Fiduciary Rules

Cryptocurrencies are the exact opposite of a prudent investment: They’re volatile, have little practical use beyond speculation and crime, often get lost or stolen, and lack the real-world cash flows that underpin the values of stocks and bonds.

Memorial Day deserves the great recognition it gets. Remembering the service of those who died for our country is a civic duty. This includes remembering, doing and acting in a manner that there is no doubt the character of military and finance leaders must be first.

RIAs can be paid to service trails-paying annuities without a broker-dealer.

The following is a hypothetical and fictional account of how big tech can disrupt the wealth management industry. A back-to-client focus is discussed. reminiscent of how Apple’s Mac OS empowered users and supplanted predecessor operating systems.

“I have been poor, and I have been rich. Believe me, being rich is better for the soul.”

Whenever I surf television cable news channels, I see the plethora of ads for financial planning. But they are run by companies that sell financial products or are owned by huge insurance companies.

The U.S. debt cannot be paid, even in inflated dollars. Serious inflation is inevitable that will crash stock and bond markets, in addition to devaluing the dollar.

I don’t care how many PhDs are going to argue against me; direct indexing is Wall Street’s attempt at squeezing more fees out of the America public using advisors as the pawns.

The SEC staff thinks that fiduciary care is irrelevant. It has no more value to consumers investing retirement funds than it does when they buy clothes.

Big Tech founders like Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet Inc.’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page have fashioned themselves as modern-day autocrats of business, thanks to the way they have structured their initial public offerings and voting shares over the past decade.

Many advisors would greatly benefit from scale yet are hamstrung by the very temperament that led to their success in the first place.

This is a hard time to retire. The market is down 7% from last year and the rate of inflation has risen to 8.5%. Both are brutal to your bottom line when you're on a fixed income. But buck up! As bad as things seem, odds are you are in better shape than your parents or grandparents. And if they got through retirement comfortably, so will you.

The surging popularity of direct indexing has led to confusion. Some believe it is barely indistinguishable from indexed investing, while others claim it is active management “in drag.”

Does the scenario below sound likely? If so, you are among the thousands of RIAs who are likely to lose significant assets over the next decade.

In this article, I will explain how to structure an income strategy that best serves the needs of constrained investors. Demographic, economic, cultural, and social forces argue for a new approach to retirement planning.

RIAs must align their communications, planning methodologies, and product set with the needs of retirees, especially women, whose chief priority is reliability of income more than return on investment.

You have to feel sorry for active managers.

The SEC staff has issued a statement saying to investment advisers that their fiduciary status is “extraneous.”

The academic evidence shows that selecting investments, such as mutual funds or stocks, based on past performance is a terrible idea. Use our premium membership service to forward this article to clients with your logo.

Reflecting on the history of our family office, our investing philosophy mirrors how previous generations built their wealth through farming. They patiently waited to harvest the crops they planted; we buy securities and patiently wait for them to appreciate.

This article provides an overview of the benefits of using a Nevada Incomplete Non-Grantor Trust (NING) as part of a business sale to reduce or eliminate state income taxes and capital gains taxes.

I’ll take an order of flat fees (otherwise known as retainers) with a side of financial planning. Customers are lining up out the door for this.

DeFi is creating a new financial system that doesn’t rely on traditional intermediaries like banks or insurance brokers, providing more freedom and creativity.

As a financial advisor looking to jump to independence as an RIA, you have two doors from which to choose.

Corruption is “a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy,” said a certain vice president, back in 2014. Now commander in chief, Joe Biden must confront a corruption problem unfolding on his watch: the spiraling costs of misspent Covid funds.

On March 1, two unrelated Securities & Exchange Commission actions set out the state of its thinking on enforcing the “best interest” and “fiduciary” standards.

This article outlines the necessary requirements to establish a Nevada family trust company and examines the core features and benefits it offers clients.

New data on consumer preferences and behaviors during COVID shows that the advisory firms face daunting challenges with respect to staffing, differentiation and – if they are private-equity backed – financing and maintaining profitability.

The 60/40 stock/bond allocation is ubiquitous, but that’s stupid because it’s just not right for everyone, especially baby boomers.

