Fiduciary Rules

April is Financial Literacy month, but all that elicits from the advice industry is a collective yawn.

PE will remain a factor in the RIA space for years to come, but it’s not for everyone.

Twitter Inc. has ceased to be an independent company after merging with a newly formed shell firm called X Corp., driving speculation about what Elon Musk intends for the social media platform.

Here are the core tenets I share with advisors who are trying to carve their niche and stand out – the best practices to beef up your marketing efforts in 2023.

The changes inside SECURE 2.0 range from new rules related to 529 college savings plans to when retirees should take their required minimum distributions (RMDs). With so much to sort through, advisors may be overlooking some of the details of the act.

It’s rarely mentioned, but it’s stunning how often the financial planning profession has foreshadowed the evolution of our social environment.

The importance of Biden’s veto to save the DOL rule was not about assessing ESG factors. It was about affirming the role of the fiduciary in investment advice.

I’ll explore four tools and strategies you can leverage to improve how your site ranks in search engines to reach your clients and prospects more effectively.

If you work with boomer-generation women, are you properly responding to their need for lifetime income? Consider this parable.

My “five-step investment process” provides an ongoing systematic framework for making portfolio decisions, and further incorporating financial planning and tax considerations into overall portfolio construction.

Let’s explore whether the CFP Board, the most powerful and prominent organization supporting the advisory profession, can do more to support the adoption of a full fiduciary standard. We’ll also ask whether the CFP Board actually owns the trademark for “certified financial planner,” as it claims.

In failing to hold all those who provide financial advice to a comprehensive fiduciary standard, the SEC enacted Reg BI to enforce a “best interest” standard. Do your clients understand what that means and its implications?

Given that $26 billion will be spent this year on Valentine’s Day, imagine if RIAs spent a tiny fraction of that to explain fiduciary relationships to the public.

One of many things to break in last year’s market rout was a decade-long stretch in which gains in stocks overwhelmed gains in wages.

I am often asked by advisors who are RIAs or are considering the model how they should explain that choice to their clients.

Making more money by directing someone to a product or solution shouldn’t be a goal. Even if the potential reduction in revenue to the firm is sizable in the near term, it’s more important to ensure that the client reaches their financial life goals.

The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply troubling.

Investors need body cameras. The horrifying images of five police officers beating Tyre Nichols were possible only because of the transparency of police body cameras. Words cannot do justice to what happened to Nichols, but they offer a lesson for the need for transparency in the regulation of advice.

It’s big news that Envestnet is moving into the RIA custodial space and will soon be competing head-to-head with its biggest integration partners: an expanded Schwab platform, Fidelity and Pershing. I suspect that this is just the first of many so-called software “platforms” that will jump into the custody competition.

Southwest Airlines cancelled 16,000 holiday flights. It will cost the airline dearly in reputational rage and lawsuits. Will massive Reg BI compliance failures cost BDs?

Advisors must redesign their entire approach, starting from the client's point of view.

Let me share a story of an RIA who will be forced to mount a legal defense because of a lawsuit that is likely to be filed by two of his retired clients.

The process by which advisors select a TAMP is the latest illustration of fiduciary failure, and the SEC has responded with ominous rulemaking that will have questionable value to our profession.

Welcome to tax season, TikTok edition.

An OCIO can deliver vastly expanded investment capabilities while seamlessly alleviating the burden of investment infrastructure, operations back-office, and administrative tasks, freeing up advisors’ time for vital client-facing and relationship-building activities.

I’m looking over my previous “trends” article, published at this time a year ago, and some of my ”fearless predictions” were outlandish then but now seem ordinary. That means I did something right.

As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read practice management articles over the past 12 months. Tomorrow, we will highlight the 10 best articles you probably missed.

At a recent climate-finance meeting attended by Wall Street giants including BlackRock Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., no one spoke until a lawyer had finished reading out a disclaimer stating the group was not a cartel.

The SEC’s 2022 actions on fiduciary care are a reminder why a “real fiduciary” standard will only thrive if advisors and planners make it so. Regulators cannot. It’s is not their job.

Slowly but surely, bond haters are vanishing across Wall Street — even as fresh market havoc remains a distinct possibility next year if still-raging inflation forces the Federal Reserve to ramp up policy tightening anew.

Now I know why people ignore my warnings about those who claim they can predict the markets.

Let’s look at four keys to building trust through deeper relationships.

If you lose your job, what emotional and professional support should you expect from your financial planner?

What problem could be solved or what issue or challenge could be addressed that would offer wide appeal to the expansive advisor community? The answer that made sense to me was financial education.

I proclaim the pending demise of the independent broker-dealer model.

The political news culture that favors words over deeds, clicks over content and headlines over discussion effects fiduciary care. We are at a low ebb.

Less than a month after I recommended that an organization – specifically NAPFA – set new membership standards regarding an RIA firm’s revenue model, one has risen to take up the challenge.

Buying a dividend is a market-structure risk that costs investors billions in unnecessary taxation.

The final day to get Series I savings bonds at a record 9.62% yield has come and gone.

Life Insurance Awareness Month just wrapped up in September. It’s a good time to dispel some common myths around this important financial product.

Reg BI is the most divisive issue in the fiduciary discussion and was a focus of the discussion during September’s event.

For some bankers, net-zero is like a new year’s resolution—a pledge one makes and often breaks before a year has passed.

Yields on popular Series I savings bonds — intended to protect consumers against price increases — are likely heading down even as inflation continues to surge.

It’s an awkward question, because the last thing you want to do is defend or sell yourself against another advisor.

Democracy is under attack, yet many Americans fail to see the threat, according to Seth Klarman. Leadership must come from the business community to respond to this challenge.

Kids are expensive. Full stop. No matter your level of frugality, it's certainly costlier to have kids than to opt to be child-free.

The CFP Board has strayed from its mission of improving life for the consumer. Instead, it is generating as much confusion as possible for the furthering of its own interests. Make no mistake – transparency is not on its agenda. This is a massive disservice to the public.

Instead of focusing on the advantages fiduciary standards would provide to the profession, lobbyists who represent advisors should point to the catastrophic failures of the perverse incentives embedded in the brokerage business model.