Tag Archives: Advisor

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mark Miller is a career journalist who digs deep into the world of retirement planning, social security, medicare and the state of retirement “readiness” among people nearing the goal line. Miller has written regularly for The New York Times, Reuters, Morningstar and has been a long-standing columnist for Wealth Management magazine and WealthManagement.com. He is the author of the recently published Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track. In this episode, Wealth Management editor David Armstrong speaks with Miller about the challenges of retirement planning from both an advisor’s and client’s perspective. 

Mark discusses:

  • Why for many, but certainly not all, clients, social security should be considered longevity insurance, and delayed for as long as possible.
  • What advisors get wrong about advising clients on Medicare choices, and where to go for unbiased, objective advice. 
  • Helping clients do the math around long-term care insurance and LTC riders. 
  • How new research models suggest a higher allocation to equities does not help a retirement portfolio in draw-down mode.
  • What many get wrong in the debate around the financial sustainability of Social Security and Medicare. 

Resources:

Connect With Mark Miller:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Mark Miller is a journalist, author and podcaster specializing in coverage of retirement and aging. He contributes regularly on retirement to The New York Times, and writes columns for Reuters, Morningstar.com and WealthManagement.com. He is the author of Jolt: Stories of Trauma and Transformation (Post Hill Press) and The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security (Wiley).



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12. Christopher King on Advising Advisors About Cryptocurrency

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , ,

As more RIAs become interested in managing cryptocurrency portfolios for their clients, several tech providers are trying to build easy access that fits into advisors’ existing workflows. 

In this episode, David Armstrong is joined by Christopher King, founder and CEO of Eaglebrook Advisors, on why advisors should consider crypto, why separately managed accounts are the best way to get access, early financial backers of Eaglebrook—including many well-known names in wealth management—and which companies he considers his biggest competitors (it’s not who you think, and it’s not an ETF.) Eaglebrook has made significant inroads, being adopted as the crypto platform by large RIA firms, including Mariner Wealth and Dynasty Financial. 

Christopher discusses:

  • Why advisors should bring cryptocurrency options to clients
  • What percentage of portfolios most advisors are dedicating to crypto on the platform. 
  • How he found big-name wealth management backers in the advice space, including Marty Bicknell of Mariner Wealth Advisors and Mark Casady, former CEO of LPL. 
  • How advisors are thinking about bitcoin as both a gold substitute and an appreciating asset class.

Connect With Christopher King:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Christopher is the founder and CEO of Eaglebrook Advisors, the largest separately managed account (SMA) platform in the crypto market, managing over $90 million in assets. Although he originally got involved in Bitcoin and digital assets in 2014, Christopher moved into the industry full time in early 2018 as a venture capital investor at Morgan Creek Capital. During his tenure, he executed deals into 16 crypto companies (e.g., Coinbase, BlockFi, Bitwise), four digital asset investment funds, and liquid digital assets such as bitcoin and ether. 

 

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11. Brian Hamburger on The Advisor Transition Game

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , ,

Brian Hamburger is the founder of Hamburger Law Firm and Marketcounsel, providing legal and regulatory support to financial advisory firms.

In this episode, David Armstrong talks to Brian about the pioneering work his firm did helping wirehouse brokers “break away” and establish their own RIAs, and how his firm’s services have evolved alongside the growth of the RIA industry. 

David and Brian discusses:

  • The newest regulatory challenges to RIAs
  • How advisor transitions have changed from the early days of the “breakaway broker.”
  • What the erosion of the broker protocol means for advisors moving firms
  • The potential troubles brewing as asset managers and outside investors buy their way into the RIA channel
  • How Brian learned about the industry from his father, a financial advisor, and why he chose not to be an advisor himself. 

Connect With Brian Hamburger:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Brian is the Founder, President and CEO of MarketCounsel Consulting, the leading business and regulatory compliance consulting firm to the country’s preeminent entrepreneurial independent investment advisers. He is also the founder and managing member of the Hamburger Law Firm, a boutique law firm with its practice in virtually all areas related to the investment and securities industry, entrepreneurial and employment matters. MarketCounsel Consulting and the Hamburger Law Firm are the result of an incessant entrepreneurial spirit and genuine desire to provide an unexpected level of value and service. Together, the consulting and law firms represent an unparalleled combination of preeminent counsel and uncompromising service to participants in the retail securities industry.

Brian is an entrepreneur, attorney, columnist, and outspoken industry advocate for independent investment advisers.  For the past 19 years, he has served at the helm of the MarketCounsel companies and the Hamburger Law Firm. Brian was named an Innovator in InvestmentNews’ 2020 class of Icons & Innovators and included in “The IA25: Investment Advisor Magazine’s Annual List of the Top Influential People in the Industry” in 2020.  In 2015, Wealth Management named Brian as one of the top thought leaders in wealth management saying, “Over the past decade, Hamburger has been the architect behind almost all of the highest-profile breakaway deals in the industry, helping advisors navigate the legal thicket of transitioning away from brokerages and into independent business models. As such he’s been a central, but often unheralded, force in the evolution of the RIA industry.” In 2014, REP. Magazine featured Brian on its cover as “The Engineer” of the RIA evolution.

Brian is often called upon to speak at regional and national conferences, not to mention his own annual gathering of the industry’s top advisers and thought leaders. While he has delivered the keynote address to the country’s state securities regulators and met with members of Congress on proposed legislation, he is more comfortable addressing school-age children. He is currently a regular contributor for CNBC and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Dow Jones, and Reuters as well as every investment industry publication.

