal the client wasn't truly prioritizing. When a client nods in agreement during a meeting but takes no action afterward, it may signal that the recommendation didn't reflect what truly matters to them. Shifting the conversation to explore the client's underlying values – rather than repeating the recommendation with greater emphasis – can open the door to a more meaningful dialogue and a more accurate diagnosis of the client's needs.

Ultimately, the key point is that when clients don't act on financial advice, it can be an indicator that a deeper – and different – conversation is needed. By extending curiosity and empathy, advisors can uncover clients' deeper priorities that may not have been previously articulated. In other words, advisors can use inaction and objection as an opportunity to have deeper conversations and build trust as they learn what clients truly value most!

Analyzing Congressional Republicans’ Budget Proposal For The 2025 TCJA Extension

April 30, 2025 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

In recent years, there's been uncertainty over whether the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will be allowed to 'sunset' at its scheduled expiration date of December 31, 2025, which would revert many current tax rules to their pre-2018 status. Although the 2024 U.S. elections resulted in a Republican 'trifecta' that made a TCJA extension in some form likely, the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate have slowed progress toward drafting a bill to extend or replace TCJA. Which has made it difficult for advisors and their clients to plan for the future with less than a year remaining before the scheduled sunset.

Recently, however, the House and Senate agreed to adopt a budget resolution that represents a crucial first step in the process of passing a 'reconciliation' bill. Although it doesn't contain specific provisions for what will be included in the new bill, it provides a general framework for the bill's overall 'cost' to the Federal deficit, offering planners some idea of the bill's potential scope and providing at least some certainty for clients planning their taxes for 2026 and beyond.

The budget resolution differs in key ways between the framework it provides for the House of Representatives and the Senate, meaning that we could see draft legislation from both chambers that would need to be reconciled to produce a final bill for the president to sign.

In the House's version, the budget resolution authorizes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next 10 years, which would mostly cover the estimated $4.6 trillion cost of extending TCJA (plus some already-expired provisions). However, the House's proposal would leave little room for additional tax cuts proposed by President Trump and Republican legislators, including raising the $10,000 limit on State And Local Tax (SALT) deductions and eliminating taxes on tip income. To fit within the House's budget framework, legislators would need to either shorten the bill's 'sunset' window (e.g., to five or six years versus TCJA's eight-year window), eliminate some new or existing provisions, or include selective tax increases to offset additional tax cuts.

By contrast, the Senate's version authorizes 'only' $1.5 trillion in tax cuts – but due to a controversial legislative accounting tactic, that amount includes the cost of permanently extending TCJA, meaning the $1.5 trillion represents additional tax cuts beyond TCJA's extension. In other words, Senate Republicans aim to make TCJA's rules permanent while layering in new tax cuts that would sunset after 10 years.

The difficulty is that, with only a handful of votes to spare in both the House and Senate, congressional Republicans could struggle to find a bill with enough support to pass in both chambers. For example, many House Republicans say they will only support a bill that includes cuts to programs like Medicaid, while others oppose any substantial Medicaid cuts. So while a bill like the Senate's proposal could potentially make TCJA permanent and add additional tax cuts, it may prove politically unfeasible if it requires deep spending cuts to reduce its impact on the deficit.

The key point, however, is that even though there may be significant disagreements to overcome among Republicans before they can align on a reconciliation bill, TCJA's impending sunset deadline will increase pressure to pass something to prevent the tax rules from rolling back to their pre-2018 status. And even though negotiations may continue to drag out the process of drafting and passing a final bill, it still makes sense for advisors and their clients to take a "wait and see" approach to tax planning (while being reasonably confident that there will at least be a tax bill passed by the end of the year!).

#FASuccess Ep 435: When The Next-Gen Clients’ “Wealth Builder” Offering Becomes The Main Driver Of Growth For A $1B+ Advisory Firm, With Gideon Drucker

April 29, 2025 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 435th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Gideon Drucker. Gideon is the CEO of Drucker Wealth, a hybrid advisory firm based in New York City, that oversees approximately $1 billion in assets under management for 800 client households.

What's unique about Gideon, though, is how he initiated a "Wealth Builder" offering serving high-income next-generation clients (within a firm that historically had worked primarily with retirees) that in just five years has added 275 high-value client households and has become the primary growth driver for Drucker Wealth.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Gideon shaped his firm's staffing to have a higher ratio of advisors to operations staff to serve clients on the Wealth Builder side (given the often extensive planning needs of mid-career professionals) compared to the firm's retired clients (whose plans often stay relatively stable but who need regular portfolio withdrawals), how Gideon ensured that his firm's Wealth Builder clients would be profitable by instituting a $5,000 minimum fee for new clients (while recognizing that the fast pace that many of these clients add to their assets means they will likely generate significantly higher fees from assets under management over time), and how Gideon linked the announcement of a more gradual fee minimum increase for current firm clients to the value that the firm was now providing them (finding that clients who were already taking full advantage of the firm's services were more likely to stay with the firm's new higher fees than those who were less engaged).

We also talk about how Gideon's early years in the industry cold-calling prospective clients inspired him to pursue a content-based approach to marketing that would be more sustainable in the long term (both for the business and for his own wellbeing), how Gideon produced a blog, book, and newsletter targeted at his ideal target client of high-income working-age professionals to build an audience and awareness of his firm, and how Gideon conducts regular webinars (with many attendees sourced from consumers of his written content) that provide education on both finance-related topics and his firm's planning process (and typically result in 10–15 introductory calls with his firm after each event).

