Nerd's Eye View
JANUARY 23, 2025
Since the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the mainstream technological landscape, conversations about which areas of the financial planning industry would be most likely impacted by AI have proliferated. These discussions have ranged from questioning whether everyone would be out of a job in five years to wondering if anything of substance would change at all.
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 23, 2025
Books An excerpt from "Gambling Man: The Secret Story of the World's Greatest Disruptor, Masayoshi Son" by Lionel Barber. (politico.com) An excerpt from "The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource" by Chris Hayes. (theatlantic.com) A Q&A with Mnica Guzmn, author of "Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.
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Calculated Risk
JANUARY 23, 2025
What this means: On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total inventory. For December, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 22.0% YoY, but still down 15.7% compared to the 2017 to 2019 same month levels. Now - on a weekly basis - inventory is up 25.1% YoY.
Abnormal Returns
JANUARY 23, 2025
Strategy Bonds vs. bond funds: you're still exposed to interest rate risk. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Why your portfolio may need rebalancing. (morningstar.com) Just because you can launch a meme coin doesn't mean you should. (howardlindzon.com) Finance MicroStrategy ($MSTR) is the convertible bond king. (wsj.com) Ramp is expanding its offerings. (techcrunch.com) Even institutional investors can't get information on their private equity investments.
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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
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 23, 2025
The DOL reported : In the week ending January 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 223,000 , an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 217,000. The 4-week moving average was 213,500, an increase of 750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 212,750. emphasis added The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
The combined startups will provide advisors with seamless health planning from analysis to enrollment once integrations are complete.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
Dan Bolton said Wealth.com is building something truly remarkable. Most recently, he was a vice president of corporate marketing for Nitrogen (formerly Riskalyze).
Investment Writing
JANUARY 23, 2025
I’ve long wondered why there is no apostrophe in words like “writers room,” ‘homeowners association,” or “teachers college.” Is the noun descriptive or possessive? I found a good explanation in Emmy J. Favilla’s A World Without “Whom.” Do not use an apostrophe when a word is primarily descriptive rather than possessive… The word is acting more like an adjective than a possessive noun.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
What the updates to the Gift Tax Annual Exclusion, Unified Credit Amount and GST Tax Exemption may mean for clients.
A Wealth of Common Sense
JANUARY 23, 2025
We also covered questions about offering financial advice to family members, how to lower your auto insurance rates, how many years worth of fixed income you need in your portfolio and how to begin the estate planning process. If you have a question email us: AskTheCompoundShow@gmail.com Further Reading: Owning Individual Bonds vs. Owning a Bond Fund 1I know I’ve written about this subject a few times over the year.
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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
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
The deal with PWL Capital is a first step toward OneDigitals long-term expansion into Canada.
MainStreet Financial Planning
JANUARY 23, 2025
The start of a new year is the perfect time to reinforceor establishsolid financial habits. Below are seven important items to check and update to stay ahead financially: Freeze Your Credit If you temporarily unfreezed your credit for a loan or new credit card last year, be sure to re-freeze it now. Freezing your credit is an effective way to protect against identity theft and unauthorized access to your financial accounts.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
The self-described digital family office has also beefed up its leadership team with new roles in engineering, trading, product and finance, after recruiting 30 advisors in 2024.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 23, 2025
Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com and are for top tier scenarios. Friday: At 10:00 AM ET, Existing Home Sales for December from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 4.20 million SAAR, up from 4.15 million. Also at 10:00 AM, University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (Preliminary for January).
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
JANUARY 23, 2025
David Wahlen will join Merit Financial Advisors to guide its M&A activity. He joins the firm from a role at Captrust.
Validea
JANUARY 23, 2025
In this episode of Excess Returns, Jack Forehand and special guest host Perth Tolle sit down with Rob Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates and pioneer of fundamental indexing. Rob discusses his thought-provoking article “50 Years of Innovation, Myth Making and Myth Busting,” written for the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Portfolio Management.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
Its how you use it, why and how you explain that value proposition to your clients.
