Gaining Perspective

Retirement planning is complex and risk in retirement is real. To improve the confidence clients have in working with an advisor, you need to prepare them for changes in retirement and avoid the talk of probability of failure and success. Ongoing adjustment-based planning aligns clients’ perceptions of risk in retirement with reality. This often results in small course corrections with many retire...

Warren Buffett once said, "When a bad business meets a good manager, it's the reputation of the business that survives." He was making the point that the business is more important than management. But my guest today, Krishna Mohanraj, disagrees. Krishna is a value manager with a solid track record and is here to discuss his firm’s investment process and the opportunities he sees in the global mar...

Alternatives have long been a cornerstone of institutional investment portfolios for their higher returns, lower volatility and diversification, but have historically been difficult for individual investors and financial advisors to access. In this episode, Andrea Mody, head of alternatives for Macquarie Asset Management’s Client Solutions Group, will discuss her firm’s efforts to democratize acce...

Advisors must embrace financial planning as a core service.   It gives them an edge against competition, provides a diversified revenue source and deepens their relationships with clients.  But there is no universal process for planning, and my guest today, Justin Duft, will discuss how advisors need to customize their approach to fit their client base. He will also highlight how his firm, Commonw...

The end of the year is approaching, and time is running out for 2021 tax planning.  Compounding the problem is the uncertainty around taxes.  Pandemic, massive spending proposals and a record high level of debt have created an impasse in Washington and increased levels of anxiety among wealthy clients.  Over the last year, the Biden administration and Congress have proposed several unprecedented c...

With COVID-19 variants keeping retirement-ready consumers wondering what’s next for potential market volatility, many are reevaluating a once common rule of thumb for retirement:  the 4% rule. It held up well for many retirees in the past, but most fixed income financial products like bonds no longer yield anything close to the 4% that would be required to support withdrawals. With rates actually...

Breckinridge Capital Advisors, a $47 billion, Boston-based asset manager, just released its 2021 Issuer Engagement report. It focused on climate change risk as a unifying theme. The report cited climate change as a risk multiplier for corporate, municipal, and securitized bonds. Climate change is an integral factor in Breckinridge’s approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk asses...

Science and technology have disrupted the active fixed income asset management industry, as they have so many industries before it. With the conditions in place for scientific fixed income investing to flourish, investors have available both an alternative and a complement to the traditional active fixed income strategies that dominate their portfolios today.

If there was a word of the year for 2021, it would be “transitory.” Ever since the Fed declared that inflation would be transitory in March 2021, analysts have challenged that assertion and, indeed, have questioned the definition of transitory. Inflation has broad ramification for financial plans, since it affects interest rates, the price of assets and whether cash flows will be sufficient to kee...

Diversity initiatives are being prioritized now more than ever—just a few weeks ago, the SEC approved Nasdaq’s board diversity policy. My guest today is here to discuss diversity and inclusion within the financial planning profession as well as the efforts the CFP Board’s Center takes to increase diversity within the profession. 

The Thornburg Global Opportunities Fund (THOAX) is a concentrated, focused portfolio that invests in 30 to 40 securities. Brian McMahon and his co-portfolio manager, Miguel Oleaga, utilize a flexible approach seeking intrinsically valuable companies not fully recognized by the broader market through bottom-up, fundamental research. The fund recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, and for the 15-...

We published an article in late September, Pay Attention to Marginal Tax Rates and Not Tax Brackets , that highlighted how the analytic framework for providing retirement income planning advice can be improved.  It focused on three decisions that investors sometimes need to make: (1) whether to convert funds this year from a tax-deferred account (TDA), like a 401(k), to a Roth account; (2) whether...

With so much change in the RIA custody space and more options than ever to choose from, this is a good time to rethink the core pieces of your business. It is time to be proactive and weigh your options in light of the changes across the custodial industry. Doing nothing and staying put at your current custody provider might be the best strategy. But we are here to learn how to perform due diligen...

Direct indexing has gathered a lot of buzz in the headlines and for good reasons; this advancement makes it possible for advisors to customize their clients' portfolios down to the individual security level. Direct indexing offers tax efficiency benefits and granular customization that ETFs can't match. But there's a tradeoff; it's not as accessible, requires account minimums, and is more work for...

Seeking income with Treasury yields at rock bottom levels and investors enduring widespread dividend cuts this year presents a daunting challenge. The HNDL ETF was created to address this challenge, and to meet the cash flow needs of its investors. It is a target distribution strategy that leverages a modern portfolio theory approach focused on risk-adjusted returns to deliver steady cash flow to...

As a financial advisor, you must be there for your clients during hard times and address challenging topics head on with them. The approach you should take depends on the relationship you have with the client and the style of advising that resonates with them. In this podcast, Corey Schmidt will discuss how to approach clients when a difficult conversation is necessary and why it’s important to pr...

New Age Alpha is an asset manager that takes existing investment universes and makes them better…by providing ETFs, SMAs and tools that avoid the losers. It has re-engineered active stock selection through a systematic and repeatable process that seeks to provide uncorrelated returns without additional risk.

The volatility caused by the pandemic has driven greater interest in alternatives to diversify portfolios and preserve wealth. It is part of a shift from passive to active management.  However, getting information on these alternative assets has been disjointed. My guest, Mark Salameh, created AltsAxis to fill a major gap by becoming that one place allocators can access a wide range of dynamic, co...

The Baillie Gifford Positive Change Equity Fund seeks to invest in companies whose products and services are providing solutions to global challenges. So, it’s unsurprising that Tesla (transforming the automotive sector), Moderna (unlocking a new paradigm of medicine) and Safaricom (providing connectivity and access to financial tools in Kenya) are all holdings. But when I saw that it owns a semic...

With a history spanning nearly 40 years and a mission to cultivate meaningful relationships, Grove Point Financial, a boutique broker-dealer and RIA solution with large firm resources,  serves over 500 financial professionals across the country and prides itself on its nimble, visionary, and forward-thinking approach to client service. It is a partnership of professionals who share the passion and...

For decades, Frank W. Abagnale’s story has captured the imagination of audiences around the world as a modern-day folk hero—but the truth could not be more different from the fictitious autobiography he sold to Hollywood. Self-proclaimed as “the world’s greatest con man,” the true dimensions of Abagnale’s hoax have been revealed for the first time in a new book by my guest today, Alan Logan.

Invesco recently expanded its ETF lineup launching two new exchange-traded funds that capture timely technology themes – biotechnology and semiconductors. The new ETFs will track well-recognized Nasdaq Indexes with nearly 30 years of live track record; the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index. In the last year, the advances of technology – in which semiconductors are...

So, you’re in charge of a team, but you wonder many things about it. Are the members motivated, stressed out, or bored? Do they understand the mission? Is each team member the right fit? Julie Genjak tells us that getting these answers isn’t always easy because team dynamics can be quite complex.

While Covid-19 appears to be dissipating with the rollout of the vaccine, there is a persistent financial literacy epidemic that threatens the financial futures of millions. Financial advisors can serve as an antidote to this epidemic. My guest Andrew Crowell, is here to talk about how financial literacy programs, like the one that his firm, D.A. Davidson, offers in partnership with the YMCA, can...

The big story in the ETF industry over the last several years has been the growth of options-based strategies. Those products have accumulated assets at a rapid pace. They are offering advisors and their clients low-cost solutions that have return profiles, including downside protection and upside participation, that are not available in conventional strategies.