Wed.Mar 29, 2023

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MBA: Mortgage Purchase Applications Increased in Weekly Survey

Calculated Risk

From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications increased 2.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 24, 2023. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

Sales 348
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How Much Strain Is the Commercial Real Estate Market Showing? It's a Complex Issue.

Wealth Management

MSCI’s Jim Costello and Alexis Maltin warn that while a failure on the scale of the Great Financial Crisis is unlikely, there are signs that trouble may be brewing for real estate investors with upcoming maturities.

Marketing 305
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NAR: Pending Home Sales Increased 0.8% in February; Down 21.1% Year-over-year

Calculated Risk

From the NAR: Pending Home Sales Grew for Third Straight Month, Up 0.8% in February Pending home sales grew in February for the third consecutive month, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Three U.S. regions posted monthly gains, while the West declined. All four regions saw year-over-year decreases in transactions. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* — a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings — improved 0.8% to 83.2 in February.

Sales 312
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IRS Turns Its Attention to Nonfungible Tokens

Wealth Management

A new notice seeks to treat certain NFTs as collectibles.

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2025 Industry Index: How Top Advisors Are Scaling Smarter (and Faster) This Year

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

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Year-over-year Rent Growth Continues to Decelerate

Calculated Risk

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Year-over-year Rent Growth Continues to Decelerate A brief excerpt: Here is a graph of the year-over-year (YoY) change for these measures since January 2015. Most of these measures are through February 2023, except CoreLogic is through January and Apartment List is through March 2023. Note that new lease measures (Zillow, Apartment List) dipped early in the pandemic, whereas the BLS measures were steady.

Marketing 264
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Norman Rockwell Art at Center of Family Feud

Wealth Management

Who owns several of the artist’s sketches that were on display, until recently, at the White House?

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More Trending

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Nine Must Reads for Real Estate Investors Today (March 30, 2023)

Wealth Management

The FDIC has hired Newmark Group to sell about $60 billion of Signature Bank loans, reports The Wall Street Journal. Amazon is considering acquiring the AMC theater chain, according to The Intersect. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.

Banking 275
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Wednesday links: selling ourselves

Abnormal Returns

Strategy The stock market is almost always in a drawdown. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Just because you can invest in alternative assets, means you should. (realreturns.blog) Banking Who is going to pick up the lending slack from SVB? (news.crunchbase.com) Mercury is benefiting from the demise of SVB. (generalist.com) AI How AI can accelerate idea generation.

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SEC Freezes Assets of Former Advisor Charged With Stealing $4M From Client

Wealth Management

The Department of Justice also charged Surage Roshan Perera of wire fraud, investment advisor fraud and money laundering, for allegedly defrauding an unnamed investor.

Assets 264
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Personal finance links: house price expectations

Abnormal Returns

Savings Good savings habits compound over time. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Why it's so important to start saving early in your career. (tonyisola.com) Is socking money away for children always a good idea? (wealthfoundme.com) Money can only move the happiness needle so much. (humbledollar.com) CDs CDs were a great deal in the 1980s. They once again don't suck.

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Data Talks, CFOs Listen: Why Analytics Are Key To Better Spend Management

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.

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Wealth Enhancement Group Scoops Up $1B RIA Equius Partners

Wealth Management

In its fourth deal of the year, Wealth Enhancement Group has added more than $1 billion in assets in Northern California.

Assets 263
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10 Wednesday AM Reads

The Big Picture

My mid-week morning train WFH reads: • Go West, young banker! From Manifest Destiny to Big Tech, Silicon Valley Bank is a case study in the how the West was spun ( Business Insider ) • ChatGPT: Keep Talking, and Nobody Explodes : There are a bunch of other things going on here, but at the core, the model determines, in order, each of the most likely words to follow another word in a fragment.

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401(k) Real Talk Episode 53: March 29, 2023

Wealth Management

Open, honest and candid discussions about the latest news in the RPA industry.

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Thursday: GDP, Unemployment Claims

Calculated Risk

Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. Thursday: • At 8:30 AM ET, Gross Domestic Product, 4th Quarter and Year 2022 (Third Estimate) , GDP by Industry, and Corporate Profits. The consensus is that real GDP increased 2.7% annualized in Q4, unchanged from the second estimate. • Also at 8:30 AM, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.

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What Your Financial Statements Are Telling You—And How to Listen!

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.

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Are You Talking to Your Clients About Income-Tax Diversification?

Wealth Management

For clients earning substantial incomes, saving and investing may not be enough. Income-tax diversification should play an important role in their retirement accumulation and income strategy planning.

Taxes 259
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Discovery Meeting Framework: 6 Questions To Help Prospects Who Are Resistant To Change

Nerd's Eye View

Financial advisors often approach discovery meetings with prospects as an opportunity to ‘sell’ the value of the financial planning services they provide. This is often done by having the advisor learn about the prospect’s needs and show the prospect how the advisor can help them achieve their financial goals, ideally motivating the prospect to sign up for the advisor’s services.

