I’m having a hard time training one of our newer advisors on how to be a good listener.
I will demonstrate how financial advisors can combine behavioral finance and deep analytics to have a robust conversation with clients during financial turmoil, showing compassion and understanding on the one hand, while telling a compelling long-term story on the other hand.
Why would I work to increase the profile of an active fund manager? My reasons reflect the increasing pressure on advisors to differentiate themselves and demonstrate value.
Investors are terrified.
With stocks down around 20% year-to-date, it is important for investors to know what kind of bear they are dealing with.
Here are a few important ideas for my readers on making cold pitches and trying to gain traction in the market with those you don’t know and who don’t know you.
Howard Marks’s latest memo explores recurring investment themes to contextualize the current market correction and the bull market that preceded it. He discusses the role played by financial innovations like SPACs and cryptocurrencies and why he believes psychology, not fundamentals, primarily drives investment cycles – and likely always will.
My staff told me that we have “become totally focused on AUM and fees. It isn’t a nice place to work anymore.”
It will cost more than the gross domestic product of the entire world to rewire the global economy to run on clean energy.
I’ve done what many people dream of doing in their lives, but I’m ill at ease.
For the year ending December 31, 2021, passive mutual funds and ETFs reported estimated net inflows totaling $958.43 billion, compared to estimated net inflows totaling $249.91 billion for actively managed funds.
Meet a woman driven to change investment regulation and understand why it’s important that she succeeds.
He bullies team members, the other partners and most of our vendors.
Investing during a recession can be a very difficult, and often dangerous, prospect.
So here we are: When investors aren't worried about inflation, they're worrying about recession. Tech companies are announcing hiring freezes and job cuts in growing numbers. Homebuilders are starting to talk about slowing demand and the supply of existing homes is rising. Walmart reported this week that it has excess inventories.
Is it odd some newer people would have such negative things to say about me?
Advisors who use Dimensional funds are generally believed to more likely adhere to their investment strategies than their peers. A comparison of fund and investor returns calls this conventional wisdom into question.
The geopolitical crisis in Ukraine creates a stagflationary shock for global economies. The plan to fight inflation just got far more complicated for global central banks.
The issue is that she doesn’t listen. She interrupts clients.
“Don’t be bearish.” That was the message delivered by a Wall Street Journal article in August 2021.
It was quite a month.
We have a woman on our team who seems to enjoy stirring things up.
You will wear a therapist hat on top of your wealth manager cap.
In an ambitious new book, the economist Andrew Smithers rejects core “Newtonian” principles of economics, replacing them with radical departures from conventional wisdom. But as I will explain, some of Smithers’ theories fail meet the standard of empirical verification.
We were planning on an in-person event, but some of our team members were exposed to people who tested negative. How are firms solving for this issue now that we are not really back and still getting sick?
How bullish are we feeling? If the American Association of Individual Investors’ weekly survey is anything to go by, not very. It has been carried out for decades and is much followed as a measure of sentiment. Retail investors are simply asked if they’re feeling bullish, bearish, or neither.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on strategies to become more time efficient. Since that time, I have been inundated with advisors asking questions such as…
The “wisdom of the crowd” isn’t always wise to follow. A recent article by Scott Nations via MarketWatch made an excellent point.
For years, small accounts have been overcharged and underserved. I’m encouraged, however, by what I see some advisors doing, I wish the rest of the profession were inspired to similarly elevate the value provided for the price charged small clients.
When does researching someone’s background and looking for ways to connect become uncomfortable for a person, wherein they might accuse us of stalking them?
Did Goldman Sachs destroy a persistent myth about investing in stocks? Sam Ro recently suggested such was the case for the “sacred CAPE ratio.”
Federal student loan borrowers have been granted another reprieve, but for those who can afford it, the most prudent thing to do is to just fork over the money. Almost everyone has been taking advantage of the moratorium, which allows borrowers to press the pause button on payments without any interest accruing. Just 500,000 borrowers out of 43 million, or 1.1%, were still making payments a year after the freeze was initiated in March 2020 as part of pandemic relief efforts.
