1. The Other Crypto Conversation Waiting for Advisors
One thing clients love to inquire about is “what's next?” and that's particularly true when it comes to disruptive, emerging concepts and technologies. Fintech is prime territory for the “what's next” inquisition. More to the point, with bitcoin commanding more and more attention, it's reasonable to expect clients are wondering what's in store for the future of the crypto space. — Todd Shriber
2. Satisfaction With Investment Performance Lagging in RIAs
When looking at their primary advisor’s performance, that is where things start to differ. Over 90 percent of clients who work with Full-Service Brokers, Independent Financial Planners, and Investment Managers feel their advisor’s performance is excellent or very good. Only 83 percent of those wealthy investors who work with an Independent Investment Advisor (RIA) feel that way. — Catherine McBreen
3. Prospecting and The Joy of Persistence
We expect instant results. We rarely get them. We’ve all heard the quote: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.” It’s been attributed to Einstein, but he never said it. Ditto Benjamin Franklin. There’s a case to be made for sticking with a strategy. — Bryce Sanders
4. Do Lead Generation Services for Financial Advisors Work?
Financial advisors understand the importance of a digital presence to generate leads. However attracting leads by establishing, maintaining and growing that presence is a challenge, especially when just starting out. Lead generation services help in this regard. But whether a lead gen service is right for you will depend on your firm. — Samantha Russell
5. Downward Facing Dogecoin. What To Make Of The Crypto Crash
Recent tales from the Crypto world remind casual investors of the risk of speculating. All of a sudden, it’s raining cryptocurrency. In other words, they are coming down in price the way rain falls in the tropics. Bitcoin is the most well-known, sort of the Band-Aid brand of this new crew of digital monetary species. But in recent weeks, the crypto-collapse has struck all corners of this speculation-ridden, headline-grabbing market segment. — Rob Isbitts
6. What Are Bond Investors Thinking? Their Three Top Concerns
Bond investors are worried, and who can blame them? From rising consumer prices to taper tantrums to climate change, there’s a pressing concern around every corner. Below, we share our risk assessments, as well as some risk-mitigation strategies. Plus, one bonus worry: bond manager technology (if you’re not worrying about this, you should be). — Scott DiMaggio and Gershon Distenfeld
7. Is The Retail Investor Rampage Over?
Unfortunately, investors are faced with a terrible choice. Invest in extremely overvalued, extended, and bullish markets and hope they can navigate the eventual turn. Or, they can sit on the sidelines waiting for the eventual correction to take on equity risk. In both cases, investors will wrong. The ones that pile in now will fail to navigate the turn as the “Fear Of Missing Out” keeps them allocated all the way down to the next bottom. Those that wait to get in will see the crash, and then stay out expecting stocks to continue to go lower. In the end, those that stayed in will eventually see their portfolio value recover, and those hoping to get in will still be on the sidelines. — Lance Roberts
8. How To Avoid the Slippery Slope From Empathy to Role Reversal
Successful financial advisors know that expressing empathy is critical in helping them to connect with clients and solidify their relationships. Clients need to know you understand their circumstances and what they may be going through at any given time. However, empathy taken too far can backfire when advisors find themselves sharing the same emotional distress as their clients, which can threaten their objectivity and compromise sound planning advice. — Don Connelly
9. With Wealth Transfer Commencing, Advisors Can't Miss Out on this Demographic Opportunity
One of the marquee planning issues advisors are increasingly dealing with in recent years is the epic transfer of wealth from older generations to their heirs. With wealth held by older generations – baby boomers and the so-called silent generation – at all-time highs and millions of Americans retiring by the day – the wealth transfer is already well underway and advisors are likely addressing it on an almost daily basis. At the end of the first quarter, Americans 70 and up controlled $35 trillion in assets. Putting that into context, it's roughly 17 Microsoft's with some change left over. — Todd Shriber
10. Manufacturing the Case for Infrastructure Stocks
If there is such a thing as a super indicator for timing equity market performance, Purchasing Manager Indexes (PMIs) that track manufacturing activity might be it. Not only are PMIs reliable gauges of the expansion and contraction of an economy, they are often invaluable predictors of the potential direction that financial markets take in the future. And while this goes for almost any asset class, sector, theme or factor you can think of analyzing, it may be especially true for listed infrastructure, the category of equities that is most closely tied to the structures and systems that form the connective tissue of the world’s economic framework. — Bill DeRoche, Mark Stacey and Grant Wang
11. How Financial Advisors Can Be Givers on Social Media
To give or not to give...that is the question. At least it should be the question when it comes to our presence and behavior online via #socialmedia. Think back to those days when we did business face to face and what made us attractive at social events like chamber of commerce mixers. Was it how cool your 'elevator pitch' was? I doubt it. — Mike Garrison