Sa For Fas

Financial advisors cannot ignore the business aspects of their profession, and should put thought into how to market themselves. This podcast (4:58) argues that the key objectives should be to become discoverable; to define one’s unique abilities; and to use the advisor’s best communication method to demonstrate how the advisor’s offering addresses the prospect’s unique pain points.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A best-advisor algorithm can only rank abstractions; it cannot rank real people because it can differentiate between qualitative factors like empathy or judgment. This podcast (4:41) argues best-advisor rankings are just business, and not in its best sense. Marketing often carries a negative connotation, but it’s really a neutral method that can be used positively or cynically. Every advisor should define and highlight the value of the service they offer.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The more you look into the various “Best Advisor” rankings, the less you will want to eat the sausage. This podcast (9:07) argues that this data is extremely heavily skewed toward the most “productive” advisors, meaning the ones who attract assets under management, and the other data crunched in these algorithms do not speak to “best advisors.” It would be fairer to call these rankings “America’s Wealthiest Advisors.”Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I like studies – which in the investment domain are typically based on surveys of large numbers of people – because they provide an opportunity to avoid making common mistakes. This podcast (4:15) argues that just as doctors, with a front-row view of new medical research, were first to quit smoking, financial advisors at the forefront of investment research benefit from a commitment to remain on the cutting edge of advancements in their field.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Blanton writing on the Squared Away retirement blog notes that the problem of retirees’ reluctance to spend affects the rich, middle-class and poor alike. This podcast (5:05) argues that the root of the so-called retirement-savings puzzle is a fundamental economic insecurity. Advisors’ job is to provide that security. We discuss the academic solution – annuities – as well as other approaches.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeking Alpha contributor Ploutos calculates that someone who invested on the pre-global financial crisis market peak in 2007 would have more than doubled his money by staying invested until now. This is an important reminder for market timers out there. This podcast (4:49) suggests that disciplined asset allocation can enhance client outcomes, especially during the market rough patches that have the greatest positive impact on long-term investment returns.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hebbian theory, a neuroscientific explanation of synaptic plasticity, may offer insights for advisors seeking to protect clients against bad investing habits, such as frequent checking of stock prices or tuning into sensational financial infotainment. This podcast (5:02) suggests that people can change for the better, and advised investors can have better outcomes when their advisors educate them toward good investing habits.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Colin James, a futurist and editor-in-chief of ForwardTick.com, wrote a fascinating article brazenly titled “This is How Google Will Collapse.” He offered some compelling reasons, but his timing was off. This podcast (4:56) suggests that the sense of permanence big businesses impart is illusory and that advisors, practically speaking, should ensure that client portfolios can withstand the collapse of any one stock, be it Google or Microsoft.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two new retirement surveys seem to be speaking to each other. One comes from Provision Living, and seeks to find out why senior citizens remain in the workforce. The second, a Harris Poll commissioned by TD Ameritrade asks Americans if they’d rather cut back on expenses now or later during retirement. This podcast (4:25) proposes that clients share these findings with their clients, and make their own experience-based contributions to the discussion.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most confounding investor experiences occurs when one hears conflicting advice from really sharp analysts of the bullish and bearish persuasions. This podcast (5:53) argues that being bullish or bearish is a shallow profession. Advisors need to understand and act on behalf of client goals, beating a path toward satisfaction of those goals despite constantly shifting markets and incessantly contradictory opinions.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial advisor Devin Carroll, in an article on MarketWatch, put together a list of seven Social Security myths, one of which concerns the perception that Social Security is a right. He shows that Supreme Court decisions have clarified that Social Security is not a right that is earmarked to the beneficiary. This podcast (6:06) argues that both demographics and economics make it hard to imagine how Congress will not exercise its prerogative to cut benefits by at least 25 percent by 2035.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The media has been reporting that the Yale Endowment has been bested by its peers in the past year, but such a horserace approach completely ignores the fund’s objectives and proven track record. This podcast (5:22) suggests that the endowment’s 2020 asset-allocation targets offer an encouraging picture of its future performance, particularly its large risk-free reserves and its pronounced demotion of U.S. stocks.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Schwab survey of its own plan participants reveals that Gen Xers, aged 39 to 54, are stretched thin, saving little but expect to require large sums for retirement. This group is also heavily indebted. This podcast (5:24) argues that a situation this drastic requires massive re-framed thinking in order to make adjustments that would otherwise seem painful be seen instead as beneficial.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Looking at a benchmark like the S&P 500 can lead to numerous unhappy misinterpretations, including apple to orange comparisons; distraction from personal goals; and a failure to view one’s portfolio through the prism of asset allocation. This podcast (4:36) argues that advisors who choose an asset allocation that matches their client’s goals, and look at performance over a market cycle, are extremely likely to see an on-target return, and that a client who is educated about this is a happy client.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bond yields are low across the board, and this unappetizing menu comes at precisely the time that investors are eager to increase their allocations to fixed-income. This podcast (5:58) argues that advisors must counsel their clients to accept a straightforward investment in fixed-income, as it is, without resorting to the danger zone of risky investments masked as safe ones.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeking Alpha’s Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman conclude their review of Joel Greenblatt’s approach to value investing. In this final installment (38:56), they discuss Greenblatt’s emphasis on investors doing their own research, borrowing ideas from other investors, and to that end, look at Greenblatt’s favorite investment books. They also hone in on Greenblatt’s core philosophy, which is that the value of investing is to give you time and options later on in life.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My esteemed Seeking Alpha colleagues Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman continue their review of Joel Greenblatt’s approach to value investing. In this third of four installments (47:21), they analyze Greenblatt’s take on bankruptcies, LEAPs, restructurings, and still 'odder' corners of the market. In particular, Greenblatt discusses when to hold and when to sell, and embraces leverage.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Advisors and brokerage firms are selling all sorts of things in the name of retirement security, and some of it is concerning. In effect, they’re selling what investors want to buy, but not what they need, and it will surely cost them in the end. This podcast (5:32) argues that upholders of responsible financial advice must raise their flags for a confused investing public to see where they can get some genuine help.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A ThinkAdvisor interview with Professor Shachar Kariv brings some much needed clarity to determining client desires regarding risk vs. return, today vs. tomorrow and legacy matters.This podcast (5:25) shares (and concurs with) Kariv’s view that negotiating trade-offs is key to client self-knowledge and the advisor’s knowledge of the client. I also offer my view of the most difficult of these trade-offs.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investors have lost their fear of inflation, a natural consequence of a decade of disinflation. But, this podcast (18:03) argues that advisors must protect clients during retirements that might last 30 years, which even low inflation will not leave unscathed. Moreover, there are reasons to prepare for high inflation, including high government debt whose eventual monetization could trigger hyperinflation.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices