1. Myths of Working with Wealthy Clients
The vast majority of advisors and consultants would love to work less and make more money. The first step to make this a reality requires that you dispel the myths of working with wealthy client so you can find out what actually works. You will learn common misnomers and gain insight I acquired over the last three decades. — Annette Bau
2. Passive Savings Are Still Savings
The world is full of contentious debates and while it's often believed that the truly ornery among us reserve their vitriol for political discourse, there's some heat in the fund industry kitchen. Alright, so there's some hyperbole in there, but as index funds and exchange traded funds keep pilfering assets from mutual funds, the active vs. passive debate intensifies. As advisors well know, there are some important realities in this debate, not the least of which is there are times when active management serves investors and many well-built portfolios feature a blend of active and passive strategies. — Todd Shriber
3. Is Past Performance A Guarantee?
“Past Performance Is no guarantee of future of results.” Such is the disclaimer below every performance chart produce by the financial marketplace. However, as Jason Zweig recently noted, that warning has taken on a different meaning: “Being told that historical returns don’t ensure future success seems to make the typical investor rely on them even more. It’s as if the phrase ‘past performance is no guarantee of future results’ makes people think, ‘Well, if it’s no guarantee, then that must mean it’s just pretty close to a sure thing.’“ — Lance Roberts
4. Is Housing a Giant Bubble Again?
I’m pounding the table on homebuilder stocks. My research suggests you can at least double your money in builder stocks in the coming years. Many homebuilders went bust when the market turned in ‘08. Many more had near-death experiences. This seared one thing into their minds: Don’t overbuild EVER again. The number of new home starts recently jumped to their highest level since 2006. But builders are still being super cautious. They’re putting up just enough homes to meet demand rather than risk flooding the market. New data from top real estate analysis firm John Burns shows the number of finished homes collapsed 82% over the past year. Builders are in control of the most sought-after good in America today: homes. — Stephen McBride
5. Advisors Must Be Specialists, Not Generalists
If you are a boutique advisor, avoid the temptation to be a jack-of-all-trades. Compared with the brokerage days of yore, the modern financial services business can be summed up in one word: specialization. Some of this shift has to do with an evolving industry and changing client needs. Today's financial planners devote their time to helping investors budget before and during retirement, plan for the accumulation and distribution phases of their lives, calculate probabilities, and help with money-planning decisions over a lifetime. The bottom line is that the brokerage and financial advice business is now more focused on planning. More people need good financial planners than ever before. As a result, the industry has splintered into many types of firms. — Rob Isbitts
6. 3 Stocks That Could Lose Up to 87% In the Next Year
The markets have been on an absolute tear in the last 15 months. Since the start of 2020, the S&P 500 has gained around 40% despite a global recession induced by the ongoing pandemic. While the indexes are trading near record highs, there are few stocks that remain vulnerable in the near-term. Here, we look at three such stocks that have significant downside potential from current trading prices. — Finscreener
7. How Women Select an Advisor
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. That sentiment was coined by author John Gray as the title to his book about communication between genders in relationships. It illustrates just how different men and women are. These differences are also evident in financial matters. Men and women make their financial decisions for different reasons, including the selecting of a financial advisor. The selection of a financial advisor often includes the consideration of various factors. — Catherine McBreen
8. Reasons Businesses Should Consider Making Remote Work Permanent
The world shifted quickly and unexpectedly to remote work in 2020. It was a sudden shift, and it led to a lot of issues for businesses. Businesses were starting at different points as well. For example, some companies were much farther along with the management of remote work and cloud readiness than others. IT professionals had to deal with new security issues, how to implement technology to facilitate the best possible remote work outcomes, and device management. They had to rethink their cloud infrastructure and recognize their shortcomings in enabling remote work solutions. — Susan Melony
9. How Should Investors View the Recent Chinese Equity Sell-Off?
New reforms intended to relieve burdens on students and their families have created selling pressure in Chinese stocks listed overseas. On July 23, led by the private tutoring sector, the 286 American Deposit Receipts (ADRs) listed in U.S. stock exchanges lost 6.1% or USD 131.8billion of their aggregate market cap. According to the new rules, the Chinese government will no longer approve the setup of new private tutoring companies. In addition, existing companies which tutor school curriculum will be required to transform into non-profit institutions and will be restricted from raising capital on public markets or receiving injections of foreign capital. — Chaoping Zhu
10. Advisors, It’s Okay To Be Profitable
The first rule of business is “be profitable”, and that is a concept which appears to cause industry stakeholders some issues when it comes to judging financial advisory firms. That pisses me off to be honest. In any number of countries there is debate driven from government, consumer advocates, regulators and those with a vested interest in improving their own profitability to drive down costs in financial services distribution. The “Costs” that need saving is generally accepted by these industry stakeholders as being just the cost of the adviser in all of these arguments it seems, to the exclusion of almost all other costs of manufacturing product or services. — Tony Vidler
11. The Surprising Answer to “Do Your Friends Trust You”
Trust is an intangible. A retired advertising executive explained it’s earned bit by bit over time yet can vanish in an instant. Trust might be accumulated like airline miles, but you don’t get a notification when you’ve crossed an important threshold. What do we need to know about trust? If you have developed a circle of HNW friends and acquaintances, you probably want them to become clients. You feel awkward about asking for business because you need to transition from the comfortable social relationship into the uncharted territory of a business conversation. It can be easier than you think because of the trust factor. — Bryce Sanders