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The Latest In Financial Advisor #FinTech (June 2020)

June 1, 2020 07:08 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the June 2020 issue of the Latest News in Financial Advisor #FinTech – 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 and wealth management!

This month’s edition kicks off with the news that Goldman Sachs has acquired Folio Institutional and its $11B RIA custody platform for 450 (mostly small) RIAs… and raising the question of whether Goldman is making a play to compete for small RIA custody opportunities as Morgan Stanley acquires E*Trade Advisor Services and Schwab acquires TD Ameritrade, or if Goldman will repurpose Folio to capture large wirehouse breakaway teams, or simply use it as a custodial platform for their own RIAs (Ayco and United Capital), or turn it into a robo-advisor solution paired with Marcus, or use Folio’s fractional share trading capabilities to build a direct indexing solution. Or perhaps all of the above!?

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

Franklin Templeton acquires the robo-advisor-for-advisors AdvisorEngine, but the real play may be to reinvigorate Junxure CRM?
AdvicePay rolls out Offices for Enterprises as LPL signs on to the trend of fee-for-service financial planning
Smarsh acquires Entreda as device management cybersecurity becomes a more pressing issue in a future with more remote workers
Plaid launches an integration with Microsoft that will offer consumers (or advisors and their clients) a spreadsheet-based budgeting tool with automated account aggregation
PlanTechHub launches a new financial planning software competitor built around actually showing the value of a financial advisor’s recommendations to clients

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month’s column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, with special AdvisorTech consulting guests Craig Iskowitz and Kyle Van Pelt, covering news including Aurora Capital acquiring FMG Suite to build ‘Hubspot for financial advisors’ as interest grows in advisor digital marketing, Vise.ai launches a new robo-tech-turned-TAMP solution for advisors, Envestnet launches a next-generation client portal that includes not just performance reporting and news but also client To-Dos, Fidelity rolls out a new Virtual AI assistant not for clients but to support advisor back-office servicing, and Morningstar doubles down on its bet of a more ESG-centric future by fully acquiring Sustainalytics (after buying an initial 40% stake back in 2017).

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular new “Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map” as well!

I hope you’re continuing to find this column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to TechNews@kitces.com!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (May 30-31)

May 29, 2020 02:57 pm 2 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the big industry news that FPA Executive Director Lauren Schadle has resigned in the face of 8 years of stagnant membership and a recent accelerating decline, a new interim CEO is stepping in, and the FPA is beginning a national search for new leadership to try to get its growth engine firing again (giving the ongoing growth of the financial planning profession itself).

Also in the news this week is an announcement that the CFP Board is updating its own Disciplinary Rules and Procedures in advance of the June 30th enforcement date for its updated Code of Ethics and fiduciary-at-all-times Standards of Conduct, and a recent study by Hearsay Social shows the dramatic improvement in results that financial advisors get by sharing more personal and authentic information on social media channels beyond just canned investment content.

From there, we have several articles on cash flow and spending decisions, including a look at how credit card companies are beginning to shift their rewards benefits in the face of a major pullback in travel and dining, a look at the ongoing rise of subscription services for ‘everything’ and tips on how to keep track of them all, and an interesting discussion of the benefits of ‘taking a sabbatical’ to work remotely as a renter instead of buying a house (with all the costs and reduced flexibility that entails).

We also have a few retirement-related articles this week, from a look at how the coronavirus pandemic may shave one or several years off the survivability of the Social Security trust fund (accelerating either a prospective cut in Social Security benefits, or action in Congress to shore up the system), a look at the use of hybrid annuity/LTC policies in low-interest-rate environments, and why it’s perhaps time to eliminate the assumption of ‘retirement’ altogether and instead think about phased glidepaths of retirement itself (where hours worked and duties gradually shift over time, rather than a hard-stop retirement plan).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of client communication and engagement: the first delves into recent research on exactly what communication strategies support client trust, satisfaction, and referrals; the importance of evolving client communication beyond ‘just’ regular check-ins (including and especially in the coronavirus pandemic environment); and the last provides a powerful reminder of the emotional benefits of working with a financial planner, in terms of not just walking clients off the proverbial investment ledge but also simply helping them to focus on what they can financially control (from investments to spending and more)!

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Why Discretionary See-Through Trusts May Require Reform After The SECURE Act’s 10-Year Rule

May 27, 2020 07:06 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Retirement Planning

The passage of the SECURE Act in December of 2019 introduced several notable changes to the rules governing retirement accounts. One of the most significant was the elimination of the ‘stretch’ provision applicable to most non-spouse Designated Beneficiaries of inherited retirement accounts. Instead of allowing such beneficiaries to continue ‘stretching’ their distributions over the span of their own lifetimes, the SECURE Act now requires that certain beneficiaries deplete their inherited retirement accounts by the end of the 10th year after the year of the account owner’s death. And while that poses challenges when planning for individuals who are retirement account beneficiaries… the planning challenges increase exponentially for “See-Through” Trusts, which can also be designated retirement account beneficiaries.

