The Big Picture
MAY 5, 2025
First, lets go to the data (via Bloomberg ): 5,502,284% That is the per-share market value increase of Berkshire Hathaway stock from 1964 to 2024. Compare that with the SPX total returns of 39,054%; BRK annualized returns are ~20%, about double that of the S&P over the same period. Those mouthwatering returns have led to a cottage industry of imitators, analytical copycats, and flattering wannabes.
Wealth Management
MAY 14, 2025
Advisors can better serve wealthy clients through strategic charitable giving of appreciated assets, from real estate to business interests.
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Calculated Risk
MAY 12, 2025
From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Jump to 2 Week Highs After US/China Trade Talks Tariffs and trade policy have been a new and important consideration for the bond market for just over a month now. That matters to mortgage rates because mortgage pricing is primarily determined by bond prices. Over the weekend, the US and China agreed on a 90 day pause on the more extreme tariff brinksmanship.
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 9, 2025
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that a recent survey found that long-feared fee compression in the financial advice industry has yet to come to pass, though some advisors continue to see potential for small reductions in asset-based fees in the future. These results largely match results from the recent Kitces Research Study on Advisor Productivity, which found that the typical fee schedule for firms charging
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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
Abnormal Returns
MAY 11, 2025
Also on the site How to contribute to the Jonathan Clements Getting Going on Savings Initiative. (abnormalreturns.com) The gold dilemma isn't going anywhere. (abnormalreturns.com) Top clicks this week You are NOT Warren Buffett. How to be a better you. (ritholtz.com) Why municipal bonds are underperforming in 2025. (morningstar.com) What you are saying when you bet on individual stocks.
A Wealth of Common Sense
MAY 2, 2025
According to the National Association of Realtors, first-time homebuyers made of just 24% of recent transactions: That’s the lowest on record since the NAR has been collecting this data since 1981. Nearly three-quarters of recent buyers did not have a child under the age of 18 in their home, the highest share on record. It’s a terrible time to be a young person in search of a house.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2025
From the heads of mega-RIAs to solo practitioners, many wealth managers say outgoing Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has impacted their investing and management styles.
Calculated Risk
MAY 1, 2025
From the Census Bureau reported that overall construction spending decreased: Construction spending during March 2025 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,196.1 billion, 0.5 percent below the revised February estimate of $2,206.9 billion. The March figure is 2.8 percent above the March 2024 estimate of $2,135.8 billion. emphasis added Both private and public spending increased: Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,688.0 billion, 0.6
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 16, 2025
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that Republicans in the House of Representatives this week released their long-awaited tax plan to address the impending sunset of many measures in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The proposed legislation makes several aspects of TCJA 'permanent', including maintaining TCJA's tax brackets and the elevated estate tax exemption, while also introducing new potential tax-savings op
Abnormal Returns
MAY 16, 2025
Companies Charter Communications ($CHTR) and Cox Communications are merging. (cnbc.com) Meta's ($META) Facebook and Instagram are increasingly scam-filled. (wsj.com) How big an additional opportunity is experiences for Airbnb ($ABNB)? (platformaeronaut.com) Apple Apple ($AAPL) made a strategic mistake. (spyglass.org) Apple ($AAPL) is never going to make iPhones in the U.S.
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.
A Wealth of Common Sense
MAY 9, 2025
A lot of advice out there sounds good on paper but fails to work in reality. Follow your passion! Sure, but does your love of fantasy football pay the bills? You can do anything you set your mind to! Tell that to my 5th-grade NBA dreams. The same is true of some financial advice. It sounds good as an inspirational quote but ends up being more or less impossible to pull off in real world for most people.
The Big Picture
MAY 1, 2025
I chatted with Jean Chatzky of Your Money Map about HNTI and some general investing concepts. As always, we did notget to all of them, but they were so thoughtful, I wanted to share them with you. *Lets start with the why. Many, if not most, investing books aim to teach people how TO invest. Your focus is giving readers advice on how NOT to invest. Why did you decide to take this approach?
Wealth Management
MAY 19, 2025
Learn how to protect clients from tax penalties and missed opportunities as international business travel increases. Maximize portfolio performance across borders.
Calculated Risk
MAY 2, 2025
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Fannie and Freddie: Single Family Serious Delinquency Rates Decreased in March Excerpt: Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in March was 0.59%, down from 0.61% February. Freddie's rate is up year-over-year from 0.52% in March 2024, however, this is close to the pre-pandemic level of 0.60%.
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.
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 15, 2025
Young advisors may feel – and face – an extra burden to prove their expertise to clients. After all, it can feel odd to create an estate plan that will impact a client’s grandchildren… when those grandchildren may be older than the advisor themselves! And while any advisor needs to determine how much detail to share when explaining strategic decisions, younger advisors may feel added pressure to prove their credibility.
Abnormal Returns
MAY 19, 2025
Podcasts Michael Kitces talks with Ed Slott about the benefits of becoming an IRA expert. (kitces.com) Matt Zeigler and Jack Forehand talk with Wade Pfau about the dangers of sequence of returns risk. (youtube.com) Advisortech How Robinhood's ($HOOD) robo-advisor works in practice. (riabiz.com) Basic Capital wants to bring leverage to your 401(k) plan.
