Search results for: "May 2008"

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!

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Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news of a new show to debut this weekend on CNBC that will feature not stock-picking entertainment but actual financial planning advice from real financial advisors (featuring advisor and media personality Josh Brown) in what may be the most visible attempt yet to burnish the public image of what it means to be a "financial advisor" away from existing negative portrayals like Wolf of Wall Street and Ozark.

Also in the news this week is an update to the SEC's Frequently Asked Questions guidance on Regulation Best Interest reaffirming that standalone broker-dealers will be required to stop using the "advisor" title after June 30th (though dually-registered broker-dealer/RIAs will still be permitted to do so, even when acting as a broker and not an RIA), registration is opening for a new online version of FINRA and NASAA Series 6, 7, 63, and 65 exams as Prometric testing centers look to stay closed for at least several more weeks in many areas (while the CFP Board has announced that the July CFP exam is being delayed to September to allow more time for in-person testing centers to open where the more comprehensive exam can be effectively proctored), a recent Fidelity study finds advisors are buying more active than passive funds in the midst of the current market volatility (though it may simply be because advisors who use active funds are more likely to actively manage them in the first place), FPA launches a "Virtual Externship" program for college students to get up to 160 hours of CFP experience if their prior in-person internships were cancelled, and a new study finds that it's the frequency of advisor-client interactions and the transparency of the advisor's compensation that drives perceived value from clients (more so than just "how much" the advisor charges and whether it's more or less than what other advisors charge).

From there, we have several articles around client communication and relationship-building, including a look at how therapists are adapting to a more virtual environment with their patients (with some lessons for financial advisors communicating with clients), how to be more mindful of whether what you're saying to clients is really empathetic or not (hint: any sentence that starts with "at least... [it isn't worse]" isn't actually very empathetic), and a reminder that it's almost impossible to really know what others are going through so even when they share their troubles it's a good idea to pause and say "tell me more about that" before just trying to (empathetically) respond without necessarily understanding what their true concern actually is.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of how businesses and their employees can and are continuing to adapt to the work-from-home environment and the potential of returning back to the office in the coming month: the first explores how a renewed focus on employee safety (from the potential transmission of the coronavirus) may force offices to shift away from the open-office trend and back towards cubicles (with barriers to support social distancing!); the second provides some helpful tips on apps and tools to use to be more productive in a work-from-home environment; and the last provides a helpful reminder for anyone in a position of leadership about how to communicate more productively with employees in an era when virtual workplaces necessitate a more proactive communication approach.

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 new industry study from Broadridge finding that the coronavirus pandemic is just further accelerating the industry's shift towards more holistic financial planning as a way to demonstrate and add value in the midst of the turbulent market environment (particularly amongst advisors under age 40).

Also in the news this week is a new study finding that nearly 1/3rd of consumers still don't understand how financial advisors are compensated (undermining their trust in working with an advisor) and that getting a clear understanding of how the advisor is paid is even more important than the actual payment mechanism itself (e.g., commissions, AUM fees, fee-for-service, etc.), a discussion of whether advisors should be cutting fees in the current environment (particularly for their clients facing their own difficult financial situations), and the opportunity for advisors to work with their more affluent clients to make distributions from donor-advised funds to help charities that are trying to serve those most in need right now but may be struggling in the current environment.

From there, we have several articles on behavioral finance and helping clients through difficult environments, including tips on how to handle calls from clients who want to go to cash, how to (and how not to) position your 'behavioral coaching' as a value to clients and prospects, recent research showing that the more familiar an investor is with a stock, the more rapidly they tend to trade it (and the worse the results tend to be), an overview of the legal defensibility of various risk tolerance software tools (where some are far more robust than others if the advisor even had to defend their use of the tool in court), tips on what to look for (and what to avoid) in finding a valid and reliable risk tolerance assessment tool, and some guidance on what conversations to have with clients now while markets are calmer (to prepare for the possibility that they could become much more volatile again before the recession is over).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of how the industry itself is changing: the first looks at how in the last (financial) crisis, it was the firms that reinvested the most for growth despite the scary environment that ended out having the most success in the decade that followed; the second looks at the evolving trends in the industry that were already underway but may be accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic; and the last, a send-off from the soon-to-be-retiring Mark Tibergien, explores what financial advisors and the industry at large can do to make ourselves even more valuable in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and the decade to come!

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 latest tracking report on mergers and acquisitions of advisory firms, that finds firms in the first quarter of 2019 doing deals at a near-record pace... but at a volume that is still ultimately a minuscule fraction of the total number of advisory firms in the marketplace, and with storm clouds looming that advisory firm sales could quickly grind to a halt if a bear market emerges (and firm owners may not want to sell at depressed valuations on reduced AUM revenues). Also in the news this week is the somewhat surprising revelation that the Department of Labor is working on a new fiduciary rule... but this time, one that will from-the-start be written to conform to whatever the SEC puts forth in its final Regulation Best Interest rule.

We have several other regulatory-related articles as well, including a look at how the SEC is stepping up its scrutiny on Chief Compliance Officers (and whether RIAs really have a bona fide compliance oversight program in place for their firm), the new expectations that the SEC is setting forth for advisory firms working with seniors (including establishing policies for the firm about how to handle senior clients experiencing cognitive decline), and a recent high-profile case of an RIA that was fined $150,000 by the SEC for failing to disclose over the span of a decade its revenue-sharing solicitor arrangement with Fidelity's custodial referral program.

From there, we have several articles on advisor marketing and specifically websites, from the reasons why most advisory firm websites are useless (as even when they laud the benefits of the firm, they typically do so in the exact same undifferentiated way as every other advisory firm), updates to focus on first to make an advisory firm website look more modern, common blogging mistakes of advisors who are creating fresh content for their websites but aren't necessarily distributing or leveraging it properly, and an interesting look in what Baby Boomers really search for online using Google's Search tools (and why advisors are less likely to get clients with "10 Reasons Why Fiduciaries Deliver The Best Objective Transparent Financial Advice" and more likely to find prospects with "The Best Retirement Cake Inscriptions" instead... with, of course, the advisor's contact information in the byline at the end!).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of how the advisory industry is forever growing and changing: the first looks at how entrepreneurs may actually be better off by launching their firms alone rather than starting with a team of 2-3 co-founders (at least, as long as they're ready and willing to hire outside help in the areas they need it when they do need help); the second explores the evolution of the famous Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, and how the company is restructuring itself into an RIA (rather than a traditional VC firm) to have even more flexibility to make big focused bets with their client assets; and the last is a fascinating deep-dive into the evolution of Charles Schwab, and how the company grew from a discount broker for do-it-yourselfers into a mega-firm that's increasingly focused on the full range of financial services... including a growing footprint in financial planning as well.

Enjoy the "light" reading!

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