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Q&A: Robert Sofia, CEO of Snappy Kraken

Wealth Management

The marketing tech CEO has integrated acquisition Advisor Websites, resulting in layoffs, all while expanding a texting platform into the enterprise channel, planning the second Jolt! conference and rolling out the next iteration of his company's platform, Freedom360. It's been a busy time.

Planning 254
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How to Reach Ideal Clients Through Engaging Messaging

Advisor Perspectives

The goal of marketing is to garner loyalty among existing clients while also attracting new ones to drive growth and profitability for your firm.

Clients 100
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How to Avoid Pitfalls In Automation: Keep Humans In the Loop

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.

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Everyone Wants to Make ‘Ryan Reynolds Money’

Wealth Management

Celebs are looking for equity-based endorsements in the hope of a big pay day — but this strategy won’t work for everyone.

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The Ultimate Roth IRA Conversion Guide – Everything You Need to Know

Good Financial Cents

Thinking about converting your retirement account to a Roth IRA? It’s easy to see why the Roth IRA is so incredibly popular. Contributions to a Roth IRA are made with income that has already been taxed, meaning there’s no initial tax benefit, but the money you have in a Roth grows tax-free over time. Roth IRAs don’t come with Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) at age 72 like a traditional IRA either, so you can continue letting your money grow until you’re ready to access it.

Taxes 98
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ETFs with the Best One-Year Returns

Wealth Management

International ETFs were among those posting the best returns over the last year.

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Animal Spirits: The Worst Chart in Finance

A Wealth of Common Sense

Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by New York Life: See here for more information on New York Lifes indexIQ ETFs On today’s show, we discuss: Welcome to the superprime banking crisis Here’s what retirement with less than $1M looks like in America The age of AI has begun Attention is all you need (Packy on AI) Housing market update: Demand for mortgages ticks up as rates drop amid banking turmoil .

Banking 98
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Book of Secrets on the Month-End Close

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.

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Elon Musk Can’t Avoid Paying Twitter’s Rent Forever

Wealth Management

Maybe Musk is withholding payment as a move in what is known among scholars as the “holdup game”—an opportunistic effort to force better terms from a counterparty who’s poorly positioned to resist your demands. Think of a seller about to deliver a generator, who waits until after the buyer has finished renovating the factory according to the seller’s specs before demanding a higher price.

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DIY Marketing That Works

Advisor Perspectives

There are many marketing initiatives you can implement on your own that that will likely work. Here are some suggestions.

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Ermotti’s Second Stint at UBS Comes With a Sense of Déjà Vu

Wealth Management

UBS tapped the 62 year-old veteran to oversee the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG.

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What the Fed balance sheet can tell investors

Nationwide Financial

In the press conference following the Federal Reserve’s rate-setting meeting on March 22, Fed Chair Jerome Powell spoke about the recent spate of bank collapses: “The question we were all asking ourselves over the first weekend was, ‘How did this happen?’” The risk of a full-blown banking crisis seems overblown, partly because the central bank utilized the Fed balance sheet to limit the risk of contagion and sustain financial stability.

Banking 98
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Stop Falling Short When It Matters Most—The Elite Advisor’s Playbook to Success

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?

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Global Creditors Face Long Fight with China Developers for Cash

Wealth Management

A plan unveiled last week by China Evergrande Group has raised concerns that investors may have to wait for years to get their money back. Under one of the options, the biggest Chinese builder to default offered to swap old notes with new ones with maturities of as long as 12 years.

Planning 130
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5 Places to Stash Your Cash

MainStreet Financial Planning

You are building your emergency fund, saving for a car or home down payment, or getting ready to retire and want to know where to park your short-term cash. Here are five options for you to consider depending on your timeframe for accessing the funds. If you want your money to be completely liquid, consider high yield savings accounts, money market accounts or money market mutual funds.

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Credit Suisse Accused of Aiding More Tax Evasion During Broader Tumult

Wealth Management

The US Senate Finance Committee issued a report, citing “what may be an ongoing criminal tax conspiracy” involving almost $100 million in secret offshore accounts.

Taxes 130
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Episode #473: Jeroen Blokland, True Insights – Multi Asset Masterclass

Meb Faber Research

Episode #473: Jeroen Blokland, True Insights – Multi Asset Masterclass Guest: Jeroen Blokland is founder or True Insights, an independent research provider, and previously spent over a decade at Robeco. Date Recorded: 3/22/2023 | Run-Time: 1:00:58 Summary: Today’s episode kicks off with an overview of the recent stress we’ve seen in financial markets and […] The post Episode #473: Jeroen Blokland, True Insights – Multi Asset Masterclass appeared first on Meb Faber

Assets 97
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Demo SkyStem’s Award Winning Month-End Close Solution & Earn $100

Is your finance team bogged down by endless data requests and disorganized spreadsheets during the month-end close? It’s time to consider a better option – automate with ART! SkyStem’s solution works alongside your ERP to transform the close and account reconciliation process and speed up month-end work. Explore SkyStem’s ART - the award-winning account reconciliation automation platform - and receive a $100 Amazon gift card as a thank you for your time.