Last week we looked at four "stinking thinking" cognitive biases that contribute to poor investment decisions. Here are six more.
Recently one of our best advisors gave notice. He said we don’t “value youth.”
We are a service industry. Before we try to sell clients anything, we need to stop and consider what they want.
War in Europe comes at a time when the global economy was just emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
I’ll share some of the insights into how advisors can get the most value when they pay for training solutions..
Filling out your March Madness bracket provides insight into how investors select assets, structure portfolios, and react during volatile market periods.
"Travel on all roads and streets changed by +4.1% (+9.5 billion vehicle miles) for January 2022 as compared with January 2021. Travel for the month is estimated to be 240.6 billion vehicle miles." The 12-month moving average was up 0.30% month-over-month and up 12.7% year-over-year. If we factor in population growth, the 12-month MA of the civilian population-adjusted data (age 16-and-over) was down 0.1% month-over-month and up 11.7% year-over-year.
Advisors tell me they don’t have time to focus on what they need (and often want) to do.
I’m having an existential crisis with a few of my advisors.
This year's theme is #BreakTheBias and I thought it might be fitting to look at a few of the common biases when it comes to female investors - and how financial advisers can work toward better addressing some of these, not only with clients, but with their teams as well.
As a financial planner, it’s your job to help the client understand why certain investment steps are in their best interest when their intuition may be telling them otherwise.
I am interested in any guidelines on paying and compensating my assistants.
Your firm would take off if you could replicate yourself. The problem: You can’t.
Help your clients see beyond the weekly budget. Help them enjoy the things they want and need.
My father is about to celebrate a very big birthday. He retired at 60 and has been retired for 40 years. It makes me realize how very narrow minded we are in our profession about the way we speak about retirement.
The Rest of the Story was a radio show that aired from 1942-2008. Host Paul Harvey revealed little known facts that were previously not reported. The rest of the Federal Reserve story is that it is just pretending to be in control, and the rest of the Russian invasion story is about China and the U.S. dollar.
Tragically, life has been upended for those who were living in a peaceful Ukraine only a few days ago. Now their country is under intense military attack and creeping occupation. Many fear for their lives. Others have become refugees.
Navigating the career risk associated with bubbles (especially superbubbles) has always been tricky and is one of the biggest failings in the investment management industry.
We have the new program installed, but no one is using it.
Jasmin and Ryan recently exchanged ideas about trading apps and new software that can help educate investors about key investment principles.
Advisors can choose from five approaches to meet their clients’ income needs in retirement, each with its own merits and drawbacks. Those strategies attempt to solve for a central goal – ensuring that clients don’t run out of money – a risk that is illustrated by my wife’s catering business.
Advisors who reject bucketing strategies because they won’t invest as many as five years of assets in low-yielding securities are exposing clients to risks that threaten their standard of living in retirement.
Most analysts expected some action on interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2022 — but maybe not the five rate hikes they’re now pricing in. Inflation was clearly driving upwards, but we’re seeing much higher, more consistent price increases.
I’m not averse to having clients tell their friends and family about me; I’m just averse to making it sound like they need to do it because we need them to do it.
Most investors are probably less diversified than they think they are.
As a financial planner, I don't get paid just to develop financial strategies for clients. I get paid to help them put sound advice into action. Advice without action accomplishes nothing.
Near-zero, zero, and below-zero interest rates changed the incentive calculations and decisions from what they were a mere 30 years ago. You can’t look at policies or almost anything else prior to the early 2000s as a standard for today. The incentives of low interest rates have literally screwed (that’s a technical economic term) things up.
We have team members turning on one another because much of the new client servicing standards we agreed to set in place are not working.
I don’t know if we should downsize and move into a smaller space, give people the option to WFH and then lose the great camaraderie that has always made us so great.
They might ease our fears or satisfy an inner need, but predictions about the markets or the economy are useless to our clients.
I examine two biases that often handcuff investors and push them to make the wrong decisions at the wrong time.
