Calculated Risk
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
The DOL reported : In the week ending February 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 194,000 , a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 196,000 to 195,000. The 4-week moving average was 189,500, an increase of 500 from the previous week's revised average.
The Big Picture
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Do you want to continue working from home? Is it past time to return to the office? How much collaboration can you do remotely? How much screen time are you wasting in the office? This has become a contentious debate between senior management at large companies and their staffers; it is especially true for younger employees. As always, there are much broader factors driving this issue than what appears on the surface.
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Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
In a decision this week, a district court judge overturned FAQs indicating that rollover recommendations for a 401(k) fall under ERISA, though attorneys believe the DOL will likely appeal.
Calculated Risk
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
From the MBA: Mortgage Delinquencies Increase in the Fourth Quarter of 2022 The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.96 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.
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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
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
As sellers become more concerned about marketing a property that fails to sell, it has opened up more opportunities for investors looking for off-market acquisitions.
Calculated Risk
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
From the NY Fed: Total Household Debt Reaches $16.90 trillion in Q4 2022; Mortgage and Auto Loan Growth Slows The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Center for Microeconomic Data today issued its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. The Report shows an increase in total household debt in the fourth quarter of 2022, increasing by $394 billion (2.4%) to $16.90 trillion.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Calculated Risk
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions Housing Starts: Privately‐owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,309,000. This is 4.5 percent below the revised December estimate of 1,371,000 and is 21.4 percent below the January 2022 rate of 1,666,000. Single‐family housing starts in January were at a rate of 841,000; this is 4.3 percent below the revised December figure of 879,000.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
The firm cites market volatility, inflation and operating costs for the cuts.
Calculated Risk
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Today, in the CalculatedRisk Real Estate Newsletter: January Housing Starts: Near Record Number of Housing Units Under Construction Excerpt: Possibly Important: Multi-family permits averaged 547,000 SAAR over the last three months after averaging close to 650,000 SAAR over the previous 8 months. This decline in permits is a possible signal that the expected decline in multi-family starts has begun (although permits aren’t a perfect leading indicator for starts).
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
A review of the relevant aspects of the CTA’s final rule.
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.
The Big Picture
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
My morning train WFH reads: • Five Clues This Isn’t Just a Bear Market Rally : The S&P 500 is up 17% from the October lows, the same magnitude as the 17% rally we saw last summer. Back then, stocks rolled back over and made new lows, something most strategists on tv are saying will happen again. Well, the facts are changing for us, and as Keynes told us in the quote above, we had better change our minds as well.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Funds focused on clean energy and semiconductors were among the best-performing over the last five years.
Abnormal Returns
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Markets The FTSE 100 Index has risen above 8,000 points for the first time ever. (bloomberg.com) Bitcoin is at its highest level since June 2022. (theblock.co) Companies Cory Doctorow, "In its nearly 25-year history, Google has made one and a half successful products: a once-great search engine and a pretty good Hotmail clone. Everything else it built in-house has crashed and burned.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
The New York Times looks at how mall owners are using the addition of apartment components to their properties to drive up foot traffic and revenue. Eastdil Secured is laying off 7% of its workforce as investment sales have slowed down, according to Bisnow. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.
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.
A Wealth of Common Sense
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
A reader asks: So I work in Tech at a company whose name ends in dot ai and there is all this talk of the AI bubble and how VCs have quickly moved from Crypto to AI, not to mention all the buzz around ChatGPT. Question is – can you have a bubble in a high rate / rising rate interest environment or do we need low rates / easing Fed as a precursor to any bubble?
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein provides his take on the biggest news to hit advisor technology in the previous month.
Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT)
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
By Antoinette Tuscano, MDRT Content Specialist Don’t wait to evaluate your performance. Instead, start early in the year to think about how you can improve in the upcoming months to create a successful year. Here are a few ideas from MDRT members and other experts on how to keep getting better. 1) Review goals weekly Don’t wait until the end of the year to review your goals, because it could be too late by then, said 19-year MDRT member Ravi Pahlajrai Rajpal from Mumbai, India.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Focus Financial released quarterly earnings exceeding industry and in-house expectations, despite dips in the firm’s organic growth and M&A activity in 2022.
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.
MarketWatch
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Snap Inc. SNAP Chief Executive Evan Spiegel on Thursday said the company’s Snapchat product now reaches more than 750 monthly active users, up from 600 million in April 2022 and 500 million in April 2021. The news kicked off Snap’s investor day. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Sequoia’s latest acquisition will double assets and clients under the firm’s family office practice and expand its asset management menu across its entire client base.
Good Financial Cents
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Over the last year and a half, investors have been learning firsthand the importance of diversification. When the stock market is going up consistently, diversification isn’t usually “front of mind” for investors. That is because, for that period of time at least, inadequate diversification is benefitting you. The problems start when prices of stocks begin to go the other direction.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Service platform NewEdge plans a pivot to acquisitions with a focus on buying the practices of younger, growth-hungry advisors who will then buy and manage firms of retiring advisors in their own regions.
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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.
MarketWatch
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Tesla Inc. TSLA stock turned lower Thursday after news that more than 300,000 of its vehicles are hit by a recall related to the EV maker’s self-driving software. Tesla had shaken off weakness earlier in the week, gaining for two straight sessions and starting Thursday in the black. The stock earlier this month notched an 8-day winning streak, leading one analyst to say it was “overextended.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Shane Morrow discusses leaving insurance-based independent broker/dealer, Lincoln Financial, and how his new firm, IronBridge Wealth Counsel, has thrived with Advisor Group's SagePoint Financial.
MarketWatch
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania on Wednesday night checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression, said a statement on Thursday from Fetterman’s chief of staff, Adam Jentleson. Doctors at Walter Reed have said Fetterman is “getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself,” the statement said.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
The Wall Street Journal analyzes how a hedge fund helped Bed Bath & Beyond avoid bankruptcy. After scaling back its workforce by thousands, Google has reassessed the timeline for a massive project in San Jose, Calif., reports The Real Deal. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.
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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?
MarketWatch
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
TravelCenters of America Inc. TA said Thursday it has agreed to be acquired by BP Plc BP for $86 a share in cash, or about $1.3 billion. The price is equal to an 84% premium over the average trading price of the stock in the 30 days ended Feb. 15. The deal is expected to close by mid-year, 2023, and two of the company’s main shareholders — RMR Group RMR, with a 4.1% stake, and Service Properties Trust SVC with 7.8% of the stock — have agreed to vote their shares in favor of it.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Toronto is North America’s fourth-largest city and second-largest financial center, and on many days its downtown is bustling again. However, a range of data suggest a more downbeat trend: Toronto’s workers are returning to the office at consistently lower rates than comparable metros.
MarketWatch
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Moderna Inc. MRNA shares dove more than 5% in after-hours trading Thursday, after the company announced that a study into a flu vaccine candidate failed to reach one of its goals. The company said that the candidate accomplished superiority in two goals and non-inferiority in another, but did not reach the non-inferiority standard on the other goal of the study.
Wealth Management
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Break down the process into two phases.
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