Validea
JANUARY 23, 2025
In an era of market volatility and economic uncertainty, value investing continues to prove its worth as a time-tested strategy for building long-term wealth. By focusing on companies trading below their intrinsic value, investors can create a margin of safety that helps protect against downside risk while positioning themselves to benefit from eventual market corrections.
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
JANUARY 23, 2025
The reorganization coincides with a growing convergence between infrastructure and real estate, exemplified by the boom in demand for data centers that power artificial intelligence.
Carson Wealth
JANUARY 23, 2025
When it comes to managing your wealth and pursuing your financial goals, clarity can be key. Enter bucketing, a powerful strategy that helps simplify your financial planning by categorizing your assets into three time-based buckets: today, tomorrow, and the future. What Is Bucketing? At its core, bucketing is a strategy to help align your wealth with your financial goals and time horizons.
Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
Tips for your conversation with the insurance agent.
Calculated Risk
JANUARY 23, 2025
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: 4th Look at Local Housing Markets in December A brief excerpt: Here are a few more local markets before the NAR releases December Existing Home sales tomorrow, Friday, January 24th at 10:00 AM. This will be the 3rd consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in sales. Watch the regional difference!
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
JANUARY 23, 2025
Carson Wealth Chicago includes more than 15 advisors across five locations and follows Carson Groups purchase of an independent partner firm with locations in Iowa and Las Vegas.
Random Roger's Retirement Planning
JANUARY 23, 2025
For awhile, I've been seeing that Calamos has a suite of Bitcoin protection ETFs, so like defined outcome or buffered. Where I always say just don't with the buffered ETFs I haven't looked into them at all but the following popped up on my Twitter feed, yes I am still calling it Twitter. I will take the perspective that most readers are curious but not true believers.
FMG
JANUARY 23, 2025
In the competitive financial industry, staying ahead means mastering client engagement and refining marketing strategies. Marketing for financial advisors in 2025 will require a sharp focus on effective communication, personalized client experiences, and smart use of technology. Advisors who adopt these approaches are more likely to grow their practices and build long-term client relationships.
AdvicePay
JANUARY 23, 2025
When it comes to technology, 93% of advisors say that it plays a critical or very important role in their processes. So its no surprise that leading firms view technology as a competitive differentiator for attracting and retaining advisors and helping them grow their business. But when your tech needs to support hundreds or thousands of diverse financial professionals, you need flexible, scalable tools to meet everyones needs.
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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.
Meb Faber Research
JANUARY 23, 2025
Did you know the most profitable stock in the world isn’t located in the United States? (I didn’t). Below we feature two research pieces featured in The Idea Farm, our free weekly email going out to over 100,000 investors worldwide! First up, a 100+ page market outlook from Goldman Sachs. Here’s the top 10 companies […] The post The #1 Stock in the World appeared first on Meb Faber Research - Stock Market and Investing Blog.
NAIFA Advisor Today
JANUARY 23, 2025
Mark Willis, CFP , is a dedicated financial professional and the founder of Lake Growth Financial Services , located in St. Charles, IL. Since entering the financial services industry, Mark has been driven by a deep passion to help individuals and families achieve their financial goals and create lasting security. Marks journey into the financial services industry was shaped by his personal experience during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, when he faced overwhelming six-figure student loan deb
Advisor Perspectives
JANUARY 23, 2025
In the week ending January 18th, initial jobless claims rose for a second straight week. Initial jobless claims were at a seasonally adjusted level of 223,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's figure. The latest reading was worse than the 221,000 forecast.
Darrow Wealth Management
JANUARY 23, 2025
When’s the best time to exercise your stock options? With stock options, employees have the right (not obligation) to buy the shares. When you exercise your stock options you purchase company shares. Though early exercises are possible, the default setup is for employees to first have the options to exercise when the shares vest. The timing of when you exercise your stock options is important as certain situations can be far more advantageous from a tax and financial standpoint than others
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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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