Since DCF valuation and Applied Finance’s Economic Margin® Valuation Framework are often misunderstood, I thought I would address common errors and misunderstandings regarding how the investment community thinks about valuation.
What if the Fed can’t hike rates? It’s an interesting question and one we delved into in Part 1 – “Fed Won’t Hike Rates As Much As Expected.”
When assets get overvalued and get into crazy territory, explaining their overvaluation feels like playing this “infinity times infinity” game. But at least, if we line up different crazy valuations next to each other, it is going to be easier to distinguish levels of craziness.
The yearly paying out of lump sums to reward top talent is such a standard, established practice, questioning it may seem a little quaint. More than three-quarters of U.S. companies use performance incentives of some kind. Yet the fact remains, we don’t really know how well they work. Do they encourage people to work harder and smarter?
Recently one expert asked whether the letters I receive are authentic or perhaps I make them up. I’d like to use this column to address this and ask financial professionals to consider things we often don’t talk about in this industry.
Is the failure of the value factor over the last decade due to the inability of book value to incorporate so-called “intangible assets,” such as the intellectual property that has propelled companies like Amazon, Alphabet and Apple? New research provides the answer.
All 2-sigma equity bubbles in developed countries have broken back to trend.
Our advisors are good at what they do, but a couple of our best performers are terrible communicators.
Howard Marks’s latest memo considers one of investing’s most fundamental questions: when to sell. Howard explains that it’s foolish to sell because prices are up and because they’re down – and why, most of the time, staying invested is ultimately “the most important thing.”
Assuming the value that clients obtain from an advisor is distributed in a bell-shaped curve, the average client obtains considerable value from the average advisor – and even from a mediocre one.
I find it difficult to act as a social worker. I’ve no background in psychology. I’ve no skills to help warring couples find their bliss and agree on a center point when they have differing opinions.
Uncertainty has become an ongoing theme in markets, economies, and communities everywhere, and in this environment, PIMCO investment professionals gathered – virtually, once again – for our recent Cyclical Forum.
Here are my New Year “investor” resolutions for 2022.
We spent a small fortune in 2020 and 2021 on training for our advisors. We need them to get better at business building and finding new sales opportunities.
Here’s how advisors can maximize their event marketing ecosystem to drive more appointments from their in-person and digital events.
Millennials are growing up. After spending years splashing out on everything from skydiving excursions to Instagrammable vacations in Peru, 30-somethings with decent-paying jobs are making lasting purchases, buying cars, houses and everything inside them.
During bull markets, investors have a concise memory of previous bear markets. Such is why, throughout history, cycles repeat as lessons must get learned and relearned.
As we close out the year, I’ll provide my top five advisor observations from my work with large and small practices.
We need to do year-end planning but in past years it hasn’t gone well.
The Federal Reserve pulls forward rate hike expectations and doubles the pace of tapering in an effort to provide more flexibility to react in 2022.
Going to all cash in your portfolio to avoid a crash can be just as costly as the crash itself. A recent CNBC article quoted a $200 billion money manager suggesting “every stock market investor should be ready to go to cash.”
The extreme volatility from November 26 to December 3 caused many clients to panic. By using deep analytics, advisors can illustrate that this episode – and others like it – were not that unusual.
Why doesn’t my staff see my appreciation in action and how could they be upset about donations to organizations they care about?
Investor sentiment is one key to shorter-term market swings; with euphoria preceding September’s and late-November’s pullbacks; but better conditions in place … for now.
It’s that time of the year where we reassess relationships, segment our client activity and look at where we want to spend our energy in 2022. This year, the topic of centers of influence (COIs) has come up.
We mix up logic with emotion, data with information, and information with wisdom. Steven Pinker’s new book, Rationality, is a step-by-step guide to unmixing these and using hard-headed logic to arrive at useful conclusions.
How can advisors help clients who lack sufficient savings for retirement – those who accept the need to take on risk to achieve capital growth, but insist on a minimum income to fund essential expenses?
Behavioral Finance
When Advisors are Bad Listeners
I’m having a hard time training one of our newer advisors on how to be a good listener.
