Inside Information

This looks like a pretty good issue of Financial Planning, but... You'll notice question marks where page numbers are normally inserted. I didn't receive my issue in the mail, and asked others for page numbers, and the handful of people I called hadn't yet received theirs either. Some of them DID receive the April issue, however. I have no good explanation.

But you have links to all the articles here, including some common sense advice from Martin Shenkman on clients' insurance policies, a tech overview by Joel Bruckenstein, some good practice management advice from Stephanie Bogan and a very interesting article on advisory firms that seem to have migrated toward offering concierge services for their clients. [Read more »] 

First the good news; when you get beyond the first article (and the FPA's still-disappointing attempts at "research"), you find two nicely-written articles about how to encourage client referrals. Rick Adkins offers a nice introduction to an issue that (as he points out) gets very little attention in our conference presentations, Alice Lowenstein of Litman-Gregory and insurance consultant Peter Katt address complex issues that affect at least some of your clients, and there's a darned good contribution at the back of the magazine on how to (carefully) help clients overcome their overspending activities.

The bad news? Take a deep breath and look at the triumphant article on income annuities, showing how they just plain beat the socks off of those risky mutual funds and stocks in the actual real world. So much good in this issue, and I suspect that all anybody will remember a year from now is how the FPA's editorial team got duped again by the product folks. Sigh. [Read more »] 

More on the earthquake, tsunami and power disasters. [Read more »] 

Celebrating an unusual anniversary in market history. [Read more »] 

How will the Japanese tsunami affect us? [Read more »] 

It seems like very month I say that the strength of Investment Advisor is the practice management articles, and here we have a business plan on an index card, Mark Tibergien dissecting the rollup opportunities for transition planning, a very perceptive article by Angie Herbers on the difference between hiring and creating star employees, Dan Skiles on getting your clients online and helping them access performance statements and other information in a paperless format, and Tom Giachetti talking about the rules for the new Form ADV Parts 2A and 2B. All are recommended.

Alas, there were missed opportunities as well. The article on how Mark Tibergien has remade Pershing Advisor Solutions could have been really REALLY interesting, and Kate McBride's decision not to share details of the Committee for the Fiduciary Standard's meetings with lawmakers and regulators makes her "inside" account somewhat lifeless. Ah well... [Read more »]