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1. The Rise of the Single Retiree: What Every Financial Advisor Needs to Know
Whether it’s by way of gray divorce, becoming a widow or simply not getting married in the first place, a growing number of retirees are single. The Census Bureau estimates 20 million to 22 million folks in the U.S. ages 65 and up are unmarried. That signals significant opportunity for advisors. Indeed, clients’ and prospects’ martial statuses don’t diminish their need for high-quality professional advice, but when it comes to singles everything from adequate estate planning to emergency reserves to investment portfolios to deciding when to take Social Security is amplified for singles. — Todd Shriber
2. The Nexus of Quantum Computing and the AI Trade
The ‘AI trade’ has become the organizing principle of global equity markets. Investors parse order backlogs at chip makers, model power consumption at hyperscalers, and debate whether the buildout cycle has years left or months. Into this conversation, a different question deserves more attention. — Christopher Gannatti
3. IPO vs. S&P 500: The Surprising Performance Gap Investors Should Know
When companies go public, it often creates an exciting story. But excitement at the IPO and results afterward can be two different things. Among widely recognized companies that went public since 2012, the typical IPO underperformed the S&P 500 over every period measured: a median 11% over five years versus about 102% for the index. The real lesson isn't that IPOs fall, it’s that results scatter. Over five years, the highest IPO gain measured was +568%. The worst loss measured was −89%. The S&P 500's range over the same windows was far narrower, roughly +66% to +115%. — Lincoln Financial
4. Your Second-Half Advisor Marketing Playbook: Two Moves a Month Through December
The first half of 2026 is behind you. If your marketing kept pace, great. If it didn’t, that’s okay too – there’s still enough runway to finish the year with real momentum. Samantha Russell and Susan Theder recently hosted an advisor workshop with one question at the center: if you only had time to do two marketing things per month, what should they be? We mapped out the answer for every month from July through December. Below is the full breakdown, with the specific actions, the reasoning behind each one, and what to do if you’re starting from scratch. — Samantha Russell and Susan Theder
5. A Case for Autocallable ETF Income
Today’s income-seeking investors are navigating some of the most demanding market terrain in years — think Australia’s Outback, Patagonia’s windswept plateaus, or Iceland’s volcanic highlands. A challenging, often punishing journey requires a vehicle built with a dependable engine and a chassis tough enough to handle whatever the road throws at it. — Calamos
6. Fixed Income for a New Fed Era with Kevin Flanagan
Kevin Flanagan, head of fixed income strategy at WisdomTree, discusses the emerging “Warsh cycle” and what a new approach to Federal Reserve policy could mean for investors. Kevin explains how a more streamlined Fed, with less forward guidance and less emphasis on tools such as the dot plot, could leave markets more dependent on incoming economic data—and more vulnerable to volatility as investors interpret each new signal for themselves. — Power Your Advice
7. Advisors: Claude Can't Pass an SEC Audit
Picture this: an advisor runs a Sharpe ratio calculation on Claude twice in the same week. First answer: 0.82. Second answer: 1.14. She uses the second one in a client presentation. Three months later, during an SEC audit, the examiner asks her to reproduce the calculation. She can't explain why the number changed. That story is more troubling than it might seem. When Anthropic announced Claude's enterprise rollout for financial services, the response was predictable: enthusiasm mixed with "why not just build our own?" The temptation to cobble together a ChatGPT wrapper or Claude API integration is strong. — Toby Wade
8. In the AI Age, Being Human Is Still a Financial Professional’s Best Asset
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping financial services, promising greater efficiency, automation and scale. But for all its capabilities, AI still lacks one essential trait: It doesn’t care. We were reminded of that in a recent client engagement that began with a simple tax review and ultimately uncovered a multi-year fraud scheme that no system—or prior advisor—had detected. The lesson isn’t that technology lacks value. It’s that the work of a truly effective financial professional goes beyond the data. It requires persistence, intuition and a willingness to dig deeper when something doesn’t add up. — Christopher Kamnitsis
9. Before You Buy an Annuity, Understand This First
Annuities often become part of the retirement conversation during major life changes, yet many people still aren't sure what they actually are or when they make sense. In this episode, I begin a four-part series designed to help you understand annuities before you ever evaluate a specific product. We discuss what an annuity actually is, why insurance companies created them, how they can provide retirement income, and why every decision should begin with your retirement goals rather than product features. We also explore accumulation versus income phases, tax deferral, and the questions you should ask before deciding whether an annuity belongs in your retirement plan. — Eric Blake
10. You’re Not Missing Wealthy Clients. You’re Missing Their Trusted Circle.
A financial advisor once told me he wanted to attract clients with $5 million or more in investable assets. He had the credentials. He had years of experience. He knew how to manage complex financial situations. But when I asked him where he spent his time, the problem became obvious. He attended general networking events. — Dave Lorenzo
11. When The Stock Market Becomes the Shock Market
The stock market has to go down sometime. Although “buy the dip” strategy has been popular, one day the dip will turn into a Slinky toy, taking itself down step by step until it reaches the bottom of the staircase. The Slinky was been around since 1945 but regained popularity in the first Toy Story film in 1995. (Thank you Google!) What do you do when clients panic? What panic? The last major stock market decline was in March 2020, during the COVID 19 pandemic. The S&P 500 declined about 34%. Before that, we had the 2008 Financial Crisis. Many people don’t remember them because the stock market has done rather will in the years that followed. — Bryce Sanders