A Deep Analytic Perspective of the 2022 Market Correction
I will demonstrate how financial advisors can combine behavioral finance and deep analytics to have a robust conversation with clients during financial turmoil, showing compassion and understanding on the one hand, while telling a compelling long-term story on the other hand.
Why I Consulted with an Active Fund Manager
Why would I work to increase the profile of an active fund manager? My reasons reflect the increasing pressure on advisors to differentiate themselves and demonstrate value.
Investors Are Terrified, So Why Aren’t They Selling?
Investors are terrified.
Bear Watch
With stocks down around 20% year-to-date, it is important for investors to know what kind of bear they are dealing with.
The Doomed-to-Fail Marketing Tactic
Here are a few important ideas for my readers on making cold pitches and trying to gain traction in the market with those you don’t know and who don’t know you.
Bull Market Rhymes
Howard Marks’s latest memo explores recurring investment themes to contextualize the current market correction and the bull market that preceded it. He discusses the role played by financial innovations like SPACs and cryptocurrencies and why he believes psychology, not fundamentals, primarily drives investment cycles – and likely always will.
Are We Too Focused on Making Money?
My staff told me that we have “become totally focused on AUM and fees. It isn’t a nice place to work anymore.”
How to Push Wall Street to Ditch Fossil Fuels for Clean Energy
It will cost more than the gross domestic product of the entire world to rewire the global economy to run on clean energy.
How to Navigate the Crossroads of Success
I’ve done what many people dream of doing in their lives, but I’m ill at ease.
The Death of Active Management Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
For the year ending December 31, 2021, passive mutual funds and ETFs reported estimated net inflows totaling $958.43 billion, compared to estimated net inflows totaling $249.91 billion for actively managed funds.
Are You Selling a Verb or a Noun?
Meet a woman driven to change investment regulation and understand why it’s important that she succeeds.
My Boss is a Mean SOB
He bullies team members, the other partners and most of our vendors.
The Right Strategy Is Critical When Investing During A Recession!
Investing during a recession can be a very difficult, and often dangerous, prospect.
Welcome to Our Be-Careful-What-You-Wish-For Economy
So here we are: When investors aren't worried about inflation, they're worrying about recession. Tech companies are announcing hiring freezes and job cuts in growing numbers. Homebuilders are starting to talk about slowing demand and the supply of existing homes is rising. Walmart reported this week that it has excess inventories.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
Is it odd some newer people would have such negative things to say about me?
How Disciplined Are Dimensional Advisors?
Advisors who use Dimensional funds are generally believed to more likely adhere to their investment strategies than their peers. A comparison of fund and investor returns calls this conventional wisdom into question.
A Stagflationary Shock
The geopolitical crisis in Ukraine creates a stagflationary shock for global economies. The plan to fight inflation just got far more complicated for global central banks.
How to Be a Great Listener
The issue is that she doesn’t listen. She interrupts clients.
“Don’t Be Bearish.” The Inevitable End Of Bad Advice
“Don’t be bearish.” That was the message delivered by a Wall Street Journal article in August 2021.
When the Levee Breaks, Panic Is Not a Strategy
It was quite a month.
How to Prevent Office Gossip
We have a woman on our team who seems to enjoy stirring things up.
When Financial Planning Becomes Therapy
You will wear a therapist hat on top of your wealth manager cap.
Is a Rejection of Classical Finance Justified?
In an ambitious new book, the economist Andrew Smithers rejects core “Newtonian” principles of economics, replacing them with radical departures from conventional wisdom. But as I will explain, some of Smithers’ theories fail meet the standard of empirical verification.
How to Safely Return to In-Person Events
We were planning on an in-person event, but some of our team members were exposed to people who tested negative. How are firms solving for this issue now that we are not really back and still getting sick?
The Bulls Go Out to Pasture, and Netflix Gets Trampled
How bullish are we feeling? If the American Association of Individual Investors’ weekly survey is anything to go by, not very. It has been carried out for decades and is much followed as a measure of sentiment. Retail investors are simply asked if they’re feeling bullish, bearish, or neither.
