Abnormal Returns

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Rates (Rising) interest rates are driving everything these days. (allstarcharts.com) Despite recent losses, investors are pouring money into bond funds. (theirrelevantinvestor.com) Strategy Everything lined up against the stock market in September. (carsongroup.com) Cash is an actual hedge against stock market declines. (priceactionlab.com) Companies Brian Barrett, "Amazon is now less of a store than a mall, or maybe a sprawling bazaar.

Financial Advising 226

Financial Advising Food Media Economy 226

Nerd's Eye View

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that RIA custodial platform Altruist announced that it is offering its portfolio accounting software for free to advisors who custody with the firm, offering the opportunity to advisory firms to reduce the costs of their tech stacks and perhaps presaging competition among custodians to offer more software capabilities for their advisory firm clients!

Financial Planner 199

Financial Planner Healthcare Investment Planning Clients 199

Abnormal Returns

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The biz Google ($GOOGL) is sunsetting Google Podcasts in favor of YouTube Music. (techcrunch.com) Apple ($AAPL) Podcasts now pulls in more content from associated apps. (theverge.com) Spotify ($SPOT) wants to translate podcasts into different languages using the host's voice. (theverge.com) A profile of the guys behind the popular ‘Tooth and Claw’ podcast.

Economy 208

Economy Insurance Management 208

The Reformed Broker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Welcome to the latest episode of The Compound & Friends. This week, Michael Batnick, Perth Tolle, Gunjan Banerji, and Downtown Josh Brown discuss Amazon’s antitrust issues, a coming secular rotation in equities, investing in emerging markets and China, meme stocks are back, and much more! You can listen to the whole thing below, or find it wherever you like to listen to your favorite pods!

Investing 152

Investing Investments Marketing Marketing 152

Speaker: Nancy Wu, Head of Sales and Customer Success at SkyStem

Join us for an enlightening webinar as we delve into the transformative realm of modern accounting practices. In today's digital age, the convergence of outsourcing and automation has revolutionized how businesses manage their financial operations. In this webinar we will explore the synergistic potential of these two strategies to streamline processes, enhance accuracy, save cost and drive strategic decision-making.

Accounting

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The firms, ranging from broker/dealers and dual registrants to affiliated investment advisors, include Interactive Brokers, Nuveen Securities and Baird, among others, and are similar to 2022 charges against Wall Street firms resulting in $1.1 billion in collective penalties.

Communication 135

Communication Investment Advisor Investing Investments 135

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Also, Vise introduces AI-powered workflow; SEI updates portal, tools; a new report finds that API security incidents are rising in financial services and more.

Financial Services 124

Financial Services 124

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The latest Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index (Chicago Business Barometer) fell to 44.1 in September from 48.7 in August. The latest reading is worse than the 47.6 forecast and marks the 13th straight month in contraction territory.

Management 110

Management 110

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Congress completes its first acquisition since CI Financial sold a minority stake to Audax, two Indiana firms merge to create $750 million AUM Wellington Wealth and a 10-person team leaves Ameriprise for OneSeven.

Wealth Management 114

Wealth Management Management 114

Calculated Risk

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

From BofA: Overall, the data flow since our last weekly lowered our 3Q US GDP tracking estimate by a tenth to 2.8%. [Sept 29th estimate] emphasis added From Goldman: The foreign trade details of this morning’s report were stronger than our previous assumptions, and we boosted our Q3 GDP tracking estimate by 0.3pp to +3.5% (qoq ar). We left our domestic final sales growth forecast unchanged on a rounded basis at +2.6%.

Economics 110

Economics Sales Investing Investments 110

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As we step into 2024, the lending landscape evolves rapidly with technology, regulations, and market dynamics driving change. For banks and financial institutions to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of their customers, these drivers must be understood and engaged with. Lenders can anticipate significant transformation fueled by technological advancements, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer behaviors.

Banking

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The accusations against five of the firm’s broker/dealers arrives several months after FINRA barred the firm from the industry for numerous alleged violations, including against the SEC's Regulation Best Interest rule.

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Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The S&P 500 fell for a fourth consecutive week, leading to the worst monthly loss of the year. The index is currently up 12.13% year to date and is 10.60% below its record close from January 3, 2022.

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Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Certain positions are too be eliminated across the company, while certain units were asked to name 25% of their staffs for possible layoffs.

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128

A Wealth of Common Sense

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

There are three things people in the finance world hate to admit: I don’t know. I was wrong. I didn’t expect that to happen. A master-of-the-universe mentality is pervasive in finance because it’s a group of highly educated, competitive people. They see it as a sign of weakness if you admit you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Investing 101

Investing Investments Education Marketing 101

Speaker: Joe Buhrmann, MBA, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC® Senior Financial Planning Practice Management Consultant eMoney Advisor

During an era of evolving consumer preferences, the banking sector is undergoing a profound shift. As customers continue to broaden their perspectives, banking professionals must support their customers' financial wellness by providing holistic financial advice that aligns with individual goals and circumstances. Without adapting, financial institutions will find that loyalty may crumble amid uncertainty.

