Inside Information - Media Reviews

MEDIA REVIEWS - December 24-31, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:20:00 -0500

This last reviewed issue of 2011 actually contains one of the best articles of the year, maybe THE best research report, oddly enough, on the subject of tactical asset allocation and whether it can be done effectively. As you'll see, it takes a very conservative position and defends it, to my mind effectively. As I say in the review, from now on, after this article, the discussion in the profession won't be on whether it is possible to add value through tactical shifts, but whether it can be done under broader, more common circumstances. It's going to be an interesting debate.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - December 16-23, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:18:00 -0500

I kind of like the concept of emotional alpha, offered by a column in this issue of Financial Advisor magazine. In fact, I can envision other alphas: the added peace of mind you would provide, the enhanced possibilities of life, an alpha related to a higher savings rate--perhaps someday we'll have a way of measuring all these things.

Meanwhile, Roy Diliberto offers a reminder that we need to constantly be aware of trends, which usually force the advisory firm to provide ever-more-comprehensive and better service and expertise. Static equals losing market share and maybe your business as well. And Scott MacKillop offers a similar message relevant to the investment markets; a lot of times we assume that something is true without carefully examining the assumptions behind it. The more we learn, the more we have to evolve.

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MEDIA REVIEWS - December 8-15, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:17:00 -0500

I've tried to summarize the cover story of this month's issue of Financial Planning magazine, which is the largest software survey in the history of the advisory profession. But with all the charts and graphs and tables and comments, it would be a lot better to read the original than to go with my cliff notes.

This is also a good time to figure out how you're going to handle the cost basis reporting process with your back office. And my own column looks not only at the brokerage industry's efforts to use FINRA regulation to kill the RIA competition, but how Mary Schapiro has consistently been at the center of its initiatives. Maybe it's just a coincidence...
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MEDIA REVIEWS - December 1-7, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:15:00 -0500

Angie Herbers is currently involved in two of the most important projects currently going on in the practice management space: 1) her ongoing efforts to identify the office environment that best promotes loyalty and efficiency and growth among the staff; and 2) her exploration of "owner's guilt," and its implications for advisor management practices, which continues in this issue. In the process, I think we're looking over her shoulder and learning a lot.

Meanwhile, Bob Clark points out what you probably already know: that independent advisors are taking over market share from brokerage firms, and that brokerage firms have a plan to stop that nonsense by regulating everybody under FINRA and crushing independent advisors under a lot of unnecessary regulation. Mark Tibergien suggests that sellers of advisory practices help the buyers ask important questions about the deal as a way of protecting their staff and clients, and we learn that the SEC is revamping how it inspects advisor offices, hopefully for the better.

We are a week away from hearing a major proposal on how RIAs should be regulated by the SEC, which might blunt some of the impact of the brokerage world's master plan to use FINRA as a blunt instrument. Stay tuned...

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MEDIA REVIEWS - November 23-30, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:13:00 -0500

The best of the contributed articles in the November issue of the Journal of Financial Planning starts an important debate around creating that all-important symbiotic relationship between the planning profession and its related academia. There are now hundreds of college programs around the country offering some form of training, including advanced degrees, in financial planning, and on the professional side, what profession doesn't rely heavily on the research provided by the colleges?

The question, of course, is how to make that happen.

I also liked the piece on cloud-based storage by Bill Winterberg.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - November 8-15, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:24:00 -0500

In this issue of Financial Advisor, editor Evan Simonoff offers a peek into an interesting issue that will have implications around the profession: advisors are financing their succession plans with loans from their custodians, who at least have to hope that they'll retain the business of the successors. Dan Moisand asks us to come up with more precise definitions of market timing and rebalancing, and Joel Bruckenstein looks at some software features you probably haven't heard of before.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - November 1-7, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:22:00 -0500

The "Let Go to Grow" cover article in this month's issue of Investment Advisor is one of the best practice management articles you'll read all year--research by Angie Herbers into the kind of office environment where employees thrive and contribute to the bottom line. Better yet, she outlines the key elements of that environment clearly and with depth.

Meanwhile, we learn why so few insurance companies are buying independent broker-dealers these days (It's hard to get the reps to sell their proprietary products, even though apparently there are still legal ways to try), and Mark Tibergien argues for a quieter, gentler way to get your staff to do what you need--which fits nicely with Herbers' recommendations.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - October 16-23, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:40:00 -0400

I've found Somnath Basu's new column in Financial Advisor magazine to be a little scattered at times, as if he knows he has to say something, but isn't sure what to say. (It's hard to be profound every month.) But here he hits the nail on the head: the rise of gold prices is not due to all those complex macroeconomic factors or currency correlations; it is, plain and simple, a response to the uncertainty in the global economy. As long as people are scared, they'll bid up the price of gold. As they calm down, they'll realize they overpaid for a commodity that is pretty but not terribly scarce.

