Inside Information - Financial Advisor

MEDIA REVIEWS - March 8-15, 2013

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:51:00 -0600

After reading Joel Bruckenstein's review of FinFolio's touch-screen performance reporting abilities, you may find yourself wishing you could see what a fully Windows 8-compatible software program looks like. But I found myself wondering: how many of you are brave enough to switch to Windows 8 at this early stage?

Meanwhile, the risk parity article scares me to death. I find myself wondering who invests in these things?

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MEDIA REVIEWS - February 16-23, 2013

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:29:00 -0600

Are you still not paperless? Chances are you're not, and if so, David Lawrence outlines a plan for you to get your documents scanned and into a CRM system. And Roy Diliberto makes a modest proposal: before you can advise clients on how to achieve a great, prosperous life, you have to walk the talk and live one too.

At the end, Nick Murray goes into bombast mode about how the naysayers said that 2012 would be a lousy investment year, and look how dumb they were. I have no problem with not listening to naysayers, but Murray is the opposite, a persistent yeah-sayer who should be waving pom-poms.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - January 16-23, 2013

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:02:00 -0600

After investors virtually wrote off the American economy (and markets) last year, only to receive double-digit returns, I'm inclined to believe Evan Simonoff's evaluation that America may be the world's most interesting success story. The story is flawed, but look at the rest of the globe. Whose isn't these days?

Mitch Anthony tells us that a financial planner's primary role is to inspire people to reach their goals, and dispense wisdom. Brian Hamburger, who faced down hurricane Sandy, reiterates the importance of having a disaster recovery plan, and Joel Bruckenstein offers up the latest technology announcements from the Schwab organization--which lately has been talking a lot but not always doing very much in this arena. Finally, Scott MacKillop, of Frontier Asset Management, argues that academic research into the markets is book-smart but not street-wise; that is, it does a poor job of evaluating the inefficiencies and human differences among investment managers in the real world.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - December 8-15, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:51:00 -0600

All of us in the press have tried to write--or help somebody else write--that difficult article about how to find a great financial planner amid the crowd of hucksters, salespeople and pretenders. Roy Diliberto's column may do a better job of this than anything I've seen so far. Also: check out the Rob Brown article if you're currently underweighted equities.

And Jim Picerno's column is one of many, perhaps the most plausible, that talks about the new respectability of technical analysis and charting in the investment world. Even the academics are writing approvingly of what they once castigated.

It's an interesting world...
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MEDIA REVIEWS - November 24-30, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 15:29:00 -0600

I suppose I'm probably the only person who didn't receive the November issue of Financial Advisor in the mail but, well, I didn't, so I can't give you the page numbers of the articles. I can, however, say that I'm skeptical that the former chief operating officer at UBS Private Wealth can run a conflict-free service helping clients evaluate their financial advisor (see the Mary Rowland column), and I wonder how anybody can believe that Advent has completely changed its attitude about working closely with the financial planning community (see the Joel Bruckenstein article). And I find myself wondering whether Advizent can attract enough paying members to effectively move the needle marketing the financial planning profession, and if they do, whether some consumers will question the $25,000 to $100,000 annual fees the firm charges to evaluate these advisory firms and give them a seal of approval. How often will they charge $100,000 and then NOT hand over this seal of approval?

Perhaps the most interesting example of this disturbing wave of non-skeptical reporting is the Andy Gluck column, which is not given a "high" rating after reporting that a technology provider of online investment tools is collecting fees from product manufacturers, and then evaluating what products (exclusively from those vendors and peddlers) are appropriate for clients. This is the future, we are told. It sounds like a grim one.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - October 16-23, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:26:00 -0500

The most interesting item in this issue of Financial Advisor magazine is the Brian Hamburger column, which suggests that we not celebrate too soon on the debate over who will regulate RIAs. If FINRA is turned back, the alternative seems to be user fees for the SEC, which gives the SEC an incentive to be even more inefficient than it is already (records could be set here...), and in any case, there is no evidence that more SEC audits, or more frequent ones, will make any difference in protecting consumers. Is THIS what we're lobbying for?

