Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 15, 2024

For financial advisors, an ongoing client service model often means finding ways to keep clients engaged and progressing toward their goals outside of the 1 or 2 typical client review meetings each year. For clients, more frequent communication can be a source of behavioral coaching and helpful information that can better equip them to stay the course through rocky markets.

Clients 190

Clients Communication Financial Advisor Wealth Management 190

Abnormal Returns

JANUARY 19, 2024

Crypto Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund ($FBTC) has surpassed $1 billion in AUM. (theblock.co) Why the churn at the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ($GBTC) matters so much for Bitcoin. (ft.com) Vanguard made the right call. (morningstar.com) Companies Airbnb ($ABNB) didn't end up killing the hotel (stocks). (paulrlamonica.substack.com) Meta ($META) now wants in on the AGI game.

Financial Advising 254

Financial Advising Media Economy Sales 254

The Big Picture

JANUARY 19, 2024

 This week, we speak with Shomik Dutta , founder and managing partner at Overture , a venture capital firm focused on climate tech and sustainability startups. He is also co-founder and General Partner of Higher Ground Labs. He previously worked on both Obama presidential campaigns and served as a Special Assistant to the White House Counsel. Dutta discusses why Climate Investing is a for-profit opportunity, and not as it is so often portrayed as “Woke Investing.” The 2023 COP resu

Startup 169

Startup Investment Advisor Investing Investments 169

Advisor Perspectives

JANUARY 17, 2024

I asked our authors and guest contributors the following question: Given the availability of spot bitcoin ETFs, would you recommend them (or any other cryptocurrency allocation) to your clients?

Clients 128

Clients 128

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

Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 19, 2024

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that a recent study has found that while total financial advisor headcount across all channels only increased by 0.3% in 2023, the RIA space showed significantly more strength, with 10.4% growth, as breakaway brokers and new advisors see the potential benefits of the RIA model.

Financial Planner 217

Financial Planner Fiduciary Duty Retirement Retirement Planning 217

The Big Picture

JANUARY 13, 2024

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat by the fire, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads: • Two centuries of vibecessions : When recessions were just part of the weather, people shrugged them off more easily, but nowadays every one is cause for existential national angst. Perhaps we’ve all just become economic snowflakes?

Portfolio Management 152

Portfolio Management Economy Economics Portfolio 152

A Wealth of Common Sense

JANUARY 18, 2024

A reader asks: Ben, I love reading your work. Stocks, bonds, and cash are the categories to compare but it hit me as a “boomer” retired, what about home ownership as a comparison? Stay warm! This question was in response to my recent piece on the historical returns for stocks, bonds and cash: There are typically a fair number of requests for other asset classes whenever I post this kind of data.

Retirement 127

Retirement Numbers Assets 127

Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 16, 2024

Welcome back to the 368th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! My guest on today's podcast is Thomas Kopelman. Thomas is the co-founder of AllStreet Wealth, a financial planning firm for millennial business owners and those with equity comp based in Indianapolis, IN, that has quickly grown to more than $500,000 of run-rate revenue generated from serving 70 ongoing client households.

Media 201

Media Financial Advisor Financial Planning Planning 201

Abnormal Returns

JANUARY 14, 2024

Strategy On the importance of time when it comes to compounding. (humbledollar.com) You can only control your own behavior. (creativeplanning.com) Crypto What you need to know about the spot Bitcoin ETFs. (ft.com) The spot Bitcoin ETF is here. What comes next? (theblock.co) Should Vanguard prevent its customers from buying spot Bitcoin ETFs? (rogersplanning.blogspot.com) Finance Goldman Sachs ($GS) is expanding its lending business to the ultra-high net worth crowd.

