Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" - this week's reading kicks off with an announcement by the CFP Board at their recent Program Directors conference that they intend to offer a "massive online open course" (a "MOOC") to help draw new potential professionals into the field of financial planning (and ultimately to pursue their CFP designation). Also in the news this week was the latest data from Schwab Advisor Services on advisor mergers and acquisitions, showing a notable slowdown in activity in the first half of 2013, and a look at the new investment data solution YCharts that is aiming to become the Bloomberg terminal for advisors (at a more reasonable price point, and with Morningstar as one of its venture capital financiers)!
We have a few technical articles this week, including a discussion about Social Security benefits estimates and the fact that they don't take into account the "Windfall Elimination Provision" for those who spent a period of years working in a job that wasn't covered by Social Security, a look at a recent IRS ruling on Self-Cancelling Installment Notes (SCINs) that may have a chilling effect on their use as an estate planning technique, and a Journal of Financial Planning article that provides a good overview of some of the research on asset location and determining after-tax asset allocation decisions.
From there, we have a few practice management articles this week, including two compliance-related articles: one on the importance of business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and the other on why the custody rule matters for financial advisors and how to avoid or manage it (hint: just using a third-party custodian is not enough). There's also an article from Bob Veres envisioning how financial planning firms may shift in the future, with a less asset-centric focus and more attention to the human capital aspects of planning for clients.
We wrap up with three interesting final articles: the first is from marketing guru Seth Godin, about the idea of "if there are people who are an accident just waiting to happen... what's the opposite?" suggesting the answer is to be "formidable" and what it takes to live up to the label; the second is from the blog of Stephen Wershing, and makes the excellent point that just because advisory firms are growing doesn't mean they're good at marketing, when in truth they may just be good at selling; and the last from practice management consultant Angie Herbers, suggesting that in the end we may be attaching far too much stigma to the decision of advisors to "downsize" their firms and that ultimately success is about how the business owner measures it, not what everyone else thinks. Enjoy the reading!