Improve Your Productivity
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on strategies to become more time efficient. Since that time, I have been inundated with advisors asking questions such as…
Wisdom Of Crowds Isn’t Always Wise To Follow
The “wisdom of the crowd” isn’t always wise to follow. A recent article by Scott Nations via MarketWatch made an excellent point.
How Much Should Advisors Charge Small Accounts?
For years, small accounts have been overcharged and underserved. I’m encouraged, however, by what I see some advisors doing, I wish the rest of the profession were inspired to similarly elevate the value provided for the price charged small clients.
How to Research a Prospect Without Stalking Them
When does researching someone’s background and looking for ways to connect become uncomfortable for a person, wherein they might accuse us of stalking them?
Goldman Sachs Destroys An Investing Myth?
Did Goldman Sachs destroy a persistent myth about investing in stocks? Sam Ro recently suggested such was the case for the “sacred CAPE ratio.”
You Shouldn't Skip Your Student Loan Payments
Federal student loan borrowers have been granted another reprieve, but for those who can afford it, the most prudent thing to do is to just fork over the money. Almost everyone has been taking advantage of the moratorium, which allows borrowers to press the pause button on payments without any interest accruing. Just 500,000 borrowers out of 43 million, or 1.1%, were still making payments a year after the freeze was initiated in March 2020 as part of pandemic relief efforts.
More Cognitive Biases That Cost You Money
Last week we looked at four "stinking thinking" cognitive biases that contribute to poor investment decisions. Here are six more.
Dealing with Bias Against Youth and Gender
Recently one of our best advisors gave notice. He said we don’t “value youth.”
What Clients Value in a Financial Advisor
We are a service industry. Before we try to sell clients anything, we need to stop and consider what they want.
A Stock Picker’s Take On Investing Internationally
War in Europe comes at a time when the global economy was just emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
How to Get Value from What You Spend on Training
I’ll share some of the insights into how advisors can get the most value when they pay for training solutions..
What if Investing Were Run Like March Madness?
Filling out your March Madness bracket provides insight into how investors select assets, structure portfolios, and react during volatile market periods.
America's Driving Habits as of January 2022
"Travel on all roads and streets changed by +4.1% (+9.5 billion vehicle miles) for January 2022 as compared with January 2021. Travel for the month is estimated to be 240.6 billion vehicle miles." The 12-month moving average was up 0.30% month-over-month and up 12.7% year-over-year. If we factor in population growth, the 12-month MA of the civilian population-adjusted data (age 16-and-over) was down 0.1% month-over-month and up 11.7% year-over-year.
Finding Time When You Don’t Think You Have Any
Advisors tell me they don’t have time to focus on what they need (and often want) to do.
When Everything is Great, Why Worry?
I’m having an existential crisis with a few of my advisors.
Women Investors: 3 Things to Know
This year's theme is #BreakTheBias and I thought it might be fitting to look at a few of the common biases when it comes to female investors - and how financial advisers can work toward better addressing some of these, not only with clients, but with their teams as well.
The Intersection of Psychology and Financial Planning
As a financial planner, it’s your job to help the client understand why certain investment steps are in their best interest when their intuition may be telling them otherwise.
How Much Should I Pay My Staff?
I am interested in any guidelines on paying and compensating my assistants.
The Founder’s Dilemma
Your firm would take off if you could replicate yourself. The problem: You can’t.
Budget is a Four-Letter Word
Help your clients see beyond the weekly budget. Help them enjoy the things they want and need.
Talking to Clients About Living to 100
My father is about to celebrate a very big birthday. He retired at 60 and has been retired for 40 years. It makes me realize how very narrow minded we are in our profession about the way we speak about retirement.
What Awaits Behind the Russia and Inflation Headlines?
The Rest of the Story was a radio show that aired from 1942-2008. Host Paul Harvey revealed little known facts that were previously not reported. The rest of the Federal Reserve story is that it is just pretending to be in control, and the rest of the Russian invasion story is about China and the U.S. dollar.
