A Wealth of Common Sense
JANUARY 21, 2025
One of my favorite ongoing economic stats is the fact that the U.S. economy has been in a recession for just two months out of the past 15-and-a-half years. We’ve been in a recession just 1% of the time since the end of the Great Financial Crisis in the summer of 2009. Sure, there have been some bumps along the way but the U.S. economy has been remarkably resilient throughout the 2010s and 2020s.
Yardley Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
The post Is Talking to a Financial Planner Worth It? Exploring the Benefits of Financial Planning appeared first on Yardley Wealth Management, LLC. Is Talking to a Financial Planner Worth It? Exploring the Benefits of Professional Financial Advice Introduction “Is talking to a financial planner worth it?” This question crosses the minds of many people as they navigate their financial journey.
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Diamond Consultants
JANUARY 21, 2025
Four factors to consider when attempting to resolve if your firm is indeed the right place for you, your clients, and your business. Advisors regularly get calls from recruiters, consultants, branch managers, complex directors, business development officersthe list goes on and on. In each case, it feels like everyone has a solution (read: firm) to sell.
Nerd's Eye View
JANUARY 21, 2025
Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 421st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! My guest on today's podcast is Daniel Friedman. Daniel is the CEO of WMGNA, a hybrid advisory firm based in Farmington, Connecticut, that oversees approximately $270 million in assets under management for 200 client households. What's unique about Daniel, though, is how his firm has expanded its tax focus to include "in-house" tax return preparation for its clients as a one-stop shop, but actually outsource
Speaker: Dylan Secrest, Founder of Alamo Innovation and Construction Digital Transformation Consultant
Construction payment workflows are notoriously complex when you consider juggling multiple stakeholders, compliance requirements, and evolving project scopes. Delays in approvals or misaligned data between budgets, lien waivers, and pay applications can grind progress to a halt. The good news? It doesn't have to be this way! Join expert Dylan Secrest to discover how leading contractors are turning payment chaos into clarity using digital workflows, integrated systems, and automation strategies.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 21, 2025
Presidents receive too much credit and blame for the economy! But it worth looking at the current state of the economy. From economist Ernie Tedeschi: Benchmarking the U.S. economy that President Donald Trump is set to inherit While the U.S. economy still has challenges, especially lingering inflation and poor consumer sentiment, many important economic metrics are outperforming the 2008 cycle (the most recent nonpandemic business cycle and the cycle in which the first Trump administration bega
Carson Wealth
JANUARY 21, 2025
Markets Give Solid Early Marks to Trump, but Not as Strong as 2016 The S&P 500 rallied 2.9% last week helped by some positive inflation news (more on that below). The move pushed the index into positive territory for the year, although still 1.6% below the December 6, 2024 all-time high. Monday was inauguration day, a good moment to check back on what we have seen from markets since election day.
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Discipline Funds
JANUARY 21, 2025
Warning – This is probably an “old man screams at cloud” rant, but we all have to embrace our old age at some point so here goes nothing… One of the great strengths of the USA is its capital markets. No economy in the world does a better job of getting capital into the places where it can be most efficiently utilized. This is, arguably, one of the stark differences between the US economy and the rest of the world and why the USA has performed so much better over the last
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 21, 2025
Alternatives Why CTA volatility is falling over time. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) Hedge fund fees have historically taken up nearly 50% of gains. (institutionalinvestor.com) Research How do the three big arguments against passive investing hold up? (ofdollarsanddata.com) The Russell 2000 is not a great index. (scheplick.com) Quality value stocks perform well in the wake of an inflation shock.
Validea
JANUARY 21, 2025
In this episode, Jack Forehand and Matt Zeigler discuss their fascinating interview with AQR founder Cliff Asness. They explore several key topics from their conversation, including: Cliff’s humorous take on morning routines and why correlation doesn’t equal causation when it comes to success habits The “Less Efficient Market Hypothesis” and why Cliff believes markets may be becoming less efficient over time, particularly evident in the dot-com bubble and 2019-2020 market
Financial Symmetry
JANUARY 21, 2025
Retirement, often portrayed as a glorious era of freedom and relaxation, has its own set of challenges beyond the financial arena. This week, were exploring the “retirement complacency trap” and discussing the four phases retirees go through. Vacation/Honeymoon Phase: The … Continued The post The Retirement Complacency Trap, Ep #232 appeared first on Financial Symmetry, Inc.
