Calculated Risk

APRIL 4, 2025

From Fed Chair Jerome Powell: Economic Outlook. Excerpt: Turning to monetary policy, we face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation. The new Administration is in the process of implementing substantial policy changes in four distinct areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation. Our monetary policy stance is well positioned to deal with the risks and uncertainties we face as we gain a better understanding of the policy changes

Economics 257

Economics Economy 257

The Big Picture

APRIL 4, 2025

This week, I speak with with Lisa Shalett , Chief Investment Officer and head of Global Investment Office for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Previously, she was CEO and chairman at Sanford Bernstein, CIO at Merrill Lynch Asset Management, and now CIO at both Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and runs their asset allocation models and their outsourced chief investment officer models.

Asset Allocation 147

Asset Allocation Wealth Management Assets Retail 147

Calculated Risk

APRIL 4, 2025

From the BLS: Employment Situation Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 228,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment also increased in retail trade, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike.

Transportation 232

Transportation Retail Government 232

Abnormal Returns

APRIL 4, 2025

Markets Earnings estimates have plenty of room to come down. (theirrelevantinvestor.com) It looks like we will have two 5-sigma daily moves in a row. (priceactionlab.com) Investors are trying to hide out in consumer staples. (ft.com) Strategy Don't do anything you might regret during a period of market stress. (wsj.com) The chances of you making a good decision under stress are slim.

Media 162

Media Economy Marketing Marketing 162

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

Accounting

Calculated Risk

APRIL 4, 2025

The headline jobs number in the March employment report was above expectations, however, January and February payrolls were revised down by 48,000 combined. The participation rate increased, the employment population ratio was unchanged, and the unemployment rate increased to 4.2%. Earlier: March Employment Report: 228 thousand Jobs, 4.2% Unemployment Rate Prime (25 to 54 Years Old) Participation Since the overall participation rate is impacted by both cyclical (recession) and demographic (aging

Numbers 179

Numbers Economics 179

Abnormal Returns

APRIL 4, 2025

Money management Shane Parrish talks with Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt. (fs.blog) Barry Ritholtz talks with Lisa Shalett, Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Stanley. (bloomberg.com) Meb Faber talks with Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer of UBS Global Wealth Management. (podcasts.apple.com) David Senra looks for lessons in the rise of Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel.

Wealth Management 147

Wealth Management Economics Management Investing 147

Discipline Funds

APRIL 4, 2025

Here are three things I think I am thinking about this weekend. 1) How Did We Get Here? I won’t bore you with more of the tariff debunking that I did last weekend. If you want to read that please go back and touch on each of the bullet points I covered. Tariffs are perhaps the most non-partisan issue in economics. It might be the only thing that Paul Krugman and Milton Friedman agreed on.

Economics 131

Economics Economy Healthcare Food 131

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

Zocks CEO Mark Gilbert details how AI enhances client intelligence, streamlines operations and empowers advisors to serve clients better.

Clients 278

Clients 278

NAIFA Advisor Today

APRIL 4, 2025

Lisa Skinner , president of Brokerage Services Inc. in Herman, NE, has had a lifelong connection to the financial services industry. Her journey began early, influenced by her father, who was a General Agent for over 50 years. Lisa started working during school breaks, taking on tasks such as filing, computer work, and scanning files to digital formats.

Financial Services 95

Financial Services 95

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

The CEO of GeoWealth and Goldman Sachs Asset Management executives are championing their approach to get alternative investments and more personalization down market via RIAs.

Marketing 274

Marketing Marketing Assets Management 274

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

Clients

Alpha Architect

APRIL 4, 2025

For equity investors there have been two major narratives over the last 17 calendar year period 2008-2024. The first is that US stocks have far outperformed international stocks. The other narrative has been the outperformance of growth stocks relative to value stocks. US Value Stocks Trading at Historically High Discounts was originally published at Alpha Architect.

Investments 84

Investments Investing 84

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

Peggy Pasquarella, CFO and HR director at 1919 Investment Counsel, an RIA subsidiary of Stifel Financial with $23.9 billion in assets under management, has left the company.

Assets 264

Assets Management Investing Investments 264

A Wealth of Common Sense

APRIL 4, 2025

Widespread tariffs are a bad idea. How do I know this? History shows they don’t work. Let’s look back. JP Morgan’s Michael Cembalest wrote about President McKinley’s disastrous tariffs in the late-1800s: President William McKinley tariffs were very popular at the time they were enacted, but they caused an almost immediate inflation spike.

139

139

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

Acquisitions were also announced by Mission Wealth and Cary Street Partners, and long-time Northwestern Mutual advisor shifts to private client group Socium Advisors.

Clients 262

Clients 262

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.

Management

Truemind Capital

APRIL 4, 2025

Recently, I engaged with an AI team of experts to help them build AI-enabled software products for wealthmanagement firms. When I was approached for suggestions, I was intrigued by what AI could do to wealthmanagement. It helped me learn about the possibilities of AI use in wealth management. Many wealth management outfitsin the US have started using AI in their operations and basic level of advice.

Wealth Management 59

Wealth Management Management Asset Allocation Investing 59

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

New York-based Holistic Wealth Advisors has launched its own RIA, while California-based Guardtower Financial Services moved to LPLs corporate RIA.

Wealth Advisor 256

Wealth Advisor Financial Services 256

Harness Wealth

APRIL 4, 2025

This weeks Tax Advisor Weekly covers key updates for financial professionals. We begin with guidance on navigating property tax considerations during business mergers and expansions. Next, we explore the growing need for C-suite awareness of transfer pricing implications. We also break down the latest developments in Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reportingwhile requirements have been temporarily lifted for domestic entities, foreign companies remain affected.

Taxes 52

Taxes License Banking Government 52

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

In their decision, arbitrators wrote that Hightowers non-compete clause seemed designed more to punish former advisor Lars Knudsen, rather than protecting the firms legitimate business interests.

252

252

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.

Numbers

Validea

APRIL 4, 2025

In this episode, dive into the complex world of tariffs, national debt, and economic policies under the current administration. With the S&P down 4% and markets reacting to recent policy shifts, we bring you insights from our previous interviews with Cullen Roche and Andy Constan to break down these pressing issues. This episode is designed for everyday investors and money managers alike, offering a balanced, practical perspective on navigating short-term market pain for potential long-term

Marketing 52

Marketing Marketing Budgeting Manufacturing 52

Wealth Management

APRIL 4, 2025

New York-based Holistic Wealth Advisors has launched its own RIA, while California-based Guardtower Financial Services moved to LPLs corporate RIA.

Wealth Advisor 246

Wealth Advisor Financial Services 246

Validea

APRIL 4, 2025

The recent market sell-off, driven by rising tariff concerns and economic uncertainty, has significantly impacted retail and consumer-facing stocks. While these declines have rattled many investors, they have also created attractive opportunities. Using Valideas Guru Stock Screener, we’ve identified a number of quality retail stocks trading at that have declined significantly.

Retail 52

Retail Risk Tolerance Marketing Marketing 52

Advisor Perspectives

APRIL 4, 2025

Official recession calls are the responsibility of the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee, which is understandably vague about the specific indicators on which they base their decisions. There is, however, a general belief that there are four big indicators that the committee weighs heavily in their cycle identification process.

96

96

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.

Accounting

WiserAdvisor

APRIL 4, 2025

The advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been remarkable and growing at an unprecedented pace. In recent years, the financial advising industry has seen some of the most significant breakthroughs, with AI-driven investment tools becoming increasingly popular. According to Deloitte, these tools are expected to be the primary source of advice for retail investors by 2027, with their adoption reaching nearly 80% by 2028.

Wealth Management 40

Wealth Management Management Financial Advisor Financial Planning 40

Advisor Perspectives

APRIL 4, 2025

The latest employment report showed that 228,000 jobs were added in March, exceeding the expected 137,000 addition. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate unexpectedly inched up to 4.2%.

59

59

Calculated Risk

APRIL 4, 2025

Today, in the Real Estate Newsletter: Asking Rents Mostly Unchanged Year-over-year Brief excerpt: Another monthly update on rents. Tracking rents is important for understanding the dynamics of the housing market. Slower household formation and increased supply (more multi-family completions) has kept asking rents under pressure. Apartment List: Asking Rent Growth -0.4% Year-over-year.

Marketing 162

Marketing Marketing 162

Advisor Perspectives

APRIL 4, 2025

The yield on the 10-year note ended April 4, 2025 at 4.01% while the 2-year note ended at 3.68%. These are the lowest levels for each respective note since October.

52

52

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.

Accounting

Calculated Risk

APRIL 4, 2025

From BofA: Since our last publication, our 1Q GDP tracking is up from 0.1% q/q saar to 0.4% q/q saar. [Apr 4th estimate] emphasis added From Goldman: We left our Q1 GDP tracking estimate unchanged at +0.3% (quarter-over-quarter annualized). [Apr 3rd estimate] And from the Atlanta Fed: GDPNow The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2025 is -2.8 percent on April 3, up from -3.7 percent on April 1.

162

162

Advisor Perspectives

APRIL 4, 2025

This chart series features an overlay of four major secular bear markets: the Crash of 1929, the Oil Embargo of 1973, the Tech Bubble, and the Financial Crisis. The numbers are through the March 31, 2025 close.

Marketing 52

Marketing Marketing Numbers 52

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 4, 2025

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that President Trump's tariff announcement on Wednesday and the subsequent market decline have led many financial advisors to reassure clients that they are implementing their pre-determined plans for such circumstances. As they execute these plans, advisors appear to be taking different approaches depending on their investment philosophy and client base, with many preaching a

Financial Planner 201

Financial Planner Communication Clients Taxes 201

Advisor Perspectives

APRIL 4, 2025

Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. have found an avenue to profit from Elon Musk’s chaotic Department of Government Efficiency.

Government 52

Government 52

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?

Sales