Advisors need to understand how crypto markets work and how to make crypto part of a balanced portfolio to take advantage of this opportunity.

Interest-only variable annuity policies have zero commissions, no surrender charges and low annual M&E and admin fees plus various subaccounts that span traditional and alternative investment strategies.

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.

This article, which is written for clients, explains that direct indexing portfolios are broadly diversified with individual stocks that are personalized to meet the needs, values, and preferences of an investor.

Bill Hench is head of the small-cap team at First Eagle Investments and portfolio manager of its small-cap strategy. The First Eagle Small Cap Opportunity Fund (FESCX) was established April 27, 2021.

Here’s rough justice: FINRA’s February 9 disgraceful report on broker-dealer breaches of Reg BI came out just as the Winter Olympics was tarnished by the politics of the IOC.

Jasmin and Ryan recently exchanged ideas about trading apps and new software that can help educate investors about key investment principles.

Which is riskier, bitcoin or Tesla? Here is the analytical framework I created to answer that question.

I have charged Ken Fisher with crimes against annuities. I will begin this proceeding by expressing my gratitude for his anti-annuity advertising campaign including its famous tagline, “I hate annuities and you should too!”

This article can be forwarded to clients to help them understand inflation, its causes, and how various investment strategies protect against it.

How would you answer this question, “What makes you different and unique from everyone else who does what you do?”

They might ease our fears or satisfy an inner need, but predictions about the markets or the economy are useless to our clients.

Interest rate manipulation has been achieved through massive money printing that is causing inflation. To control inflation, bond manipulation must stop. When the manipulation ends, bond prices will plummet, and stock prices will follow.

Large asset managers provide model portfolios for many purposes — as options in 401(k) plans, as blueprints for institutional clients and affiliated financial advisors, and as suggestions for unaffiliated investment advisors. These have the “lather, rinse, repeat” conflict of interest.

In 2012, an SEC director declared that conflicts kill objective investment advice. But this is no longer true, according to new guidance from the CFP Board.

A booming $4.9 trillion branch of the U.S. asset management industry is funneling investor cash into funds that are pricier and worse-performing than alternatives, new research claims.

Last year was a good year for stocks, but not bonds. The post-2008 recovery has been spectacular, one of the best 13-year U.S. stock markets. I provide details for the entire 96 years as well as five-year and 10-year sub-periods

The new year could bring a new you. Despite what the poets say, money, or at least financial security, can be one of the most important steps toward happiness. On the other hand, money mismanagement and debt can result in financial anxiety, which can cloud decision making and lead to a bad cycle.

Finding the right professional to manage your finances is challenging. Financial professionals have many different titles, certifications and qualifications, but which type is right for you?

Soon – within the next two years – the SEC will wake up and start holding financial advisors who use TAMPs to the same fiduciary standards they hold them to in selecting mutual funds, ETFs, and other investment products. When it does, many advisors will be in trouble.

A new study, which I co-authored, proves that a withdrawal strategy utilizing a reverse mortgage reduces market risk and increases portfolio growth.

As we close out the year, I’ll provide my top five advisor observations from my work with large and small practices.

The value for clients is higher with larger portfolios than small ones. The fees should be higher too.

It has been my tradition to informally rate the investment-related books I read in the past year. I have also included some novels and books of general interest. Here is my list of winners and losers.

Advisors breach their fiduciary duty when they fail to recommend guaranteed income products.

Can an investment advisor be a stakeholder company while also discharging its fiduciary obligation to clients?

The SEC’s form CRS fails consumers. CRS, meant to inform the public about BDs and RIAs, instead confuses everyone.

During his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that America should serve its soldiers long after they were done serving it. Coming just weeks before final victory in a gruesome civil war that killed at least 750,000, his words would become the motto for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Depending upon the decisions advisors make in the near term, their practices will either be setup for monumental growth or inevitable decline.

Here are three reasons marketing will get harder for financial advisors next year and beyond. Yet the situation isn’t hopeless. You can adopt strategies that make your marketing easier even with the changes on the horizon.

Behind every advisor’s success story is a well-laid and executed plan, which starts with effective goal setting. Let’s see how this works in action.

We’re all salespeople in some sense, fiduciary financial advisors included.