Calculated Risk
MAY 1, 2023
Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 2.0% week-over-week. It appears inventory has finally bottomed seasonally. This is the highest inventory level since the week ending Feb 24th. Click on graph for larger image. This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of April 28th, inventory was at 422 thousand (7-day average), compared to 414 thousand the prior week.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
In an increasingly competitive market, clients demand not only a smart-money strategy, but also attention to the smallest details of their financial lives.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The Big Picture
MAY 1, 2023
I have been a reader of Jamie Catherwood’s Investor Amnesia since it launched. It is always filled with interesting reminders from the past. Investor Amnesia is a wonderful reminder that we tend to forget that which came before. Ray Dalio put it even more starkly, noting that nothing is truly unprecedented , and we tend to use that word to refer to those things we have not experienced in our lifetimes.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
The veteran executive will work to consolidate, standardize and scale the West Coast RIA.
Advertisement
Automation generally supercharges any process and brings its value to the forefront. See how infusing automation such as ART (our month-end close solution), into your close can get you to the next level of closing. We will share a live demo of SkyStem's solution, ART and share the key elements of month-end close automation. Through ART, we'll take a look at: What month-end close automation entails Which process steps can and should be automated Benefits of achieving process automation, and Why i
The Big Picture
MAY 1, 2023
My back-to-work morning train WFH reads: • The Fed Has No Good Options. The Risk of a Misstep Is Growing. The Federal Reserve is struggling to cool inflation further without damaging the economy. The easy part is over. ( Barron’s ) • The Bear Market’s Survivors Share Their Biggest Lessons : With the S&P 500 in the longest bear market since 1973, individual investors maneuver differently from just months ago. ( Wall Street Journal ) • How Druckenmiller Does It: He Hates To Lose : Drucke
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
The Department of Education is calling it the “most ambitious and significant redesign of the federal student aid application in decades.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
Errors in a software update to MoneyGuidePro and a Tamarac outage got advisors talking and tweeting.
Calculated Risk
MAY 1, 2023
(Posted with permission). The ISM manufacturing index indicated contraction. The PMI® was at 47.1% in March, up from 46.3% in March. The employment index was at 50.2%, up from 46.9% last month, and the new orders index was at 45.7%, up from 44.3%. From ISM: Manufacturing PMI® at 47.1% April 2023 Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business® Economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in April for the sixth consecutive month following a 28-month period of growth, say the nation's supply exe
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
With $2 billion in advised assets and a niche serving tech entrepreneurs, Austin-based Brainard will help Pathstone become a national brand for ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Abnormal Returns
MAY 1, 2023
Podcasts Daniel Crosby talks ETFs and more with Dave Nadig of VettaFi. (standarddeviationspod.com) Andrew Hatherley talks gray divorce with Liz Merrill. (transcendretirement.net) The biz Charles Schwab ($SCHW) is planning to put more effort into Schwab Private Client. (financialadvisoriq.com) Three United Capital alumni have launched Modern Wealth Management.
Advertisement
Where are top advisors focusing in 2025? AcquireUp’s 2025 Industry Index reveals it all. Based on insights from 200+ financial professionals nationwide, discover why 74% say seminars and referrals deliver the best ROI, how automation is helping advisors scale faster, and why only 8% are tapping into niche marketing (a major growth opportunity!). Whether you're refining your client acquisition strategy or scaling your practice, this report gives you the real-world data, benchmarks, and action ste
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
Schwab-backed Dynasty is now offering M&A advice and financial support to firms outside its network.
Calculated Risk
MAY 1, 2023
From the Census Bureau reported that overall construction spending increased: Construction spending during March 2023 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,834.7 billion, 0.3 percent above the revised February estimate of $1,829.6 billion. The March figure is 3.8 percent above the March 2022 estimate of $1,768.2 billion. emphasis added Both private and public spending increased: Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,435.1 billion, 0.3
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
Discover how advisor investment decisions are changing—and are likely to evolve—given current market and economic conditions.
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 1, 2023
Welcome to the May 2023 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors! This month's edition kicks off with the news that robo-advisor Betterment entered into a $9M settlement with the SEC for misrepresenting its tax-loss harvesting practices in its client agreements and marketing materials compared with its actual practice
Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
How it could change the DCIO world—again.
