Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's edition leads off with the big news that the Department of Labor's new rule on state-run retirement plans is finalized, and is expected to usher in a new era of states providing for automatic enrollment IRAs for employees who don't have access to employer retirement plans... and raising the question of whether businesses may soon stop offering 401(k) plans themselves, and just allow the state to fill the void instead.
From there, we have several practice management articles this week, from Bob Veres' advice about how to evolve your practice to better adopt technology and start bringing in the next generation of clients, to Ric Edelman's guidance on how to work with the media, a Joel Bruckenstein review of Advicent's new Narrator client portal, and a look at the current dynamics of advisory firm buyers and sellers (and David Grau's new book on advisory firm valuations).
We also have a few more technical articles, including: a new study finding that risk tolerance actually is relatively stable (implying that clients with volatile behavior during times of market stress may be doing it for different reasons); a review of the rules for how the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is calculated for college financial aid; how the Initial and Special Enrollment Periods work for Medicare; and coverage of newly proposed Treasury Regulations that would severely crack down on the use of valuation discounts for family businesses, and curtail most family limited partnership (FLP) planning strategies.
We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first looks at the looming challenges that FINRA faces in trying to justify its existence and deal with a declining membership base of broker-dealers as CEO and Chairman Richard Ketchum retires, to be replaced with a new split-role CEO and Chairman; the second is a somewhat comic look at the things that some "financial advisors" say that suggests they're really still operating as salespeople (and how you need to really change your way of thinking to fully transition to being an advisor); and the last is an interesting historical look at the roots of the fiduciary duty, which actually traces back more than 1,500 years to Roman times, as even then it was recognized that experts in positions of trust need to be held accountable to a higher standard.
And be certain to check out Bill Winterberg's "Bits & Bytes" video on the latest in advisor tech news at the end, which this week includes coverage highlighting LPL's technology roadmap after the recent LPL Focus 2016 national conference (including its new "robo"-for-advisors Guided Wealth Portfolios), FutureAdvisor signing a deal with US Bank (the 5th largest commercial bank in the US!), and Betterment's new partnership with Uber that will allow Uber drivers to open an IRA directly from the Uber app!
Enjoy the "light" reading!