Also: Roy Diliberto offers a real-world look at the safe withdrawal discussion, and Joel Bruckenstein offers a window into the technology platforms at the larger broker-dealers. I also happen to think the "crowdfunding" concept written here by Gail Liberman is going to become a big part of the advisor profession. Somebody has to investigate those Internet offers...
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MEDIA REVIEWS - September 1-7, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 17:41:00 -0500

The new version of MoneyGuidePro (G3) looks like a remarkable tool, and Joel Bruckenstein does his usual thorough job of evaluating the newer features. Joni Youngwirth does a great job of outlining the reasons why you might need a CEO for your advisory practice. But the article that people will be talking about and debating is a survey which seems to show that most advisors are not practicing fully as fiduciaries. Alas, we don't get to see the questions, and we don't know if advisors gave truthful answers, and the survey was conducted by the people who provide fiduciary training, so there are going to be questions about methodology and conflicts of interest.

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MEDIA REVIEWS - August 8-15, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:13:00 -0500

This is interesting: there is now a software program that helps you estimate future health care costs using actuarial data--an input that is missing from most financial plans these days. Meanwhile, Roy Diliberto is concerned about how planners are portraying their profession's image to the press, and anybody who has read articles about financial planners in the consumer print and broadcast media knows exactly what he's talking about.

The cover story offers some general principles for success in the advisory profession, and you find yourself wishing they were far more specific. But it's not a bad checklist, and Eleanor Blayney's column about how best to work with women clients has its own checklist for you.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - July 16-23, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:43:00 -0500

I think everybody, especially including members of Congress and anybody with oversight over the regulatory budget, should read Brian Hamburger's column in this month's issue of Financial Advisor magazine. It points out what we have seen but not really talked about for years: the fact that the SEC has been toothless and cozy with the largest brokerage firms in its regulatory activities, while bringing the hammer down on individual advisors for far smaller transgressions than you see in the wirehouse world. The cozy relationship with Wall Street allowed the 2008 meltdown and Bernie Madoff. Is this not something that needs fixing?

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MEDIA REVIEWS - June 15-23, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:53:00 -0500

None of the "high" relevancy articles in this issue of Financial Advisor will rock your world, but Roy Diliberto offers some insights into how to create a more functional office, saying many of the same things that Angie Herbers has been talking about in her Investment Advisor column. Joni Youngwirth gives you a quick primer on becoming your firm's acting CFO, and there are some nuggets in the roundtable hosted by Evan Simonoff at the latest Tiburon meeting.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - May 24-31, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:46:35 -0500

For unknown reasons, I never received a physical copy of this month's issue of Financial Advisor, so you will notice that the page numbers are not included with this issue of Media Reviews. The table of contents will have to be your guide to the printed version.

I think pretty much everybody should skip my review and read the Bill Bengen article on retirement withdrawals, and whether the 4.5% rule still works in today's environment. It's accessible, it has great information, and it also has a fair share of wisdom. You should also check out Social Security Analyzer as a great way to add thousands of dollars to your clients' net worth simply by having it apply rules that are much too mind-bogglingly complicated for any sane person to delve into. That's why we have people like Baylor University finance professor Bill Reichenstein...
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MEDIA REVIEWS - February 8-15, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:27:00 -0600

Are financial planners doomed to extinction, as financial planning apps on the smartphone take over the profession? I don't believe it, myself, but Andy Gluck offers some interesting things to think about. More nourishing to your spirit is the Roy Diliberto piece, which actually talks about nourishing different sides of your brain, and shows that we have a choice in our attitude toward the frightening investment markets.

And Joel Bruckenstein shows us four different "flavors" of the cloud, and helps you sort through some fairly complicated options.
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MEDIA REVIEWS: January 24-31, 2012

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:11:00 -0600

By golly, Brian Hamburger is right. And so is Mitch Anthony.

Compliance attorney Hamburger says that all these social media policies that the broker-dealers have created are hurting their reps more than helping them; the whole point of social media is to make authentic connections and let your personality show. How can you do that when the home office asks you to select from a list of pre-approved tweets or Facebook updates? He points out that there are plenty of monitoring software programs--and says that reps are not automatons like in that long-ago Apple Computer commercial.

Mitch Anthony points out that a lot of clients and investors are frightened to get back in the water (the investment markets) because the media has given them a very scary view of what happens when you go back in (think: Jaws). It doesn't matter that they, themselves haven't had their financial leg torn off; they vicariously experienced the worst. Your only hope to bring them back is to have a talk about what they really experienced vs. what they think happened out there.

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MEDIA REVIEWS - December 16-23, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:18:00 -0600

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 - November 8-15, 2011

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:24:00 -0600

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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