Inside Information

The Three Factors of Fear

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:37:32 -0400

Suddenly, in the past few weeks, the markets have looked a lot scarier to a lot of nonprofessional investors. Why? The answer probably has something to do with human psychology.
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The Once and Future Challenges

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:01:03 -0400

As the advisory business changes and evolves, it will create new operational challenges. Here's a preview, and some advice on how to address them.
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Bob Veres E-Column: The Fiduciary Acquisition Model

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:10:27 -0400

If you're looking for more scale in your advisory practice, this may be the best news you'll hear all year.
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Boringly Powerful

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:14:49 -0400

The keys to financial success may not be as complicated as we think they are.
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Overwork and Underspend

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:10:41 -0400

Is it possible that Americans are TOO productive and thrifty?
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MEDIA REVIEWS - August 24-31, 2010

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:27:21 -0400

Roy Diliberto puts his finger directly on several of this reviewer's own pet peeves, so naturally I think his column is highly relevant and worth reading in this month's issue of Financial Advisor, although I had to subtract points because he found a way to express them better than I do. Joel Bruckenstein offers a review of the newest features in Morningstar WorkStation, and the magazine's cover article tells you how a former CEO of U.S. Trust has created an interesting financial services firm--chiefly by raiding his old place of employment.

I've also reviewed several articles from The Economist. One tells us that the recessionary trough in the U.S. economy was deeper than anybody realized at the time, which may be why the fiscal stimulus wasn't quite as effective as economists were expecting. The magazine also says that Britain is embarking on a huge restructuring of its government, slashing the size of the government's bureaucracy, decentralizing how things are managed, and generally offering an experiment for the rest of the world to watch closely. And in another cover article, the magazine warns that many federal governments around the world are dipping their hands deeply into the workings of their economies, trying to stimulate job growth by taking over, propping up or otherwise investing in various industries. The article does a decent job of showing why this might not be a great idea.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - August 16-23, 2010

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:30:30 -0400

This month's issue of the Journal of Financial Planning includes a couple of nice columns, one on the protocol for your relations with people who have recently lost a loved one, another on how to hire younger advisor employees. But the real fireworks this month is a blockbuster expose by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi on how Congress chewed up the financial reform bill, and how it's far less protective of the public than it was originally intended to be. Both Republicans and Democrats participated in the watering-down of the measure, and although there is no mention of fiduciary, you get a glimpse of how hard it is to get meaningful consumer protections through Congress in this environment.

It makes for depressing, and very enlightening, reading.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - August 8-15, 2010

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:28:10 -0400

It IS interesting that LPL chose this rather unfavorable market environment to launch its initial public offering, although the environment IS somewhat better than the past two years. Kudos to Financial Planning magazine for at least asking the question. Joel Bruckenstein's cover article looks at the new technology platform that is under construction at Schwab Advisor Services, and then gently points out that the company executives might be making... misleading claims when they say they're the first out of the gate with an integrated solution. (To be charitable, maybe they're unaware of Fidelity's and Pershing's already-functioning platforms...) But the fact that Schwab has finally taken up the challenge is good news; a technology arms race among institutional custodians will benefit all advisors in the long run...

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Fixing the SEC

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:23:06 -0400

This is the second of two comment letters sent to the SEC as part of its feedback collection process on fiduciary standards and regulation of brokerage houses and financial advisors.
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The Point

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:21:12 -0400

Round one of the lobbying for a fiduciary standard is over; Congress has essentially punted the ball to the SEC for further study. Round two begins with the SEC asking for feedback from... just about everybody with a pulse. What follows is a comment letter to our regulators--with an invitation to all of you to submit your own.
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Flat Fee Future

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:19:24 -0400

Capital Analysts may be pioneering the back office/custodial business model of the future--and it follows closely the way many advisors are charging for their own services.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - July 24-31, 2010

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:12:00 -0400

This issue of the Journal of Financial Planning features three articles which reinforce, in interesting ways, things you probably already know but may not be giving enough attention: the messiness of financial planning, and how you can turn that to your advantage in client relationships: the messiness of client thinking about investments and how you can protect your client relationship from it; and Vern Hayden talks about the essential core of your business and invites you to put more attention there, rather than on a lot of inessentials which probably take up most of your day.

I thought the article on using options to hedge client portfolios was interesting for two reasons: first, it found that hedging (buying options) all the time is prohibitively expensive; when markets are volatile, the cost exceeds the benefits. And second: it found that if you hedge in a disciplined way, only when the costs are low, you might be able to add risk-adjusted return to client portfolios.

The Economist articles warn us to brace for two major transitions in the Middle East; the leaders of both Egypt and Saudi Arabia are ailing, and there is no clear succession plan. And it tells us that the most recent bond auction selling Greek (and Spanish) debt went off without a visible hitch, which may mean the worst of the crisis in Euroland is over.

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Challenges Over the Horizon

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:43:50 -0400

Philip Palaveev responds to the Future of the Financial Advisory Business white paper, and delivers several warnings about things you probably haven't thought about.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - July 16-23, 2010

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:03:35 -0400

The July issue of Investment Advisor includes a package of feature articles on transition planning, but... There's one excellent article (the first reviewed here), and after that the others look like filler or an afterthought. I included the final article in the package among the "high" rating articles because it offers some (albeit sketchy) actual case studies, which is valuable material that the magazines, for whatever reason, have drifted away from.

As usual, Mark Tibergien, Angie Herbers, Dan Skiles and Tom Giachetti offer real insight and advice; I suspect most readers turn to their columns before they read anything else.
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MEDIA REVIEWS - July 8-15, 2010

nospam@example.com (Admin) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:20:02 -0400

Mike Martin is a very thoughtful advisor who has been writing some pretty pessimistic assessments of the global economic scene and the investment opportunity set. He's one of those people who foresaw the meltdown in 2008, which may or may not recommend him now, but I think his analyses are always well-intentioned, thoughtful, and a good addition to the Financial Advisor article lineup. I also liked Bernie Clark's writeup of his/Schwab's latest poll of advisors, who (on average) spend 30% of their time on operational issues in the office.

I've also included articles from The Economist on the turmoil in Central Asia (conclusion: it's not going away soon), on the future (or lack thereof) of the European Union, and on the prospects of gold based on a pretty detailed supply and demand analysis. The gold article is something you could share with your most conservative (or frightened) clients.

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