Pro Tips (2) Resources

Financial professionals will often recommend products and services that reflect the current circumstances of their clients. But they also need to recommend products and services that reflect their future circumstances. A very real worry in the financial planning world for investors and their advisers alike is the possibility of outliving their assets and possessing more liabilities and expenses in retirement.

Why is this Topic Important to Wealth Managers? This blogticle represents a special series regarding advanced investing with ETFs. Recently there has been much discussion in the marketplace on the use of these tools and thus we present this topic for wealth managers who may consider these investment vehicles for their clients.

The subject of what to do with assets after retirement or death is an understandably difficult topic to address.  Upset family members, lost documents and the absence of the grantor after death are among some of the difficulties that tax professionals face.   But the ultimate difficulty lies in having the conversation in the first place.

Human vs. Robot: Winner Take All?

Nope (at least not for a while).There is a big discussion in the investment management and financial planning world about the disruptive impact of technological advances on the industry, and in particular, the possibility of the “robo-advisor” supplanting the traditional human advisor as the primary deliverer of financial services to the end user. For the unfamiliar, robo-advisor is the preferred term of the financial media to describe a variety of digitally-delivered online services that leverage technology to attempt to automate the bulk of (if not all of) the investment advisory services process for retail investors, and in some cases parts of the fee financial planning process. These services purport to provide a low-cost technology-dependent approach to personal financial life, with the early adopters having primarily come from the millennial demographic cohort.

Financial institutions employ numerous full-time analysts who perform research and analysis on investments. It is impossible for a financial professional to commit to research and their other responsibilities in order to effectively serve their clients and keep up with the ever-changing developments in the investment world.

Clients want to utilize their wealth to meet unique goals that they have. Charitable gifting, leaving assets to family members or even having enough for one last hurrah with friends requires a unique investment strategy for unique goals.

The saying goes that “the best way to gain money is to avoid losing it.” It is also said that “nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.” If there is truth to either of the above kernels of wisdom, a logical conclusion is that the most assured way to avoid losing money is to minimize, defer, and eliminate taxation to the greatest extent possible. This article begins a 3- part article series that will briefly outline some of the most common and effective means of limiting the over-taxation of the individual investor’s portfolio. The techniques described here will be most beneficially applied if diligently overseen and executed through a competent financial planner and portfolio manager.

Since October of 2007, Modern Portfolio Theory has been under attack. One cannot read a single issue of the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal without encountering a statement from a behavioral finance academic, nouveau economist, or tactical portfolio manager proclaiming the death of Modern Portfolio Theory, rationalist economics, diversification, asset allocation, and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.