Financial Advising 238

Financial Advising Engineering Food Economics 238

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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

The Big Picture

JANUARY 19, 2024

My end-of-week morning train WFH reads: • Americans are actually pretty happy with their finances : By the numbers: 63% of Americans rate their current financial situation as being “good,” including 19% of us who say it’s “very good.” Neither number is particularly low: They’re both entirely in line with the average result the past 20 times Harris Poll has asked this question. ( Axios ) • Japan’s Market Roars Back to Life—With Old-Timers Leading the Way : Afte

Media 130

Media Startup Numbers Government 130

Advisor Perspectives

JANUARY 19, 2024

Consumer sentiment soared in January to its highest level since July 2021, according to the preliminary report for the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. The index came in at 78.8, up 9.1 (13.1%) from the December final. The latest reading was above the forecast of 70.0.

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Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 17, 2024

In late 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven, natural-language processing tool that offered the public the ability to conduct seemingly human conversations with a chatbot and generate a seemingly endless array of sophisticated content, including essays, emails, computer code, meal plans, fictional stories, and song lyrics, to name just a few.

Financial Advice 130

Financial Advice Financial Planning Planning Clients 130

Abnormal Returns

JANUARY 13, 2024

Transport Electric school buses have a number of advantages. (grist.org) Waymo is beginning to test self-driving taxis on the highway. (forbes.com) Comparing the cost of charging an EV vs. gasoline. (grist.org) Energy Despite growth in renewables, fossil fuel consumption is not going down. (coldeye.earth) Students don't want to major in oil and gas engineering.

Food 235

Food Financial Advising Transportation Engineering 235

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

The Big Picture

JANUARY 17, 2024

 At The Money: Meir Statman on What Investors Really Want , (January 17, 2024) What do investors really want? Long-term capital appreciation and income are the obvious answers. But, it turns out, they actually want a lot more than that. I speak with Professor Meir Statman of Santa Clara University — he is an award-winning expert on investor behavior and financial decision-making.

Portfolio 130

Portfolio Investing Investments Retirement Planning 130

A Wealth of Common Sense

JANUARY 14, 2024

Bonds have had a rough go at it these past few years. 2021 was a down year. 2022 was the worst year in history for bonds. 2023 was better although rates were so volatile that the ride certainty wasn’t much fun to be on. In the 10 years ending 2023, 10 year Treasury bonds had an annual return of just 1.5%. The annual inflation rate over that same time frame was 2.8%, meaning you lost money on a real basis in the benc.

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Advisor Perspectives

JANUARY 16, 2024

This article examines the challenges associated with the SEC’s proposed rule, the expected effect on financial services firms, and how firms can prepare now for the new rule.

Financial Services 119

Financial Services 119

Abnormal Returns

JANUARY 15, 2024

Podcasts Michael Kitces talks about starting over with Kimberly Enders who is the Lead Financial Planner and Managing Partner of Enders Wealth Management. (kitces.com) Thomas Kopelman and Jacob Turner talk Roth IRA conversions with Steven Jarvis. (podcasts.apple.com) Hiring RIAs need to think more broadly when it comes to hiring. (riabiz.com) Why women are still struggling to make progress in the world of financial advice.

Financial Planner 227

Financial Planner Wealth Management Financial Advising Retirement Planning 227

Speaker: Carolina Aponte - Owner and CEO, Caja Holdings LLC

In today's rapidly changing business environment, building a resilient balance sheet is crucial to the survival of any business. A resilient balance sheet allows a company to withstand financial shocks and adapt to changing market conditions. To achieve this, companies need to focus on key strategies such as maintaining adequate liquidity, managing debt levels, diversifying revenue streams, and prioritizing profitability over growth.

Financial Planning

The Big Picture

JANUARY 14, 2024

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • What We Lost When Twitter Became X As a former Twitter employee, I watched Elon Musk undermine one of the Internet’s most paradoxical, special places. ( New Yorker ) • Buying Home and Auto Insurance Is Becoming Impossible : Huge losses from national disasters prompt industry to jack up prices and pull back from some markets; ‘worst possible scenario’ for consumers. ( Wall Street Journal ) see also Thousan

Insurance 130

Insurance Portfolio Management Financial Market Retirement 130

Calculated Risk

JANUARY 17, 2024

On a monthly basis, retail sales were up 0.6% from November to December (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 5.6 percent from December 2022. From the Census Bureau report : Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December 2023, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $709.9 billion, up 0.6 percent from the previous month , and up 5.6 percent above December 2022.

