Financial Planning

Homeowners should take a total-balance-sheet view when evaluating options for their mortgage.

Is long-term strategic investing out the window? To earn returns in today’s market, you need a team that will rethink your investment philosophy and strategy.

The executive order signed by President Biden in March is clearly the first of several steps that will bring the IRS and regulators closer to your crypto wallet.

Meet a woman driven to change investment regulation and understand why it’s important that she succeeds.

How are advisors coping with the new Department of Labor (DOL) rollover rules? Here are a dozen observations.

Advisors can help the sandwich generation assess their risk for LTC and protect financial goals with the right approach to insurance.

Every advisor will agree with the goal of giving their clients peace of mind. But there’s mounting evidence few actually do. Why is that?

RIAs can be paid to service trails-paying annuities without a broker-dealer.

A fatal shortcoming lies beneath the academic papers that have relied upon “back-testing” to promote the 4% rule. Use our Premium membership service to add your logo and send this to clients.

There are thousands of mutual funds that offer to select stocks and bonds for your portfolio. But which ones are right for you? Use our Premium membership service to add your logo and a note from you and forward it to your clients.

Whenever I surf television cable news channels, I see the plethora of ads for financial planning. But they are run by companies that sell financial products or are owned by huge insurance companies.

This article explores the benefits of annuities with lower explicit fees, a category I dubbed as “annuities Lite” in a previous article that focused on GLWBs.

It’s been a brutal stretch for retail traders. Stocks are approaching a bear market. A selloff wiped $200 billion off cryptocurrencies in a single day. And Morgan Stanley found that amateur investors who jumped into the market when lockdowns began in 2020 have lost all their gains.

“That’s a great stock; I think I’ll take a big position in my portfolio.” That’s how all too many investors make their investment decisions. Mistake, big mistake. Use our Premium membership service to send this to clients and prospects with your firm’s logo.

Surging inflation showed little sign of abating last month, indicating that grocery bills will keep going up, markets will remain volatile and investors will continue to feel pain in their 401(k)s.

Since President Joe Biden was elected, millions of Americans with student loan debt have waited for him to fulfill a campaign promise of forgiving at least $10,000 per borrower. While Biden recently extended the payment moratorium for the loans until Aug. 31, pressure is mounting on the administration as the midterm elections approach.

I don’t care how many PhDs are going to argue against me; direct indexing is Wall Street’s attempt at squeezing more fees out of the America public using advisors as the pawns.

Retirement is the most important goal clients discuss over the course of their professional relationship with advisors. One key piece is the way in which taxes are paid.

What does meditation have to do with money? By becoming aware of our thoughts and feelings, we are more likely to make financial decisions that are consistent with our values, life aspirations, and authentic goals.

Larry Swedroe and Sam Adams’ new book, Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing, resolves the confusion in sustainable investing.

Unless RIAs modify their communications strategies, the failure to address the need for retirement income communications will be felt for years.

“Agents are standing by” to help your clients make one of the most pivotal financial decisions of their retirement… a decision that will blindside you as their advisor and throw even the most carefully crafted retirement plan for a loss. Sometimes, a very big loss.

From organizing your closet to deep cleaning your kitchen, we're sure there's plenty for you to do. But we've got one more item to add to your list – spring clean your business plan.

You will wear a therapist hat on top of your wealth manager cap.

Here is the just released our 2022 T3/Inside Information Software Survey. It ranks, by market share, the leading software solutions in advisory-firm tech stacks in 35 different categories.

Forward-thinking advisors have been searching for and employing analytics very carefully. This series will explore some of these metrics, along with their benefits and pitfalls. Today’s topic is capital markets assumptions.

Imagine that you have joined some friends for a day of fishing. About two miles offshore, you sense that something is wrong. The small, single engine boat’s handling has changed. There seems to be more. Use our premium service to add your company’s logo and send this to clients.

Markets don’t have feelings or morals. They do not care what an investor needs and there is no investment or strategy that has consistently provided returns well in excess of those earned in the broad markets. Use our premium service to add your company’s logo and send this to clients.

Many advisors would greatly benefit from scale yet are hamstrung by the very temperament that led to their success in the first place.

Here are five ways to win new business and clients for life by creating urgency, so your prospects want to create a financial plan now with you.

Only 5% to 6% of people 50 and older include charitable giving in their wills.

Each April, we are moved by hope – it is financial literacy month. To help close the growing savings gap, we strongly feel financial literacy and better knowledge of retirement and financial planning fundamentals are critical to securing more stable financial futures.

