Inside Information Newsletter

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2020

December 2020 In this issue...

• Practice Management: Real world experiences from real SEC remote audits. 
• Portfolio Management: How to calculate, with some precision, how much portfolio risk your cli¬ents can safely take.
• Marketing: A LinkedIn expert guides you through your social media marketing.
• Parting Thoughts: The CFP Board left out 'fiduciary' in its pro¬posed disclosure. How should we add it back in?

November 2020 In this issue…

• Client Services: How Tyrone Ross helps millennial clients plan for their digital assets
• The Profession: A new training program will help you relate to clients and get them to follow your best advice
• Practice Management: How to recruit diverse talent and man­age effective teams

October 2020 In this issue…

• Valuation firms have a value hierarchy for different revenue streams—and AUM is at the top of it. But adding a flat fee model for millennial clients, if done profitably, can add enterprise value to your firm
• It’s possible to determine a prospect’s risk tolerance with one image. The IPS pulls from a full suite of client onboarding tools, and the program also offers a robust way to stress-test your model portfolios under different market conditions.
• Custodians will tweak their revenue models and curtail soft dollar arrangements. Larger software firms will create platforms that compete with custodians, and advisory firms will have suites of consumer-facing apps on everything from banking and bill pay to insurance and cash management.

September 2020 In this issue…

• When people encounter stressful transitions or environments like the current one, they lose cognitive func­tion. Start by ‘getting on the balcony’ to see the big picture, and help clients defer potentially disastrous decisions
• Portfolio Management: A high-end portfolio management software solution at a midsized price.
• Client Services: The New Global Financial Planning Insti­tute offers specialized training for advisors who have clients living abroad, or foreign citizens living in the U.S.
• Parting Thoughts: How advi­sory/planning firms might adapt to a potentially-traumatic shift in their fee models.

 August 2020 In this issue…

• Create portfolios that will outperform a simple bond ladder in those dangerous rising interest rate environments.  Avoid certain sectors of the muni market and you leave behind 80% of the default risk.
• Marketing: How to automate the process of sending out con­sumer articles through social media
• Investing: The rank order of highest to lowest returning invest­ment categories is remarkably consistent--over time
• Practice Management: The Holacracy revisited 18 months later

July 2020 In this issue…

• With horrific videos of police brutality and energized rallies across the country, this feels like an opportunity for America to remedy some of its most long-standing social ills. How do these things translate to the planning profession?

• The Advisor Alpha Opportunity: What are the best practices for rebalancing client portfolios and tax-loss harvesting? A survey of the advisor community shows that the issue is more complicated than it might first appear.
• The Profession: Schwab and rivals introduced a new custodial revenue model. Pershing responded with a choice of three models.
• Client Services: Introducing the CBCV valuation model--a new way to value advisory practices and small businesses.
• Parting Thoughts: It's a new day at the Financial Planning Association. Let's all make sure that it's a bright one.

May 2020 In this issue...

• Code of Uncertainty: What is the real-world impact of the CFP Board's new fiduciary standards?
• Financial Planning: Have you heard that AI is the future? Here's a working version of it available today.
• Client Services: How to 'Max" your clients' cash return.
• Client Services: A tool that assesses client portfolios in two dimensions.
• Parting Thoughts: The light at the end of a very, very long tunnel.

April 2020 In this issue...

• Marketing for Hire: A remarkable number of marketing resources are now available in the advisor ecosystem.

March 2020 In this issue...

• Tech Extravaganza: The T3 Advisor conference in San Diego offered an early look at some trends—and a lot of new solutions.
• Practice Management: Here are some of the compliance outsource options that Inside Information readers are recommending.
• Conferences: Highlights from the recent NAPFA Large Firm Forum; thoughts about 'people' issues.
• Parting Thoughts: Some hard truths about you and your services that you will instantly recognize to be true.

February 2020 In this issue…

• Solutions, Not Products: Advisors who think all insurance products (especially including annuities) are a scam might want to take a look at how the industry is trying to meet their standards.
• The Profession: Notes and nuggets from the AICPA PFP Summit.
• Practice Management: SEI has quietly introduced an independent custodial platform for advisory firms.
• Parting Thoughts: Despite the recent custodial merger, the fintech space seems to be healthier than ever.

January 2020 In this issue…

• First Thoughts on The Acquisition: The two largest institutional custodians are joining forces. What does that mean for the profession, and
• what are the options for advisors looking elsewhere?
• The Profession: What do we really know about the culture of TDAI advisors' next custodial firm?
• Practice Management: Introducing an automated onboarding system (really).
• Client Services: An out-of-the box way to deal with the SECURE Act.
• Parting Thoughts: My fearless predictions for the profession's next decade.