See-Through Trusts are treated as a Designated Beneficiary (by “seeing through” to the underlying beneficiaries) of an inherited retirement account and come in two basic forms – a “Conduit Trust” and a “Discretionary Trust”. Whereas conduit trusts require all distributions from an inherited retirement account received by the trust to be passed out (i.e., “conduited”) to the trust beneficiaries each year, discretionary trusts allow for the build-up of distributed dollars within the trust. Under certain circumstances, each type of trust can still take advantage of the stretch provision if the underlying beneficiaries can be considered Eligible Designated Beneficiaries, but See-Through Trusts will generally be subject to the 10-Year Rule if the underlying beneficiaries are Non-Eligible Designated Beneficiaries.

Applicable Multi-Beneficiary Trusts, meanwhile, can be used for trusts that have multiple beneficiaries (all of whom are people), when one or more of the beneficiaries is a disabled or chronically ill person. These trusts were established by the SECURE Act to help beneficiaries maintain their eligibility in certain means-tested programs such as Supplemental Security Income and Medicare. If Non-Eligible Designated Beneficiaries are named as beneficiaries to an Applicable Multi-Beneficiary Trust, the stretch provision can still apply to the disabled/chronically ill beneficiary (and would be based on the oldest beneficiary if all are disabled/chronically ill), provided the trust splits into a separate sub-trust for the disabled/chronically ill person immediately upon the account owner’s death.

The primary challenge that the SECURE Act imposes on discretionary trusts stems from the high trust tax rate – the income threshold for the maximum trust tax rate (37%) is only $12,950, versus the income threshold of $622,050 for the 37% personal income tax bracket for joint filers! And because any funds distributed from a retirement account to the trust will be taxed at the trust’s income tax rate if they are not subsequently distributed to the trust beneficiary in the same tax year, the tax liability that can result from distributions left in the trust can be substantial.

Some strategies that financial advisors can use to help clients maximize the post-tax value of inherited retirement account funds left to a Discretionary Trust include immediate Roth conversions of any distributions from the inherited retirement account, which especially makes sense when the account owner is in a lower tax bracket. If Roth conversions are not possible (e.g., if income is too high to permit them), using distributions to fund a life insurance policy can be a potential alternative strategy, but only if there is relative certainty that the funds won’t be needed during the account owner’s lifetime. Other strategies that permit distributions to be taxed at potentially lower individual income tax rates instead of the higher trust rates include providing the trustee with the freedom to time inherited retirement account distributions and creating a Discretionary Trust that allows a beneficiary to exercise a power of withdrawal over annual distributions made from the IRA to the trust.

Ultimately, the key point is that Discretionary Trusts, like Conduit Trusts, have been significantly impacted under the SECURE Act. Accordingly, it is crucial for advisors to know which clients have named a discretionary trust as part of their planning, and for those clients with special needs trusts, to ensure that they conform to applicable MBT guidelines. The low-income threshold for the highest trust tax rate bracket is a particular challenge for trust distributions and can be avoided by using Roth conversions immediately after distributions are made to the trust; timing distributions between inherited retirement accounts, the trust, and the beneficiaries; and providing the beneficiary with the power of withdrawal over annual distributions (when it makes sense to do so).

#FASuccess Ep 178: Blogging Your Way Into A Successful Niche By Simply Pursuing Your Own Curiosity, with Daniel Zajac

May 26, 2020 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 178th episode of Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Daniel Zajac. Daniel is a financial advisor and partner with Simone Zajac, a hybrid advisory firm on the Lincoln Investment platform that oversees nearly $250 million of assets under management for nearly 300 clients. What’s unique about Daniel, though, is the way he’s driven an evolution of how the advisory firm markets itself, from the traditional approach of networking with local centers of influence and relying on existing client referrals, to developing a blog for those earning significant equity compensation from their employers that has turned into one to three new digital prospects for the firm every week, many of whom are bringing seven-figure accounts to the firm, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Daniel built and developed a niche in working with those who receive significant equity compensation, including the years it took early on for Daniel to gain any traction with his blogging efforts, how pivoting to focus more narrowly on equity compensation accelerated his positive results, how Daniel selected equity compensation as his emerging niche in the first place, what Daniel focused on in the early years to figure out if he was on track when there were not a lot of new clients coming through yet, and how even today, Daniel has found that when blogging and marketing is focused on a niche, website traffic of just a few hundred visitors a day or a few thousand per month is sufficient to drive material new business results.