Abnormal Returns
MAY 1, 2023
Markets How major asset classes performed in April 2023. (capitalspectator.com) The Nasdaq 100 has outpaced the Russell 2000 by over 20% in 2023. (twitter.com) Crypto Gary Gensler's SEC has been busy. (investmentnews.com) Bitcoin transaction volume is on the rise. (blockworks.co) Banks JP Morgan Chase ($JPM) is now the owner of First Republic. (cnbc.com) The banking industry's 'crisis phase' may be over for now.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
The race to implement AI technologies is producing another burst of activity in the data center sector, reports Bisnow. Forbes examines the implications of Vornado choosing to suspend its dividend. These are among the must reads from around the real estate investment world to kick off the new week.
Calculated Risk
MAY 1, 2023
From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Jump After First Republic Sale There are different levels of "failure" and the resolution that arrived today is one of the more palatable versions. In other words, things didn't end as poorly as they might have, so investors were able to lighten up on the bonds that were previously purchased as a safe haven.
Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
JPMorgan acquired about $173 billion of First Republic’s loans, $30 billion of securities and $92 billion in deposits.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
First Republic’s private wealth-management platform will become part of JPMorgan Advisors, which JPMorgan inherited from Bear Stearns when it bought that firm in 2008.
Calculated Risk
MAY 1, 2023
From Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Speaker McCarthy : "After reviewing recent federal tax receipts, our best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government's obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time." The following is relevant today.
Speaker: Erroll Amacker
Automation is transforming finance but without strong financial oversight it can introduce more risk than reward. From missed discrepancies to strained vendor relationships, accounts payable automation needs a human touch to deliver lasting value. This session is your playbook to get automation right. We’ll explore how to balance speed with control, boost decision-making through human-machine collaboration, and unlock ROI with fewer errors, stronger fraud prevention, and smoother operations.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
Parsec brings about $3.8 billion in AUM, raising Modera's assets to $10.5 billion and creating one of the largest RIAs on the East Coast.
Alpha Architect
MAY 1, 2023
The expense ratio aside, the cost of transacting in an ETF depends on the size of the bid/ask spread at any point in time during the trading day. The ETF investor should make evidence-based trading decisions since the bid/ask spread can range from 1 basis point (bp) to several hundred bps. What are some intelligent guidelines for ETF investors--avoid the open, avoid the close, and what about everything in-between?
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
US ETFs traded $2.1 trillion worth of shares in April, the lowest monthly total since August 2020 and roughly half of March’s trading.
Alpha Architect
MAY 1, 2023
Partial exposure to domestic equities. Full exposure to international equities. No exposure to REITs. No exposure to commodities. Partial exposure to intermediate-term bonds. DIY Trend-Following Allocations: May 2023 was originally published at Alpha Architect. Please read the Alpha Architect disclosures at your convenience.
Advertisement
Based off SkyStem's popular e-Book, the book of secrets to the month-end close will be revealed in this one-hour webinar. Learn leading practices when it comes to building a strong and sustainable month-end close that has room to grow and evolve. Learn about the power of precise estimates, why reconciliations are critical to closing the books, how and when to automate, and how the chart of accounts play into your close process.
Wealth Management
MAY 1, 2023
Holding 60% of portfolios in stocks and 40% in bonds, revered as reliable for decades, fell 17% last year, the worst performance since 2008.
eMoney Advisor
MAY 1, 2023
When asked about how they started in the industry, many of the Asian-American financial planners I admire say the same thing: At first, they didn’t even know the profession existed. There is power in the phrase “to be it, you need to see it.” Only 4 percent of Certified Financial Planner™ professionals identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI), though they make up 6.2 percent of the American population. 1,2 Despite the small numbers, AAPI professionals remain the largest
NAIFA Advisor Today
MAY 1, 2023
Aflac District Coordinator Terry Anderson 's interest in the insurance industry started with a snowmobile accident that reinforced for him a fundamental truth about insurance—when people get hurt or sick, they still need money to pay the bills. Two years later, Anderson was talking with a customer in his store who was an Aflac agent. She told him that, when someone gets hurt or sick, Aflac pays the claim quickly and Anderson asked himself, “Why didn’t I know about this after my accident?
XY Planning Network
MAY 1, 2023
We’re big fans of niches here at XYPN. We champion them on XYPN Radio, tout them when speaking at conferences, and praise them on our blog. CEO and Co-Founder Alan Moore extensively covers the topic of “niching-down” in talks, podcasts, and one of our more popular webinars. Niches are important to identify, and even more valuable if you can own them entirely.
Advertisement
Like being inches from the end zone, many advisors are frustratingly close to their next level of success. You work hard. You put in the hours. But if your closing rate is stuck or your pipeline feels like a revolving door… something has to change. Most advisors are just one small shift away from dramatically increasing their revenue. The difference?
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
361 
Let's personalize your content