Retail 113

Retail Sales Food 113

Advisor Perspectives

JANUARY 16, 2024

Manufacturing activity dropped sharply in New York State, according to the Empire State Manufacturing January survey. The diffusion index for General Business Conditions fell to -43.7 from -14.5 in December. This morning's reading was worse than the forecast of -5.0 and is the index's lowest reading since May 2020.

Manufacturing 118

Manufacturing 118

Abnormal Returns

JANUARY 14, 2024

Top clicks this week Six reasons to bullish. Six reasons to be bearish. (ritholtz.com) The periodic table of commodity returns over the past decade. (visualcapitalist.com) 34 hard-earned lessons including 'People are busy, distracted, and tired. Always follow up.' (thefp.com) Stock markets around the world are at or near their highs. (downtownjoshbrown.com) Good luck trying to pick the best performing asset class on a year-by-year basis.

Valuation 225

Valuation Assets Investing Investments 225

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Accounting

Wealth Management

JANUARY 17, 2024

Mariner asked a federal court to pause Edelman Financial Engines' trade-secret lawsuit during an ongoing arbitration process. Edelman says that would only let Mariner continue raiding its advisors and clients "with impunity.

Engineering 113

Engineering Clients 113

NAIFA Advisor Today

JANUARY 17, 2024

NAIFA CEO Kevin Mayeux , CAE, was named one of the “Top 10 Most Influential People in Insurance” by CIO Views magazine. Among his achievements cited by the magazine is Mayeux’s leadership of NAIFA’s transformation into a modern, forward-looking association. Under his guidance, NAIFA has revamped its bylaws and unified as One NAIFA with a strong national presence and revitalized state chapters working together with local chapters to best serve the needs of financial professionals and consumers.

Insurance 111

Insurance Management 111

Advisor Perspectives

JANUARY 16, 2024

Travel on all roads and streets increased in November. The 12-month moving average was up 0.2% month-over-month and was up 1.8% year-over-year. If we factor in population growth, the 12-month MA of the civilian population-adjusted data (age 16-and-over) was up 0.1% MoM and up 0.6% YoY.

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Abnormal Returns

JANUARY 16, 2024

Markets Where are real interest rates going to settle? (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) Domestic equities are expensive relative to international equities. (apolloacademy.com) Strategy Stocks usually beat bonds and cash, but not all the time. (awealthofcommonsense.com) How to identify an investor who has gotten too attached to a stock. (investmenttalk.co) Companies What went wrong at Boeing ($BA)?

Financial Advising 214

Financial Advising Economy Media Marketing 214

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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

Wealth Management

JANUARY 19, 2024

Yieldstreet has been helping hundreds of thousands of investors get access to a wide range of alternative investments for several years. The deal with Luma is "our first big push into the RIA channel," its CEO says.

Investing 111

Investing Investments 111

Trade Brains

JANUARY 17, 2024

Cipla Vs Sun Pharmaceutical : Pharma companies bear enormous responsibility for producing medicines and monetizing the time and effort spent on research and development for years by using patent protection. In this article, we will compare Cipla Vs Sun Pharmaceutical, both of which are involved in the pharmaceutical industry. we shall also see their financials, future plans and more Cipla Vs Sun Pharmaceutical Cipla Company Overview Cipla was established in 1935 by Khwaja Abdul Hamied in Mumbai.

Pharmaceutical 111

Pharmaceutical Planning Medicine Manufacturing 111

Advisor Perspectives

JANUARY 17, 2024

The Census Bureau's Advance Retail Sales Report for December revealed a 0.6% rise in headline sales compared to November, highlighting a second straight month of increased consumer spending. The latest figure was higher than the anticipated 0.4% monthly growth. Core sales (ex Autos) also beat expectations by increasing 0.4% in December compared to the expected 0.2% growth.

Retail 111

Retail Sales 111