I liked the Bill Bachrach column, cherrypicking all the insights from a conference of people who make a living being inspirational, Joni Youngwirth offers some helpful thoughts on succession planning, and Joel Bruckenstein reviews a new software product that I had never heard of before.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - October 8-15, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:39:00 -0400

I think Angie Herbers is onto something big when she talks about owners of well-run advisory firms feeling inexplicably guilty when they finally get to the point where they make a nice income without working very hard, when they have processes and staff in place and a profitable business model. The column is focused on how this might lead to dysfunctional staff management, but I think it's potentially a topic all its own.

Meanwhile, Bob Clark does a nice job of dissecting the latest SIFMA comment letter, Mark Tibergien explores the downside of having a charismatic, energetic leader, and Joni Youngwirth continues her series on how to turn your firm into the kind that will eventually make you feel guilty about making so much money for so little work.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - October 1-7, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:37:00 -0400

Take a good look at the article on bringing interns into your practice--or better yet, look for the more comprehensive white paper on the same subject, at the authors' web site: www.fjyfinancial.com. It's something you rarely see these days: a comprehensive explanation of how to do something complicated in your office.

Meanwhile, Financial Planning has selected a group of "influencers," and instead of picking the same old names, it dared go outside the box and identify some people you may not have heard of. You probably already know the IRA distribution rules when clients reach age 70 1/2, but Don Korn does a nice job of making those rules accessible and easy to follow. And I liked the article on how to deal with clients from hell, even though for many of you it might hit too close to home.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - September 24-30, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:12:36 -0400

All I can say is that the Journal has a lot of work to do to improve the quality of its articles; aside from a very good column by Bonnie Sewell (known to some of you as Bonnie Hughes), there isn't much to like here, and the worst of it is the "research" that the FPA insists on conducting without having any visible idea what they're doing. The folks who promote non-traded REITs--limited partnerships in a new guise--sponsored this recent study, which cheerfully reports (several times) that 64% of advisors are embracing alternative investments and venturing beyond those boring old stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs. However, read the fine print, and "alternative investments" includes REITs, commodities funds and gold, which have all been part of a mainstream diversified portfolio for years. Ah well...
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MEDIA REVIEWS - September 16-23, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:11:09 -0400

I wish I could give you the page numbers of this issue of Investment Advisor, but the magazine never arrived in my mailbox, and apparently not in the mailbox of an advisor here in town either. Have you received it?

Investment Advisor conducts a roundtable discussion with the executives of the "broker-dealers of the year," who pledge to fight the fiduciary standard, wonder how to work around the social media compliance question, and ask where the next generation of producers will come from. Eliza DePardo and Dan Inveen offer some highlights of FA Insight's latest People & Pay survey, telling us that people-related costs are rising, but so too are profit margins.

Meanwhile, Joni Youngwirth recommends that you look at "The Checklist Manifesto," and wherever possible use checklists to document internal procedures and workflows. It's a great suggestion. You should also check out Mark Tibergien's column on collaboration, telling us that despite what you see in Washington, collaboration is a sign of strength, not weakness. Angie Herbers helps you identify your unhappy employees, Dan Skiles offers some good advice on how to get out of the technology rut, Tom Giachetti updates us on the new SEC guidelines for transferring more than 3,000 advisory firms to state registration, and Peter Montoya tells us which marketing initiatives are doomed to failure. All in all, a good issue, even if you have to read it online.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - September 8-15, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:26:00 -0400

The blockbuster article in this issue is the reanalysis of the small cap premium--one of the two exceptions to CAPM that Gene Fama and Ken French reported in their seminal article. This article suggests that on a risk-adjusted basis, small caps have actually trailed large caps over virtually all longer time periods, including those studied by Fama and French.

The conclusions will be reported in a peer-reviewed journal, and meanwhile debated endlessly across the profession. Read the article now and you'll have a head start on the debate.

Meanwhile, you can always get something important out of Mitch Anthony's column, including a reminder here that work may be necessary for emotional, social and intellectual stimulation; that quality of life in retirement may require people to stay involved and active in some form of workplace. Joel Bruckenstein evaluates a new way to buy the Microsoft Office suite, and there's a nice writeup of all the actively-managed ETFs on the market.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - September 1-7, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:25:00 -0400

There were an unusually high number of high-relevancy articles in this issue of Financial Planning magazine, which will be distributed on the floor of the FPA Convention in San Diego. I liked Eleanor Blayney's suggestion at the end of the publication, that we assign a financial planner to take the Congressional leaders on the deficit reduction debate through the six-step planning process and talk about the long-term perspective. There are profiles of Roger Gibson and Julie Littlechild, and a good article from Brad Klontz on why clients sometimes fail to act on your best advice.

And the article on LTC insurance, including some planning tips on how to evaluate whether the investment is worth the cost, is excellent, particularly for advisors who are uncertain how to plan for long-term care issues.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - August 24-31, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:23:00 -0400

I hope Dan Moisand's article here calls additional attention to the Wade Pfau article on calculating a client's "safe savings rate" for retirement. And I hope people pay attention to Roy Diliberto's advice on how to help clients identify their true goals, in order to allow you to give better, more customized advice.

Meanwhile, Somnath Basu--writing before the Downgrade Panic--suggests that the world economy may be heading for a double dip recession, and offers some signposts to watch out for.
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