Financial Advice

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Charityvest, a new entrant into the growing DAF-related advisortech space, is leaning into community to set them apart.

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Trade Brains

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

It’s quite surprising that the Afghani, Afghanistan’s currency, became the world’s best and came to the top of global rankings in the September quarter. This is happening in a country with 79% of the population living in poverty, widespread unemployment, two-thirds of households struggling to afford basic items, 44% of people not having enough food to eat, inflation has turned into deflation, and one of the world’s worst human rights records.

Food 98

Food Banking Economics Portfolio 98

Alpha Architect

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

While ESG investors can express their values through their investments, they should expect lower returns from their portfolios—though they also will be taking less investment risk. ESG Preferences Negatively Affecting Market Efficiency was originally published at Alpha Architect. Please read the Alpha Architect disclosures at your convenience.

Marketing 97

Marketing Marketing Portfolio Investing 97

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

As the RIA space has become more professionalized, so has the organizational design of top firms.

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Digital platforms can provide you with plenty of solutions, yet many are still intimidated by them. It's time to end that worry and embrace what could make a major difference for your bank. Understanding how they work and how to best utilize them for your banks is key toward success. In this article, Biz2X breaks down all things digital platforms, including the many advantages of embracing them.

Banking

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

With the release of August's report on personal incomes and outlays, we can now take a closer look at "real" disposable personal income per capita. At two decimal places, the nominal 0.18% month-over-month change in disposable income comes to -0.21% when we adjust for inflation. The year-over-year metrics are 6.76% nominal and 3.17% real.

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Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Bruno, the managing director of WealthManagement.com, is moving on to a new role with Emigrant Partners.

Management 107

Management 107

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The weekly leading economic index (WLEI) is a composite for the U.S economy that draws from over 20 time-series and groups them into the following six broad categories which are then used to construct an equally weighted average. As of September 15th, the index was at 9.655, up 2.343 from the previous week.

Economics 64

Economics Economy 64

Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Guideline's Jeff Rosenberger advocates for plan sponsors to adopt auto features.

Planning 114

Planning 114

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All accounting teams know what it is like to dread the inevitable month-end scaries. If there was a way to feel less burdened and maybe even a little enthusiastic to work on your month-end close and reconciliation process, would you do it? No, don't answer that, of course you would! Automate your month-end close process by up to 40% with SkyStem's ART and see how much more alive you feel!

Accounting

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The BEA's Personal Income and Outlays report revealed inflation slowed in August. Core PCE, the Fed's favored measure of inflation, was up 0.1% from July and slowed to 3.9% year-over-year, the lowest reading in over two years but still above the Fed's 2% target rate.

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Wealth Management

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Wealth Managers look for opportunities in an evolving risk environment.

Wealth Management 106

Wealth Management Marketing Marketing Management 106

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Personal income ( excluding transfer receipts ) rose 0.5% in August and is up 5.3% year-over-year. However, when adjusted for inflation using the BEA's PCE Price Index, real personal income (excluding transfer receipts) was up 0.1% month-over-month and 1.7% year-over-year.

Economics 64

Economics 64

Calculated Risk

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in shelter from the CPI report and housing from the PCE report this morning, both through July 2023. CPI Shelter was up 7.2% year-over-year in August, down from 7.7% in July, and down from the cycle peak of 8.2% in March 2023. Housing (PCE) was up 7.4% YoY in August , down from 7.7% in July, and down from the cycle peak of 8.3% in April 2023.

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Creating a winning digital lending experience requires plenty of focus on the needs of customers and more. Biz2X Chief Product Officer Aaron Traub covers everything from how to create such an experience, areas to hone in on, pitfalls to avoid, and plenty more in this insightful article. Discover how to utilize new technology without alienating existing customers, what to emphasize when working on your platform, and how to utilize the data at your disposal while not becoming overly reliant on it.

Communication

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

The September final report for the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index came in at 68.1, down 1.4 (-2.0%) from the August final. This morning's reading was above the forecast of 67.7. Since its beginning in 1978, consumer sentiment is 20.0% below its average reading (arithmetic mean) of 85.1 and 18.9% below its geometric mean of 84.0.

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Calculated Risk

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. Due to changes at the CDC, weekly cases are no longer updated. For deaths, I'm currently using 3 weeks ago for "now", since the most recent two weeks will be revised significantly. Recently hospitalizations have tripled from a low of 5,150 in June 2023. Hospitalizations are increasing, but far below the peak of 150,000 in January 2022.

Numbers 61

Numbers 61

Advisor Perspectives

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Valid until the market close on October 31, 2023 The S&P 500 closed September with a monthly loss of 4.93%, after a loss of 1.71% in August. At this point, after close on the last day of the month, three of five Ivy portfolio ETFs — Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund (VEU), iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) and Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ)— are signaling "cash", up from last month's double "cash" signal.

Portfolio 59

Portfolio Marketing Marketing 59