Global Markets and Economy Can’t Escape War in Ukraine
Tragically, life has been upended for those who were living in a peaceful Ukraine only a few days ago. Now their country is under intense military attack and creeping occupation. Many fear for their lives. Others have become refugees.
Making Money And Reducing Risk In An Equity Superbubble
Navigating the career risk associated with bubbles (especially superbubbles) has always been tricky and is one of the biggest failings in the investment management industry.
Our Team Won’t Adapt New Technology
We have the new program installed, but no one is using it.
Can Your Digital Platform Withstand Regulator Scrutiny?
Jasmin and Ryan recently exchanged ideas about trading apps and new software that can help educate investors about key investment principles.
The Five Strategies for Retirement Income
Advisors can choose from five approaches to meet their clients’ income needs in retirement, each with its own merits and drawbacks. Those strategies attempt to solve for a central goal – ensuring that clients don’t run out of money – a risk that is illustrated by my wife’s catering business.
Why Critics of Bucketing Strategies are Wrong
Advisors who reject bucketing strategies because they won’t invest as many as five years of assets in low-yielding securities are exposing clients to risks that threaten their standard of living in retirement.
Volatility Is Rising. Here’s How to Protect Your Investment Portfolio.
Most analysts expected some action on interest rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2022 — but maybe not the five rate hikes they’re now pricing in. Inflation was clearly driving upwards, but we’re seeing much higher, more consistent price increases.
The Wrong Ways to Ask for Referrals
I’m not averse to having clients tell their friends and family about me; I’m just averse to making it sound like they need to do it because we need them to do it.
Why Invest Internationally?
Most investors are probably less diversified than they think they are.
Seeing Money Behaviors Through My Clients’ Eyes
As a financial planner, I don't get paid just to develop financial strategies for clients. I get paid to help them put sound advice into action. Advice without action accomplishes nothing.
Financialized Everything
Near-zero, zero, and below-zero interest rates changed the incentive calculations and decisions from what they were a mere 30 years ago. You can’t look at policies or almost anything else prior to the early 2000s as a standard for today. The incentives of low interest rates have literally screwed (that’s a technical economic term) things up.
Our Team is Fighting Over New Procedures
We have team members turning on one another because much of the new client servicing standards we agreed to set in place are not working.
The Highs and Lows of 2021
I don’t know if we should downsize and move into a smaller space, give people the option to WFH and then lose the great camaraderie that has always made us so great.
Ignore the Gurus and Educate Your Clients
They might ease our fears or satisfy an inner need, but predictions about the markets or the economy are useless to our clients.
Fear and Greed: An Investor’s Worst Enemies
I examine two biases that often handcuff investors and push them to make the wrong decisions at the wrong time.
Deciphering Valuation
Since DCF valuation and Applied Finance’s Economic Margin® Valuation Framework are often misunderstood, I thought I would address common errors and misunderstandings regarding how the investment community thinks about valuation.
Fed Rate Hikes & Risks Of Financial Instability – Part II
What if the Fed can’t hike rates? It’s an interesting question and one we delved into in Part 1 – “Fed Won’t Hike Rates As Much As Expected.”
I Kid You Not Crazy
When assets get overvalued and get into crazy territory, explaining their overvaluation feels like playing this “infinity times infinity” game. But at least, if we line up different crazy valuations next to each other, it is going to be easier to distinguish levels of craziness.
A Bonus Matters More When Its Size Is a Pleasant Surprise: Sarah Green Carmichael
The yearly paying out of lump sums to reward top talent is such a standard, established practice, questioning it may seem a little quaint. More than three-quarters of U.S. companies use performance incentives of some kind. Yet the fact remains, we don’t really know how well they work. Do they encourage people to work harder and smarter?
Advisors Are People Too!
Recently one expert asked whether the letters I receive are authentic or perhaps I make them up. I’d like to use this column to address this and ask financial professionals to consider things we often don’t talk about in this industry.
Do Intangible Assets Explain the Failure of the Value Factor?
