Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights an array of industry practice management articles, leading off with a new discussion of "super ensemble" firms - the emerging regionally dominant wealth management firms with $5 billion or more of AUM that are challenging both small local firms and big institutional competitors. We also look at articles about the quickening pace of consolidation, the rising trend of large firms hiring career changers to replace retiring advisors as there aren't enough young people entering the industry, a prediction that flat fees will soon replace AUM as the primary method of advisor compensation, and a look at a new advisor firm offering from a Wharton professor seeking to provide a client-centric platform for new advisors to build their businesses. We finish with a good article from economist Gregory Mankiw in the New York Times about what carried interest really is and why it's so hard to figure out how to tax it, an intriguing look at the risks that western civilization faces from which it must emerge or face a risk of collapse, and a fascinating look at how the popular 60/40 portfolio may actually be far more risky than we commonly believe. Enjoy the reading!Read More...
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights an intriguing analysis from Morningstar's new number crunching on investor returns, finding that investors may not actually be chasing hot mutual funds nearly as much as previously believed, along with the latest contribution by Miccolis and Goodman to the Journal of Financial Planning, this time focused on the problems with measuring correlation. From there, we look at a few industry articles, from the possibility that FINRA may open up BrokerCheck data to private vendors to better get information to investors, to Mark Tibergien suggesting how to determine which parts of your firm you should or should not outsource. On the investment side, the focus turns to PIMCO's launch of an actively-managed ETF version of their flagship PIMCO Total Return fund, a primer on how the Euro breakup might go (it's not as bad as the media makes it out to be), and the latest quarterly letter from Grantham. We also look at two interesting recent articles from the New York Times, one by Robert Shiller on how high IQ investors actually invest differently, and another discussing how companies study shopper habits to market more effectively, and conclude with a quick review of the latest US News and World Report "Best Jobs in 2012" ranking which lists Financial Adviser at #23. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights a study from the Journal of Financial Planning suggesting that proactive use of reverse mortgages can actually increase sustainable retirement income, two practice management articles about focusing on organic growth in your business and documenting your office procedures (including the fact that often you, the planner, are the greatest roadblock to that process). We also highlight an interesting piece from the Wall Street Journal suggesting that investors may now be investing so much in index funds that markets really are becoming less efficient and more correlated, a fascinating interview with Woody Brock suggesting that there's a difference between "good deficits" and "bad deficits" for government spending, and an adaptation of the upcoming annual shareholder letter from Warren Buffett in Fortune magazine that highlights why investing in stocks is so much more productive than investing in bonds or gold for the long run. We wrap up with three somewhat offbeat articles, one about how governments could use our behavioral finance irrational tendencies to help be better citizens (and have fun doing it!), a second that questions whether we are all really as busy as we think and claim we are, and a final article that highlights Pinterest, the latest emerging "social network" site that is growing like wildfire (with 73 million users already) and that you'll probably hear more about in the coming year. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights an interesting discussion by Morningstar about the challenges of evaluating tactical investment managers, an article by Bob Veres with tips on resources when starting a practice and outsourcing solutions, and an article by Joel Bruckenstein about a new integrated cloud solution for advisory firms. We also highlight some compliance-related articles for RIAs tying to the slew of new rules and regulations impacting investment advisors this year thanks to Dodd-Frank, a summary of the Rydex|SGI AdvisorBenchmarking study, and some tips to deal with the tax treatment of client investments in gold. We wrap up with Mauldin's weekly investment article - this week continuing his discussion of the decisions facing the US and how much impact the president and elections do or don't have on the outcome, an intriguing look from Oaktree Capital chairman Howard Marks at the challenging realities of assessing performance records, and a piece by Moshe Milevsky about "Gompertz' Law" and the mathematics of mortality assumptions. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights an interesting interview with Geoff Davey of FinaMetrica about risk tolerance, some practice management issues on how economies of scale impact the client experience and moving your technology to the cloud, and a few articles exploring the big recent news from the Department of Labor regarding both finalized rules on 401(k) fee disclosure and new proposed rules about how (primarily immediate and longevity) annuities might be integrated into qualified plans. There's also an interesting look by John Mauldin at some of the economic difficulties and choices the US faces in the coming years, and a fascinating look at the problems the US faces (and some of the causes that got us to where we are) by the brilliant Woody Brock. We finish with a controversial article by Blaine Aiken of Fi360 suggesting that advisors aren't true professionals because they need a code of professional conduct similar to accountants, and a lighter piece by Angie Herbers about why a lack of confidence is not a career death knell but simply a challenge to overcome. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights a new research piece in the Journal of Financial Planning on dynamic asset allocation and itwo innovative new financial planning software offerings. There's also a good practice management piece by Angie Herbers, and two strong (but not particularly bullish) investment pieces by Mauldin and Hussman. We wrap up with a light piece about how quickly the world is changing, and that the key to success in business in the future is about "learning as fast as the world is changing." Enjoy the reading!Read More...
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition (similar to last week) highlights several more recent studies on trends in the financial services industry, including what financial planners tend to charge for their services, trends in wealth management in 2012, and some dramatic differences in how RIAs view investment management versus the rest of the investment industry, as well as the new ways young planners are entering the industry. We also look at some practice management articles, from a brief overview of what the cloud computing movement is all about, to the use of coaches, and different ways to manage your staff for optimal growth. In addition, there's some coverage of this week's FSI OneVoice conference, and we wrap up with an especially interesting (although not terribly optimistic) article from John Mauldin about the current outlook in Europe, and the risk of a "tail event" that could dramatically impact markets in 2012. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights a number of recent studies on trends in the financial services industry, including the tendency of investment advisors to claim they're financial planners without really having the expertise or providing the comprehensive planning services, to the rapidly growing market share of RIAs (and the shrinking share of wirehouses). We also look at an article about the dramatic shift underway towards tactical asset allocation, some new research about how to adapt safe withdrawal rates to more customized investment and time horizon assumptions, and two investment pieces about the economic outlook in Europe and here in the US for 2012. At the end is a good reminder that the specific choice of words we speak in meetings can really matter to clients, and a profile of Texas Tech University as a leader in providing financial planning education... even though many firms still seem more interested in hiring based on "Who You Know" than "What You Know" these days. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights a recent development on the regulatory front regarding the SEC's implementation of a fiduciary standard for brokers, and some sharp criticism of FINRA and whether it should even exist from the Journal of Financial Planning. We also look at a few technology pieces, on the rise of Salesforce for CRM, and the emerging use of online scheduling programs to set up client meetings. There's also a great piece from the Journal of Financial Planning on the next generation of Modern Portfolio Theory and portfolio design, and two good investment pieces by John and John (Hussman and Mauldin). We wrap up with an interesting article from Advisor Perspectives on how much of the financial press is misinterpreting and misapplying the Reinhart and Rogoff research about the implications of high debt-to-GDP levels. Enjoy the reading!
Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition highlights a nice technology article for the new year, a great summary of recent retirement research, two notable regulatory actions this week, and some interesting investment and economic discussions for the coming year. We finish with a striking blog post that puts a good perspective on what the Occupy Wall Street movement is about - not resenting the wealthy and successful, but "just" those who profit at the expense of others. Enjoy the reading!Read More...