We also talk about how Daniel’s advisory firm prices and delivers its planning services to clients, the digital meet-and-greet session they start with every prospect to determine if they’re the right fit, the way the firm uses Dropbox in the data-gathering process to make it easy for prospective clients to share information, why the firm also offers tax preparation to clients as a part of its services, and how forming a niche has opened up new opportunities for lucrative hourly planning in addition to their traditional AUM business.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Daniel shares his perspective on why it’s so important to focus sooner rather than later, having struggled himself to find his own traction after his first five years as an advisor, how the path to specialization is really more about iterating incrementally deeper and deeper and not just trying to pick the perfect future niche, and the importance of recognizing that even if you commit to an initial direction, you can always pivot to another niche focus if you’re not happy with the results.

Overcoming A Disciplinary U4 Disclosure To Reinvent Your Advisory Business

May 25, 2020 07:08 am 7 Comments CATEGORY: Personal/Career Development

When applying to register within the securities industry, whether as a registered representative of a broker-dealer or an investment advisory representative of an RIA, individuals must complete and file FINRA’s Form U4. The form asks for personal information such as employment and residential history, education, and designations, but is most commonly known for the section towards the end that requires individuals to disclose past events, including criminal history, disciplinary actions from a regulatory body, customer complaints, various financial events, and civil judgments.

Regardless of any mitigating circumstances, having any such “disclosure events” can complicate an advisor’s life and can sometimes even end careers altogether. Not only are most disclosures a permanent part of an advisor’s record, visible to the general public and included for review by prospective clients in the firm’s ADV, the process of dealing with the disclosure itself is also long and expensive, which can involve a formal hearing proceeding by the regulatory body involved.

In this guest post, Tyler Olson – owner of Olson Consulting LLC, an RIA located in Saint Joseph, Michigan – shares his own experience dealing with having a disciplinary disclosure on his U4 record, and the process he went through to move forward in the industry, establishing his own RIA and rebuilding his client base from the ground up after a 3-year ordeal led to a regulatory fine. Through his experience, Tyler learned valuable lessons and devised deliberate strategies to help him organize a failsafe system to avoid the same mistakes he made in the past.

Most importantly, Tyler has come to recognize that the three key characteristics that are vital to operating as a successful advisor are built around integrity and a strong ethical foundation. Specifically, endurance, humility, and respect are the central traits that will not only help advisors avoid potentially damaging mistakes but are also traits that will help an advisor persevere should they find themselves with a challenging disclosure event.

As he rebuilt his business, Tyler developed several strategies to discuss the disciplinary event in his background with prospective clients, organize his processes to prevent future mistakes, and stay abreast of industry trends by keeping up with the CFP Board and investor advocacy groups. He also maintains open communication lines with his state regulator (finding it is more effective to work with them proactively than trying to ‘stay under the radar screen’) and sticks to a structured weekly routine to keep his compliance protocol up to date.

Ultimately, the key point is that U4 disclosure events can be very difficult for any advisor to deal with, but by cultivating key characteristics, developing a strong work ethic, and having the right mindset, advisors who are given the opportunity to remain in the profession with a disciplinary disclosure really can move past the event and still build successful careers.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (May 23-24)

May 22, 2020 02:47 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with an interesting investor research study showing what clients are actually interested in learning and hearing about now… which shows that while there was an initial burst of interest in commentary about markets and the economy, within just a week or two of the pandemic shutdown client interest had already shifted to topics more ‘personally’ relevant to them, from health and wellness to thinking about second careers (as the pandemic may have shut down their first!), and the family dynamics of how the pandemic and its economic impact may be rippling through their personal lives beyond their portfolios alone.

From there, we have several practice management articles on the continued adaptation of working in a virtual environment, including tips on managing your team remotely (from daily huddles to weekly videos and structured virtual get-togethers), to advisory firms taking a fresh look at their office space decisions as lease renewals may be coming due in the midst of the shutdown, some tips on managing client meetings virtually, and why in the end the key to surviving and thriving in the midst of this pandemic shutdown is not just about figuring out whether and how to adapt by changing your mindset to view this as a positive turning point in your business (and then to decide what you’re going to build towards from here!).

We also have several marketing-related articles this week, from suggestions of what any advisory firm can start doing to improve (virtual) communication and connection with clients and prospects, why it may be a good time to take a fresh look at your advisor website, tips on how to focus on and change your website to do a better job of turning visitors into qualified prospects and eventually clients (now that we have to rely on our websites more than ever!), and how even though clients commonly find prospective advisors through referrals it’s still necessary to do the substantive work of really earning their trust.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of habits and personal productivity: the first is a reminder of the power of “keystone habits”, and how finding just one or two positive anchor habits can help spiral the rest of our lives in a more positive direction; the second is a fascinating look at mathematician and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram and the ‘personal infrastructure’ he has created to make himself more productive; and the last is a powerful reminder that in the end, the pandemic shutdown hasn’t necessarily given us more time to be productive (as though we weren’t already trying to be productive in the past!), it has just shifted our time, and the real key to productivity remains as it always was: not finding more time in the day, or a way to cram more things into the time that’s available, but instead figuring out what you truly need to be doing yourself to be productive… and learning to hyperfocus your time on only those things that really, truly, matter the most!

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!