Late last year I wrote a popular list of 58 technology tools for financial advisors. It was shared over a hundred times on various social networks becoming our most visited post last year. However, a great tool is merely the beginning. How do you use these...
In Harold Evensky’s “The New Wealth Management” risk is described as a “four-letter word” and that echoes many of the discussions I have had with advisors. Again and again I ask myself how do we get a better grip on what Evensky calls “a client’s most...
So what’s going to happen in 2015? Over the year I’ve seen three clear trends from discussions with 351 financial advisors. I have two books full of notes as you can see in the image and I am going to share what I am seeing....
A never-ending challenge for the financial advisory industry is quantifying the value it produces for its clients. We know advisors help people set goals, choose investments and sleep well at night but what about the dollars and cents impact? As clients get smarter they’ll be...
How do you deal with your clients during market volatility? I was recently reading a post on the anonymous advisor forum Advisorheads, where the community was trading ideas. The question is, do you lay low and wait for the storm to pass or reach out...
There are many risk questionnaires used by financial advisors and the most common appear to be bundled in with software an advisor is already using. Morningstar is a popular tool used by financial advisors for investment research and financial planning. I often get asked my...
Download Client Guide I was on the phone with an advisor two weeks ago and he was bemoaning the lack of client education surrounding the difference between average annual return and compounded annual growth rate (CAGR). His argument was that the leading measure used to evaluate financial...
You’ve probably read about some of the psychological biases that impact investment decisions every day and shake your head. Whether it is the herd mentality that causes investors to sell low and buy high or the inability for people to cut their losers. The human...
I recently returned home from the annual Financial Planning Association conference in Seattle. There were lots of great breakout sessions but the one that got me thinking the most was Michael Kitces’s presentation about the “Rising Equity Glidepath”. If you have a chance to see...
I recently finished reading Warren Buffett’s Letters To Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders 1965-2013 as well as Michael Kitces’s recent blog posts about the threat of robo-advisors. Having read these pieces it made me think…. What would Warren Buffet do if he were the owner of a financial...
