11 Most Read Articles of the Week!

1. A “Lost Decade” Ahead For Markets?

Is a “lost decade” ahead for markets? We and many others have discussed a topic regarding financial market valuations and forward returns. Now, halfway into 2022, all of a sudden, the “crazy talk” of valuations seems a lot less crazy as bear markets growl. — Lance Roberts

2. How Advisors Can Become Comfortable with Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a unique and emerging asset class, which has a few characteristics that make it really interesting. You have the upside associated with the technology. It's an uncorrelated asset class. And it's also scarce, which makes it a good store of value asset, which is why a lot of advisors Think about it like digital gold, we work for grayscale we're the world's largest digital digital currency asset manager ... — Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary

3. Should You Be Afraid of a Bear Market?

“The Bear is coming! The Bear is coming!” Indeed it is. Should you be worried? No, if you have heeded my advice and diversified your portfolio and set aside a cash reserve. You can actually stop reading now. For everyone else, the answer is “probably not.” We’ve been on the cusp of a bear market for several weeks now, which would be the 29th bear market in U.S. stocks since 1929. — Rick Kahler

4. Delivering The Intelligent Financial Life via Envestnet's Ecosystem

People's financial lives are really complicated things. And you know, you have your daily financial life, lots of things happening ins and outs, maybe more outside keeping track of it is really hard. But then you've got this other financial life, you're living about long term, what you're going to do, these things don't talk to each other. So as you connect the parts, you can connect the daily financial life with your long term goals, you can build the strategies that meet your needs to create a more intelligent financial life. And what I'm hearing is people want that they want that connectivity. — Bill Crager

5. The One Thing That Will Guarantee a Successful Future in Advice

Rather than being purely focused ‘in’ the business and spending all their time focused on the client work you deliver, the leadership team revisits the intentions and plans on a regular basis. Diarising time each month to focus ON the business, with a structured agenda to review performance and progress on their key projects (even if they do this without a coach), has a dramatic impact on the bottom line AND on the enjoyment that everyone extracts from the business. — Sue Viskovic

6. Eight Useful Analogies When Trying to Explain the Market

Like a cat, the stock market can often be inscrutable.  You think you have it figured out, then it does something contrary to what you expected.  As a financial advisor, you have seen this before.  For many clients, they are totally confused.  When this happens, they often choose to sit on the sidelines and do nothing.  You might feel taking certain actions would be in their best interests.  Sometimes an analogy might help. — Bryce Sanders

7. What Your Clients Are Really Worth to You

How much do you really think a good client is really worth to you? Most financial advisers will easily work through the basic formula of the average fee/sale per client multiplied by the number of transactions they have with you each year, and then multiplied by the number of years you expect to work with them. — Tony Vidler

8. The Role of the Advisor Has Never Been More Important

As we've seen in the last really two years, the role of the advisor has never been more important. And they are being asked questions that run the gamut for financial people's lives. From what happens with retirement. What do I do with savings investing with tax credit? We know what am I doing with my business? So I think the role of the advisor is incredibly complex has only gotten more complex, but they at the end of the day, are the hero to actually making their clients successful and feel comfortable and in their future. — Mary Ellen Dugan

9. Making Money By Losing Money

In these extreme market conditions, we tactical managers use a consistent process to poke around looking for one of two things: market segments that have potential to extend their existing upside momentum, or areas whose prices have been pushed down further than is warranted. And if there’s one thing that characterizes Wall Street these days (other than the usual hot air and useless advice on the part of many big-firm commentators), it’s how highly “correlated” the stock market is. So many zigs and zags together. — Rob Isbitts

10. 7 Financial Advisor Prospecting Ideas

Affluent clients want to meet their advisors through a trusted friend or another advisor. It is easy to get recommendations from existing clients who see your value when you have done an exceptional job. Warm introductions and referrals are generally the most effective lead gen strategies for financial professionals, insurance agents, and financial coaches. Because referrals are usually free, they can be an excellent prospecting strategy to grow your financial planning or wealth management business. — Annette Bau

11. Investors Don’t Really Understand Social/ESG Investing

Investors seem to be increasing their interest in social and ESG investing, however, their actual understanding of these types of investments is relatively weak.  Social investments started many decades ago and focused on excluding investments that supported “sinful” activities such as tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Since that time social investing has expanded and now focuses more on investing in companies that have strong environmental focuses as well as including social issues. To go even further, impact investing involves specifically investing in businesses that will benefit specific local communities. — Catherine McBreen