A Wealth of Common Sense
MAY 11, 2025
It’s been a wild ride in the stock market this year: The S&P 500 was up around 5% on the year through mid-February. It was more or less straight down from there. By the end of the first week in April the market was down more than 15%, good enough for a drawdown of 18.9% from peak to trough. Now stocks are up nearly 14% from the lows and down less than 4% on the year.
The Big Picture
MAY 3, 2025
Fun conversation in Barron’s about Steering Clients Away From Bad Investing Mistakes. Douglas Boneparth of Bone Fide Wealth, Jennifer Li of EP Wealth Advisors, and yours truly. We discuss anticipating and thwarting the bad behavior where investors hurts themselves: “Avoiding bad choices lies at the heart of How Not to Invest , a new book by Barry Ritholtz , the founder and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, a financial planning firm with $5.6 billion in assets un
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
MAY 16, 2025
The move was accompanied by a set of FAQs on how to custody digital assets, and marked the latest step in the commissions effort to significantly reform its previous approach to cryptocurrencies.
Calculated Risk
MAY 14, 2025
From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications increased 1.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 9, 2025. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 1.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 19, 2025
Training programs for new financial advisors have traditionally followed a sales-focused, sink-or-swim approach that primarily paid on commission for product sales. While some of these programs still exist, the role of an associate advisor has evolved alongside the broader financial planning profession. In many advisory firms today, associate advisors don't begin with prospecting or running client meetings; instead, they start with back-end technical work, such as financial plan preparation, bef
Abnormal Returns
MAY 11, 2025
Markets The impact of macro events can take longer than you think. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) Why gold has a unique reputation among investors. (humbledollar.com) 2025 is not that unusual stock-market wise. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Berkshire Hathaway How Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A) came to own a big chunk of Apple ($AAPL). (readtrung.com) Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.A) is living with the downside of success.
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Advisor Perspectives
MAY 16, 2025
Consumer sentiment fell for a fifth straight month as ongoing economic uncertainty and inflation worries continue to drag down consumer attitudes. The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 50.8 in May, the second lowest reading on record.
The Big Picture
MAY 19, 2025
My back-to-work morning train WFH reads: The Stealthy Lab Cooking Up Amazons SecretSauce : The online giant bought a mysterious chip startup 10 years ago. It now looks like one of the smartest deals in tech history. ( Wall Street Journal ) Warren Buffett Reveals He Stepped Down After Finally Feeling His Age : The legendary investor, 94, opens up about his decision to hand the top job to Greg Abel; How do you know the day that you become old?
Wealth Management
MAY 19, 2025
Decoding covered gifts and bequests under the final regulations.
Calculated Risk
MAY 5, 2025
Early in February , I expressed my "increasing concern" about the negative economic impact of "executive / fiscal policy errors", however, I concluded that post by noting that I was not currently on recession watch. In early April, I went on recession watch , but I'm still not yet predicting a recession for several reasons: the U.S. economy is very resilient and was on solid footing at the beginning of the year, the administration might reverse many of the tariffs (we've seen that before), and C
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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?
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 1, 2025
Advisors spend a lot of time crafting their financial advice recommendations – and how they deliver those recommendations – for their clients. These ultra-personalized suggestions are central to what makes financial advice valuable and can have a significant impact on a client's life. So, what happens when a client doesn't act on that advice – especially when their inaction can compromise their financial and holistic wellbeing?
Abnormal Returns
MAY 2, 2025
Listening YouTube IS television. (vanityfair.com) Spotify ($SPOT) has paid more than $100 million to podcast publishers and creators YTD. (nytimes.com) The best podcasts of 2025, so far, including 'Odd Lots.' (vulture.com) Why Pete Buttigieg went on 'Flagrant.' (petebuttigieg.substack.com) Ken Rogoff Josh Brown talks with Ken Rogoff, author of "Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance and What's Ahead.
A Wealth of Common Sense
MAY 15, 2025
Bill Sweet joined me on the show again to discuss questions from our audience about harvesting gains in your stock portfolio to diversify, remote work for less money versus going back to the office for more, mis-timing the market and picking the right benchmark for your investments. Further Reading: How Long Does it Take For Stocks to Bottom in a Bear Market?
The Big Picture
MAY 14, 2025
A bonus LIVE episode of Masters in Business: I speak with bestselling author and financial journalist Michael Lewis, live, from the Landmark Theater in Port Washington, NY. Our wide-ranging, 90-minute conversation covered the full arc of his career, from Liars Poker to this years Who is Government. The informative and at times hilarious conversation included his experiences turning Moneyball into a film (including on-set hijinks from Brad Pitt), how his career as a writer evolved, and what he
Speaker: Aaron Berson
Managing spend is more than a cost cutting exercise – it's a pathway to smarter decisions that unlock efficiency and drive growth. By understanding and refining the spending process, financial leaders can empower their organizations to achieve more with less. Explore the art of balancing financial control with operational growth. From uncovering hidden inefficiencies to designing workflows that scale your business, we’ll share strategies to align your organization’s spending with its strategic g
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