Your firm’s digital messaging and visual expression must all align with your ideal clients’ needs, goals and objectives. Here is how four top advisors achieved that goal.

Hire before you need help. You’ll win no awards for all the extra work you’re doing.

Our words help us dress up or dress down for the occasion.

Depending upon the annuity that is being recommended and its purpose, your discovery process should include these questions. This article is written for clients and can be forwarded to them using our Premium Membership Service.

Millennials took one look at their financial future and, early on, realized it was bleak. The YOLO generation started saving for retirement — stuffing away money in 401(k)-type accounts — nine years earlier than their baby boomer parents did, according to a new study.

Can I afford to retire? Is it the right time? Here is how I answer those questions from my clients.

Comparing advisors to big-rig truck drivers makes more sense that you think, once you consider the eerie similarities in their business models.

Does the scenario below sound likely? If so, you are among the thousands of RIAs who are likely to lose significant assets over the next decade.

While the lower fees associated with GLWB Lite products make them seem more attractive, the expected income is significantly lower than other annuities.

In this article, I will explain how to structure an income strategy that best serves the needs of constrained investors. Demographic, economic, cultural, and social forces argue for a new approach to retirement planning.

RIAs must align their communications, planning methodologies, and product set with the needs of retirees, especially women, whose chief priority is reliability of income more than return on investment.

For years, small accounts have been overcharged and underserved. I’m encouraged, however, by what I see some advisors doing, I wish the rest of the profession were inspired to similarly elevate the value provided for the price charged small clients.

In my work with clients, one of the most important services I provide, in addition to coaching on finance, estate planning, and investing, is facilitating cross-generational conversations about what it means to have wealth, and especially about what it means to use wealth wisely.

Federal student loan borrowers have been granted another reprieve, but for those who can afford it, the most prudent thing to do is to just fork over the money. Almost everyone has been taking advantage of the moratorium, which allows borrowers to press the pause button on payments without any interest accruing. Just 500,000 borrowers out of 43 million, or 1.1%, were still making payments a year after the freeze was initiated in March 2020 as part of pandemic relief efforts.

Most Americans say the most important problem facing the country is inflation — and President Joe Biden just made it worse. His administration announced last week it would extend yet again the emergency suspension of student loan repayments, even as his frenemies on the left are urging a program of complete forgiveness of all student debt.

As dangerous as it is to simply extrapolate past returns into future expectations, an even bigger mistake is planning a financial future based on nominal gross returns, forgetting about how large bite expenses, taxes, and inflation will take from the bottom line. Use our premium membership service to forward this article to clients with your logo.

Watch replays for CE credit. We recap the webinars presented at our Market Outlook Summit.

I discuss cultural and technical challenges and ideas that will lead to a successful client relationship when working with this group of great clients.

While putting together a marketing plan is more complex than reading an article, here are three important pieces of advice to get female solo practitioners started.

We are a service industry. Before we try to sell clients anything, we need to stop and consider what they want.

I’m one of the 45 million foreign-born individuals who now call the U.S. home. I knew enough about budgeting, but struggled with financial decisions from day one, as this was a completely new system to me.

This article provides an overview of the benefits of using a Nevada Incomplete Non-Grantor Trust (NING) as part of a business sale to reduce or eliminate state income taxes and capital gains taxes.

After spending many years in the planning profession, I’ve found that advisors place superfluous importance on speaking intelligently and comprehensively.

Geopolitical upheaval and rapid inflation have driven volatility and, with that, questions from clients about whether to reposition portfolios defensively. In my wide-ranging conversation with Harold Evensky, he explained how he responds to fears that this time is different.

I’ll take an order of flat fees (otherwise known as retainers) with a side of financial planning. Customers are lining up out the door for this.

For decades, financial experts like myself have implored clients to have a health care power of attorney. Now, some health care experts say you don’t need one because they don’t work.

The pandemic pushed millions of older Americans out of the labor force. It should have spawned a surge in Social Security benefits applications — but it hasn’t. Perhaps because they aren’t retired.

ICYMI: In this roundup, we’re highlighting the five most popular pieces of content from the previous week.

Here are five winning tactics to leverage immediately for more online introductions.

DeFi is creating a new financial system that doesn’t rely on traditional intermediaries like banks or insurance brokers, providing more freedom and creativity.

We describe how an intentional and sustainable vision for diversity and inclusion at Wealthspire took form.

According to Sports Pro, 112 million people tuned in to watch the Bengals play the Rams in the 2022 Super Bowl. If two formerly mediocre, schlocky franchises can turn that many heads, there’s no way advisors shouldn’t be using more sports in their marketing.