Target Date Funds

As dangerous as it is to simply extrapolate past returns into future expectations, an even bigger mistake is planning a financial future based on nominal gross returns, forgetting about how large bite expenses, taxes, and inflation will take from the bottom line. Use our premium membership service to forward this article to clients with your logo.

If you’re looking for a case-study in economic groupthink, try Googling the phrase “Fed behind the curve.” Informed opinion, it seems, has congealed behind a conventional wisdom that the U.S. Federal Reserve has been too slow to restrain accelerating inflation.

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.

Here are five winning tactics to leverage immediately for more online introductions.

Why do we still refer to so many firms in the advisory profession as broker/dealers?

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

Understanding how reverse mortgages can add value in retirement planning requires an understanding about the peculiarities of sequence-of-return risk that the reverse mortgage can help to manage.

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.

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

Neglecting non-financial assets, such as Social Security and pensions, will misstate the risk in a retired (or near retired) client’s asset allocation strategy.

Some observers assume I tell everyone that they should go down the RIA path. That is not the case.

A practice built on a stool of products, pricing and performance is doomed to collapse. Competent planning requires a focus on the deeper issues your clients face.

A bedrock of long-term investing, a portfolio split 60/40 between equities and high-quality bonds, is set for its worst monthly slide since the market meltdown in the early days of the pandemic.

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.

“I’m opposed to financial planning,” said no one ever. Yet most of us avoid financial planning, despite the best efforts of the financial media to extol its virtues.

Laurence Kotlikoff is a world-class economist who can convince you to pay off your mortgage and make you snort out your nose laughing at the same time; Money Magic is his compendium of life hacks aimed at leaving the reader wealthier and happier.

If a recently widowed client hasn’t fired you, then you are among a lucky few. Here’s a thought experiment that illustrates the vulnerability advisors face when they don’t engage the female half of a couple.

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.

Many of us fantasize about quitting our jobs. In 2021, more people than ever turned that dream into reality. The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that 4.53 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last November. This was both a new monthly record and the eighth successive reading above the pre-pandemic high.

Markets are weird right now. The value of risk-free assets has gone all out of whack, and if that doesn't seem scary, keep reading.

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

If we will experience a lower equity risk premium, how much lower of a premium will make stock investing unattractive relative to bonds?

In this article, I examine the history of 13-year returns on stocks and bonds to put the most recent 13-year period into perspective. It has indeed been extraordinary.

Our economic experience could be driven by a con game – a hustle.

As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read investment and planning articles over the past 12 months. Tomorrow, we will highlight the 10 most-read practice management articles.

Media attention has focused on the long-standing “4% rule” and how economic and demographic realities have reduced that guideline. This article discusses related considerations and provides opportunities for retirees dealing with the new normal.

Successful investors must answer three questions: Will we have serious inflation? Will interest rates increase? Will stock prices fall?

Clients struggle with making right the Social Security claiming decision. This article provides a six-step process to guide clients through the complexity of Social Security.

Service offerings that were premium yesterday may be considered ho-hum today. To keep your clients loyal and attract new business, you need to continually create “delight” with strategic updates.

If your marketing stank this year, follow these simple instructions and make 2022 better.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you are on, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act affects everyone financially and mentally, and advisors should prepare client money and minds for this historic (albeit non-transformational) event.

In this article, I share steps 2 and 3 of my three-step process for how I used surge meetings to turn my chaotic practice around and triple our revenue in three years.

Expected returns are derived in two distinct ways: from Federal Reserve actions, since it is manipulating bond prices, and from momentum, which is driving stock prices. How long can both last?

If you’re struggling to attract new clients, it’s because prospects have a difficult time differentiating you. Prospective clients face four realities that will overwhelm their decision-making process.

The fate of the global economy and stock markets rests on the successes of just a few megafirms that reside in the U.S. But have the prices of the world’s largest companies been bid up beyond what is reasonable and fair?

How can we quantify the value of our advice across the board? We can quantify the value of investing, but our tools are not aligned with the shifting advisor value proposition.

The 60/40 is not dead, will never die, and you can’t kill it. That won’t stop the financial media and investment firms from staging mock funerals.

The reason so many folks think they don’t need an advisor is because they had a bad experience with someone they thought was a financial planner who turned out to be nothing more than a salesperson.

Bond traders are boosting expectations for U.S. inflation to levels not seen in over a decade amid concern supply-chain bottlenecks and resurgent consumer demand will keep lifting the cost of goods and services.

Congressional Democrats are at odds over both the tax and spending sides of a bill to enact the bulk of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, putting in question the goal of party leaders to strike a deal by the end of the week.

Volatile, pandemic-riven markets for stocks and bonds has Wall Street ready — again — to declare the traditional 60/40 portfolio split a dead strategy. The prospect of a low-growth, high-inflation economy (stagflation) dims the prospects of both investment categories, and certainly demands a rethink of where to stash your savings.

Here is a discussion of taxes and legacy when estate tax is not a concern because asset levels are below the estate tax exemptions.

Money supply has quintupled in the past year, and because of this money printing, inflation is here for the long run. Inflation will force increases in interest rates.

Social Security’s shortfall grew by a record 18% in the last year. That $3 trillion increase means that it is more likely beneficiaries will face reduced benefits in the future, and the longer we wait the harder it will be to solve the problem.

The analytic framework for providing retirement income planning advice must use marginal tax rates and not tax brackets.

Last year, after the March market correction, I warned baby boomers against buying the dip. Since the market rebounded 100%, that was bad advice. But I double down on that advice today for the same reason.

Using a risk tolerance questionnaire to establish a retirement income strategy is akin to your doctor checking your pulse to measure your cholesterol. There is nothing wrong with checking your pulse, but it is an inappropriate test for the situation. We propose an alternative test – the RISA – to select the best deaccumulation approach.

Having counseled numerous clients through the retirement process, I realized there was a missing piece – purpose! To be happy, retirees need something meaningful to wake up for every day. Here are some resources – paid and unpaid – to let them do that.

My friend who works in an emergency room as a physician assistant recently told me that she’s ready to collapse.

Amid the deluge of headlines in the past few days about congressional proposals to boost taxes on companies and the wealthy is one that would affect regular investors -- and potentially alter the entire U.S. fund landscape.

It’s unfortunate but true: Influential Republican politicians are playing another round of political chicken that could easily lead to a damaging brush with default on the national debt.

Pooled employer plans (PEPs) are the latest 401(k) rage, but they can be an asset or a liability. The difference is in their qualified default investment alternative (QDIA).

House Democrats continue to search for a way to satisfy lawmakers who want to scrap the deduction limit on state and local taxes without losing progressives wary of a tax cut that would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy.

While robos are beneficial as they often invest in low-cost funds and ETFs, ideally, they should also include quality SPIAs and DIAs to simplify investment planning and allow retirees to spend more.

Here is an example that quantifies how strategic tax planning and delayed Social Security claiming can increase portfolio longevity in retirement.

The U.S. stock market is thriving, while China’s deteriorates. China could intervene to limit stock market losses, but it is not. Is China purposely losing a battle to win a war?

On August 24 and 25, we held our second annual Thought Leader Summit. Here is a short summary of each session and a link to watch the replay for CE credits.

A California county’s $21 billion pension is considering whether to drop Ray Dalio’s hedge fund after it underperformed for most of the past 16 years.