Financial Planning

I've put together four steps to grow your client base – this month.

Can you believe these grifters hawking indexed universal life (IUL) insurance on TikTok? Here’s the actions I’m taking to put an end to this predatory nonsense.

Probability-based retirement income strategies are highly sensitive to the capital market assumptions used in Monte Carlo analysis. Seemingly small changes in those assumptions can mean the difference between projecting a comfortable lifestyle and financial ruin.

Tight monetary policy and rising government debt will drive a regime of high interest rates, depressing stock prices and destroying the wealth of clients, most severely those at or near retirement.

Build your ladder with multiple target-maturity ETFs representing different segments of the bond market, with different target years.

Even after a year in which the vast majority of the wealthiest Americans lost a chunk of their fortunes — and in some cases, lost big — in at least one way, they’re still coming out ahead.

I’ve learned a lot through my work consulting with advisors. Here are some marketing insights to help you plan for 2023.

I’m looking over my previous “trends” article, published at this time a year ago, and some of my ”fearless predictions” were outlandish then but now seem ordinary. That means I did something right.

As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read practice management articles over the past 12 months. Tomorrow, we will highlight the 10 best articles you probably missed.

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.

Here are nine tips that will help your family members stay healthy and financially secure as they age.

The research is clear: Americans are becoming less generous over the holidays. Not to sound too much like a Scrooge, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Allan Roth’s recent article, The 4% Rule Just Became a Whole Lot Easier, promises too much, makes inaccurate comparisons and blurs the notion of risk.

Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of trading in your traditional bank for a virtual banking experience.

I will use an example and an actuarial model to compare the efficiency of three strategies for strengthening a retired or near-retired client’s balance sheet under both a lower and a higher assumed future inflation scenario.

Confused about whether your student loans will be forgiven? Everyone is.

ChatGPT, the new AI chatbot, offers a short-term opportunity for savvy financial advisors. But it has long-term consequences for all advisors.

One thing to consider when opening a 529 plan is whether it should be a custodial or individual account. While both allow you to save for college costs and enjoy some tax breaks, they differ in terms of who has control of the account and the assets in it.

Here is a structure for the first meeting to make prospects feel understood.

“Verb sales” in retirement income, or in liability minimization, needs regulatory support immediately. By “verbs,” I mean selling services – such as financial planning – rather than “nouns” – such as investment products like annuities.

We’ve broken down nine of the best 529 plans.

More balanced risk strategies in PLIBs are likely to be optimal (e.g., 40-50% equities), although the ability to personalize the risk level is important based on the household situation and preferences.

Here are four questions independent financial advisors should ask before choosing a TAMP.

The following is a story about a company that’s become wildly successful by having an intense focus on consumers’ needs and behavior.

I explore some of the factors driving the superiority of PLIBs, in particular lapsation, mortality experience differences, accessing the equity risk premium, and the marginal role of annuities as part of a retirement strategy.

Let’s look at the powerful feature set an advisory firm could put together from a collection of the higher-rated, low-market-share programs and solutions that I’ve collected from past surveys, many of which you may not even be aware of.

How can advisors turn their clients’ focus from dollars to dreams? How can making a clear connection between their real and financial lives create a meaningful client experience and add value to an advisor’s service?

Financial planning can be opaque, vague, and perceived as non-valuable by the consumer. I’m about to give financial planning a transparency makeover.

The question most asked by investors late last year, as Treasury bill yields hovered just above zero was “Where can I go for yield?” followed soon after by “What can I do to protect myself from inflation?”

A planner who fails to follow their own advice is hardly going to inspire confidence in prospective clients.

You will lose clients and fail to gain new ones unless you make dramatic changes right now.

This article explores the efficacy of PLIBs against a retirement income strategy that does not include an annuity, as well as strategies which allocate to either a SPIA, a DIA, or a GLWB. I used a utility framework for this analysis.

Here are three ways you can add value in the context of insurance issues.

If you aren’t willing to niche, at least decide whether you are trying to help your clients thrive or survive. Then build a message around one of those themes. Are you selling them life rafts (survive) or sailboats (thrive)?

What does lousy value look like, and how do you overcome that?

This piece introduces the protected lifetime income benefit (PLIB) to describe an emerging category of longevity-protected solutions.

Lifetime annuities in concert with allocations to stocks, TIPS, bond ladders and other diversified investments help retirees weather changing conditions regarding inflation and interest rates.

The person responsible for translating the math chapter of my book, Wealth Management, into Japanese told me, “You give me much headache.” Welcome to the math chapter.

The succession plans that come off with the fewest disruptions are those that are implemented over an extended period, especially when the successors are not family members.

A matter that can have large impacts on the marginal tax rates faced by individuals who obtain health insurance coverage through the ACA exchanges is the reduction of the tax credits (or subsidies) for health insurance coverage as incomes increase.

What problem could be solved or what issue or challenge could be addressed that would offer wide appeal to the expansive advisor community? The answer that made sense to me was financial education.

Here are some suggestions to consider when remarrying.

There is a long history that proves ESG’s viability and more than 2,000 empirical studies that show little absolute difference in performance by adopting it as a criterion for analysis.

Are you just an educator or can you motivate prospects to implement your ideas?

Less than a month after I recommended that an organization – specifically NAPFA – set new membership standards regarding an RIA firm’s revenue model, one has risen to take up the challenge.

As veterans of this male-dominated industry, we have faced our fair share of challenges and uncertainty. However, that led us to venture out on our own and start solo planning firms.

If you believe that 1% of AUM is transparent, you’re overlooking one obvious thing. Most of your prospects struggle to do basic math in their head. Spell it out in hard dollars!

There is an adage about three generations of wealth – the first generation makes it; the second generation maintains it and the third generation spends it.

An old saying reminds us, “There’s no lesson in the second kick of a mule.” Once you have learned something the hard way, nothing can be gained by repeating the experience.

This year has been disastrous for stock and bond investors. But things are not as grim when viewed in a financial planning context that considers how the assets will be used, i.e., the liability or expense side of the household balance sheet.

The first and most important thing you need to figure out is what a potential high-net worth client is looking for when they come to see you.

The Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter is the leading authority on industry structure and competitiveness. His framework shows how RIAs should think strategically about the current state and future evolution of their industry.

Clients often assume that their need for life insurance ends when they stop working. I spoke with Neil Drzewiecki, the head of life products for MassMutual Life Insurance Company, about how whole-life insurance can play an important role in your client's retirement income strategy.

Is it time to move beyond I bonds?

It's no secret that delaying the start of Social Security benefits typically means you'll get more money in retirement. And waiting just got even more worthwhile thanks to the program’s big cost-of-living adjustment set for next year.

Reg BI is the most divisive issue in the fiduciary discussion and was a focus of the discussion during September’s event.

Your inability to recognize the biases you have prevents you from managing a more successful practice.

The sleeper hit of 2022 investing is about to lose some of its luster — but it still might be one of the best places to store your cash.

I know what you’re thinking: “Longevicide? What is that?”

Wealthy young Americans have lost confidence in the stock market as a primary vehicle for creating wealth and are increasingly turning to alternative investments to fund their futures, a Bank of America survey has found.