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You wouldn’t keep using a 2009 flip phone - so why settle for outdated close processes? It’s time for an upgrade. SkyStem's Guide to Month-End Close Software walks you through what today’s best tools can do (and what your team shouldn’t have to deal with anymore). Get smart, fast, and a whole lot less stressed when it’s time to close the books.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 21, 2025
From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases Slightly to 0.47% in December The Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) monthly Loan Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 3 basis points from 0.50% of servicers portfolio volume in the prior month to 0.47% as of December 31, 2024. According to MBAs estimate, 235,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans.
Validea
JANUARY 21, 2025
The Magic Formula, introduced in “The Little Book That Beats the Market,” simplifies the complexity of stock selection into a straightforward two-part analysis. At its core, the method examines Return on Capital, which measures how well a company converts its resources into profits, and Earnings Yield, which indicates whether a stock’s price is low compared to its earnings potential.
Meb Faber Research
JANUARY 21, 2025
The 15 most popular quotes of the day from 2024! “More fiction has been written in Excel than in Word.” – @morganhousel “Buybacks are divisive. They divide people who understand finance from those who don’t.” – Ken French “Never, ever tell anyone about your problems, 90% of the people really don’t care.
NAIFA Advisor Today
JANUARY 21, 2025
The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) is pleased to announce that inSOURCE Financial Advisors in Lincoln, Nebraska has become a NAIFA 100% Agency. Under the membership program, inSOURCE Financial Advisors has enrolled all its advisors as NAIFA members, enrolled them in NAIFAs grassroots advocacy programs and encourages them to participate in NAIFA as a group.
Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA
In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. If you’re aiming for the summit, the air gets thinner—and what got you here won’t be enough to get you to the top (a concept first popularized by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ). What made you successful early in your finance career—technical accuracy, sharp analysis, flawless execution—won’t be what carries you to the next level.
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 21, 2025
Markets Markets are driven by surprises. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) Commodity prices are edging higher. (priceactionlab.com) Strategy Holding a winning stock over the very long run is hard to do. (optimisticallie.com) The market is both a voting AND weighing machine. (morningstar.com) Crypto Kyla Scanlon, "What happens when political power, financial wealth, and narrative control all belong to a single entity?
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
The survey from Capintel also looked at what factors contribute to a sense of trust between investors and financial advisors.
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
2024 was characterized by megacap dominance, with the S&P 500 reaching new all-time highs and gaining roughly 25%. Megacap leadership resulted in the largest companies growing their share of the index. As of this writing, the top seven stocks in the S&P 500 make up 34% of the S&P 500.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
Analysts and investors are ignoring quality small-cap stocks.
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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
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
Since the start of the new year, the bond market has been urging Congress to come to terms with America’s spiraling budget problems. Soon it might be demanding immediate action.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
SWOT analysis is needed in times of massive change.
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
Stock market stoicism isn’t just philosophy – it’s a practical approach to investing where we focus on what we can control (research quality, disciplined decisions, and our reactions) while accepting what we can’t (market whims and short-term sentiment shifts).
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
The new task force will be led by Commissioner Peirce and was unveiled by an SEC release criticizing the commissions prior approach to crypto enforcement.
Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP
The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
There’s a lot of chatter on Wall Street about artificial intelligence replacing analysts — the folks at banks and brokerages who tell investors which stocks to buy, hold or sell. The bots should be able to make those recommendations just as well as humans.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
Envestnet's board went outside the industry in tapping Todd, who most recently was chief executive of workforce management software firm UKG.
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
Apple Inc. received a pair of analyst downgrades, in the latest sign that soft iPhone sales are becoming an increasing concern for investors, as artificial intelligence fails to act as a hoped-for growth catalyst.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
Integrated Partners Andree Mohr details the importance of putting the clients needs first.
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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
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
Travel on all roads and streets increased in November. The 12-month moving average was up 0.03% month-over-month and was up 1.04% year-over-year. However, if we factor in population growth, the 12-month MA of the civilian population-adjusted data (age 16-and-over) was down 0.04% MoM and up 0.43% YoY.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
Tradr ETFs' Matt Markiewicz describes the benefits of leveraged ETFs and who they are appropriate for.
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 21, 2025
Outlooks for higher education and healthcare are the weakest while transportation and essential utilities are the strongest. Resiliency to withstand an economic downturn is strong for all sectors.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 21, 2025
The acquisitions of California-based PearTree Advisory Group and Indianapolis-based Premier Wealth Advisors bring BridgePort's AUA to just over $2 billion.
Speaker: Cheryl J. Muldrew-McMurtry
Remote finance teams are rewriting how the back-office runs—and attackers are taking notes. Disconnected workflows, process blind spots, and rising cyber threats have become more than just “growing pains”. They’re now liabilities. The challenge isn’t just team distribution, but building resilient systems that protect accuracy, control, and speed across every transaction and touchpoint.
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