And be certain to the end, where Gideon shares how the growth of his firm's Wealth Builder division (in terms of clients and services offered) led existing clients to make introductions that led to 50 introductory meetings last year (despite him not actively soliciting referrals), the importance Gideon puts on making the best possible hires for new positions (and how he approached the challenge of letting go employees who aren't a good fit for the firm), and how Gideon has thrived in the transition from being a primarily client-facing advisor to taking on leadership and business management roles (seeking to turn over more of the day-to-day client work to his advisor team).

So, whether you're interested in learning about building a sustainable next-gen service offering, effectively setting (and communicating) a minimum fee to ensure profitability, or marketing through content creation, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Gideon Drucker.

Turn Website Visitors Into Clients: A Structured Content Marketing Framework For Better Lead Generation

April 28, 2025 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Marketing

An advisory firm's website often serves as the hub for attracting new clients, with various forms of content acting as 'spokes' that attract prospective clients to the firm. But for many advisors, the hardest part of creating a content marketing strategy is knowing where to start. Without a structured approach, content creation can cost the advisor valuable time without leading to meaningful leads.

In this guest post, Mikel Bruce, CEO of TinyFrog Technologies, discusses how financial advisory firms can leverage the AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) framework that outlines the stages of a prospect's decision-making process to create a clear, effective content marketing strategy. By aligning website content to the AIDA journey, firms can engage visitors in a way that encourages them along a sequential path toward becoming clients. This structured approach helps ensure that marketing efforts translate into measurable results rather than scattered content that fails to gain traction.

Because very few consumers wake up one day with the sudden realization that they need a financial advisor (let alone know which advisor they want to use), firms can focus their efforts on guiding prospects through the decision process. The first step of the AIDA process, Awareness, centers on helping prospects recognize the firm's existence. This can be done through various forms of content – including blogs, videos, and/or podcast episodes – that address common pain points of the firm's ideal client. Additionally, firms can extend their content's reach by repurposing materials across different platforms (e.g., turning a blog post into a video that both explains a topic and showcases the advisor's personality).

Once a prospect's attention has been captured, the next step is to build Interest by encouraging them to explore their problem in more depth. At this stage, prospects begin researching solutions and engaging with educational resources. Firms can support this engagement by offering high-value content (e.g., white papers or in-depth articles), while requesting the prospect's contact information in exchange. This allows firms to follow up with email sequences that introduce the firm, highlight key services, share relevant resources, and invite prospects to take the next step, such as scheduling a call.

As prospects learn more about how the firm can address their specific concerns, they may begin to develop a stronger Desire to engage. At this stage, building trust is essential. Firms can showcase credibility by providing client testimonials, case studies, and success stories that illustrate how they have helped others achieve similar goals.

Finally, at the Action stage, prospects are ready to decide whether to engage with the firm. A well-structured process page on the firm's website can provide clarity on next steps, reinforce the value of working with the firm, and establish clear expectations for the advisor-client relationship. Additionally, a simple, compelling Call To Action (CTA) – such as a scheduling link, contact form, or direct phone number – helps guide prospects toward taking the final step.

Ultimately, the key point is that a well-designed website, built with lead generation in mind, can be one of an advisory firm's most powerful tools for attracting and converting highly qualified prospects. The key lies in creating a thoughtful, targeted content strategy that meets prospects where they are – guiding them from initial Awareness to taking Action. And by doing so, firms can transform their website from a passive digital presence into an effective catalyst for long-term growth and success!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (April 26–27)

April 25, 2025 02:00 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 recent survey found that Americans' top "burning questions" when it comes to retirement include the amount they need to have saved to retire comfortably (with respondents expecting to need $1.26 million), whether Social Security will be there when they need it (with those in Generation X particularly concerned about this issue), and whether inflation will rise after they retire. Notably, financial advisors are well-positioned to address all three of these 'pain points' (whether by creating a retirement income plan, letting clients know about the (true) state of the Social Security system and the effects of different policy choices, or creating an asset allocation that mitigates against inflation risk), presenting an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to solve the key issues facing their ideal target clients and attract more prospects in the process.

Also in industry news this week:

The RIA channel continues to attract advisors away from wirehouses and broker-dealers, though new advisors continue to predominantly enter the industry through the latter channels
A recent Supreme Court ruling puts retirement plan fiduciaries in the spotlight with the potential for a flood of legal actions, including against sponsors of relatively smaller plans

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

A list of the top considerations for financial advisors and their clients when it comes to deciding whether to make traditional or Roth contributions to retirement accounts
How Roth contributions and conversions can offer both financial and psychological benefits for clients
Why pre-tax retirement contributions can potentially be a better option than Roth contributions in clients' peak earning years, even if they expect tax rates to increase in the future

We also have a number of articles on marketing:

How advisory firms can position themselves for stronger organic growth amidst a volatile market environment
How advisors can overcome the feeling of having a scattered marketing approach by defining "who" they want to serve and "how" they want to reach and engage them
What advisors are doing to attract next-generation clients, from being willing to focus on their short-term 'pain points' to meeting them in the online spaces they frequent

We wrap up with three final articles, all about artificial intelligence:

How advisors can build "custom GPTs" that can perform a variety of functions without requiring any coding experience
While generative AI tools can help individuals take on 'thinking' tasks, relying on them could reduce users' own critical thinking capabilities
Why using AI notetaking tools to record and summarize meetings could lead participants to be more cautious when contributing to discussions

Enjoy the 'light' reading!