Is the failure of the value factor over the last decade due to the inability of book value to incorporate so-called “intangible assets,” such as the intellectual property that has propelled companies like Amazon, Alphabet and Apple? New research provides the answer.
Let The Wild Rumpus Begin
All 2-sigma equity bubbles in developed countries have broken back to trend.
Watch Those Ums and Ahs
Our advisors are good at what they do, but a couple of our best performers are terrible communicators.
Selling Out
Howard Marks’s latest memo considers one of investing’s most fundamental questions: when to sell. Howard explains that it’s foolish to sell because prices are up and because they’re down – and why, most of the time, staying invested is ultimately “the most important thing.”
How Much Value do Advisors Add for the Typical Client?
Assuming the value that clients obtain from an advisor is distributed in a bell-shaped curve, the average client obtains considerable value from the average advisor – and even from a mediocre one.
Should Advisors Be Therapists and Life Coaches?
I find it difficult to act as a social worker. I’ve no background in psychology. I’ve no skills to help warring couples find their bliss and agree on a center point when they have differing opinions.
Investing in a Fast‑Moving Cycle
Uncertainty has become an ongoing theme in markets, economies, and communities everywhere, and in this environment, PIMCO investment professionals gathered – virtually, once again – for our recent Cyclical Forum.
New Year “Investor” Resolutions For 2022
Here are my New Year “investor” resolutions for 2022.
How to Make Training Effective in 2022
We spent a small fortune in 2020 and 2021 on training for our advisors. We need them to get better at business building and finding new sales opportunities.
How Advisors can Optimize Event Marketing
Here’s how advisors can maximize their event marketing ecosystem to drive more appointments from their in-person and digital events.
Millennials Are Finally Spending Like Grown-Ups
Millennials are growing up. After spending years splashing out on everything from skydiving excursions to Instagrammable vacations in Peru, 30-somethings with decent-paying jobs are making lasting purchases, buying cars, houses and everything inside them.
Bull Markets & Why We Repeat Our Mistakes
During bull markets, investors have a concise memory of previous bear markets. Such is why, throughout history, cycles repeat as lessons must get learned and relearned.
My Top Five Insights from 2021
As we close out the year, I’ll provide my top five advisor observations from my work with large and small practices.
Best Practices for Year-End Planning
We need to do year-end planning but in past years it hasn’t gone well.
Fed Focused on Getting Back Toward Neutral
The Federal Reserve pulls forward rate hike expectations and doubles the pace of tapering in an effort to provide more flexibility to react in 2022.
Going To Cash Can Be As Costly As A Market Crash
Going to all cash in your portfolio to avoid a crash can be just as costly as the crash itself. A recent CNBC article quoted a $200 billion money manager suggesting “every stock market investor should be ready to go to cash.”
Using Deep Analytics to Align Risk Perception
The extreme volatility from November 26 to December 3 caused many clients to panic. By using deep analytics, advisors can illustrate that this episode – and others like it – were not that unusual.
Are Donations an Appropriate Holiday Gift?
Why doesn’t my staff see my appreciation in action and how could they be upset about donations to organizations they care about?
Moving in Stereo: Churn and Rotations Causing Swings in Sentiment
Investor sentiment is one key to shorter-term market swings; with euphoria preceding September’s and late-November’s pullbacks; but better conditions in place … for now.
Why Your COIs Don’t Refer Back to You
It’s that time of the year where we reassess relationships, segment our client activity and look at where we want to spend our energy in 2022. This year, the topic of centers of influence (COIs) has come up.
Steven Pinker’s Instruction Manual for Your Brain
We mix up logic with emotion, data with information, and information with wisdom. Steven Pinker’s new book, Rationality, is a step-by-step guide to unmixing these and using hard-headed logic to arrive at useful conclusions.
Resolving the Conflicting Demands of the Optimistic Pessimist
How can advisors help clients who lack sufficient savings for retirement – those who accept the need to take on risk to achieve capital growth, but insist on a minimum income to fund essential expenses?