 

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10. Rick Ferri on His Career, Mistakes He Has Made and Why He Thinks Most Advisors are Overcompensated.

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , , , , ,

Rick Ferri has been an outspoken critic of many standard practices in the investment advisory industry. He was an early advocate of John Bogle and index-based investing, claiming most clients were better off with passive investment portfolios over using active, and more expensive, investment managers. More recently, he’s argued that advisors who give investment advice and still charge fees based on a percentage of the assets managed are in the wrong—fees for advice should be divorced from fees for portfolio management—and why many advisors are paid too much for the work they do.

In this episode, David Armstrong speaks with Ferri about how he got his start in the industry, how his thinking has evolved around Wall Street, and whether or not a fee structure that charges clients for investment advice based on assets under management can really exist in a fiduciary framework.  

Rick discusses:

  • His background in the financial industry, including his transition from Wall Street to investment advisory services.
  • Why Rick decided to sell his first $1.5 billion company—and the lessons he learned about what can go wrong.
  • The need to charge separate fees for asset management and financial advice, and why many advisors are charging too much for what they do.
  • How he decided on his hourly rate for advice.
  • The possibility of a AUM based fee existing inside a fiduciary framework
  • Whether ESG investing for most clients is a real trend, or just another way for asset managers to charge more.  

Resources:

Bogle’s Mutual Funds Perspectives Intelligent by John Bogle 

Connect With Rick Ferri:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Rick Ferri, CFA, is an hourly-fee adviser for cost-conscious do-it-yourself investors. Visit RickFerri.com for details. Rick has over 30 years experience in the investment industry including ten years as a financial consultant at two major Wall Street firms and the founder and former owner of a large portfolio management firm. Rick is a financial analyst, author, mentor for young advisers. Rick graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a B.S. degree in business and an M.S. in Financial degree from Walsh College in Michigan. Rick has published extensively including several books on index funds, ETFs and asset allocation. Major Ferri is also a retired Marine Corps veteran and flew fighter aircraft.

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4. Trends in RIA M&A with David DeVoe

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sponsored by: LPL

Across the board, many companies struggle with succession planning—some of this fear comes from human capital, and others come from misunderstanding of new trends in the industry. 

In this episode, David Armstrong, editor-in-chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks to David DeVoe, founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company to discuss his insight about mergers and acquisitions across RIAs of various sizes. David discusses the impact of COVID restrictions in the M&A space, and discusses the decision-making process when it comes to creating your succession plan. 

David discusses: 

  • How $1 billion+ RIAs are driving the record-breaking activity in deals.
  • What a “META” RIA is, and how they will change the industry
  • The percentage improvement in a firm’s valuation that comes from a mere 1% boost in growth.
  • The numbers that dispel the myth of the “seller’s market” for RIAs
  • How his own journey as an entrepreneur began in the surf shops of Santa Barbara

Connect with David DeVoe:

LinkedIn: David DeVoe
DeVoe & Company

Connect with David Armstrong:

david.armstrong@informa.com
WealthManagement.com

About Our Guest: 

David DeVoe is the founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company, a strategic advisor to RIAs.

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Episode 3 – Tax-Based Financial Planning –– With Holistiplan’s Kevin Lozer

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , , , , , ,

HolistiPlan’s planning software is an advisor-oriented tool that integrates a client’s tax return into their financial plan as a way to find more opportunities for “tax alpha.” The technology makes the tax analysis and planning process a scalable, structured procedure between advisors and their clients.

In this episode, David Armstrong, editor-in-chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks to HolistiPlan’s co-founder, Kevin Lozer about how he and his partner Roger Pine saw the need for the tool while running their own financial advisory firms; how they leveraged a small group of fellow advisors as beta testers and won an early XYPN fintech competition; and how they’ve expanded the software, and the team behind it, including bringing on board tax-planning guru Jeff Levine of Buckingham Wealth Partners as a tax-planning strategist.

You will learn:

  • How the idea for HolistiPlan came about
  • The big problem advisors have when it came to taxes and financial planning 
  • How winning the XYPN fintech competition put them on the map
  • How HolistiPlan keeps up with ever-evolving tax codes
  • The difference in software designed by advisors for advisors 
  • The future of the tax planning and software industry 

Resources: WealthManagement.com | LPL Financial | LPL – Advisor Innovation | David Armstrong | HolistiPlan | Kevin Lozer on LinkedIn | Roger Pine on LinkedIn | Jeff Levine on LinkedIn | XYPN FinTech Competition | NAPFA

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Episode 1 – How Do You Want To Live Your Professional Life –– With Mindy Diamond

Education, Finance, Financial, Uncategorized, Wealth, , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to Advisor Innovations, the newest podcast from WealthManagement.com.

In this inaugural episode, David Armstrong, editor in chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks with Mindy Diamond, a long-time columnist for the publication and its predecessor titles, the CEO of Diamond Consulting and one of the country’s leading consulting and recruiting firms for financial advisors. 

Mindy and David discuss the broad trends in why advisors work where they do, how the business models where advisors affiliate is changing, the state of the so-called “breakaway broker” trend, and why the line between the broker/dealer channel and the RIA channel are growing blurrier by the day.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • Why, and how, Mindy started Diamond Consulting.
  • How she has seen the industry change over the last 20 years.
  • The new firms that really have the traditional wire houses worried.
  • How the evolving platforms in the brokerage space are blurring the lines between the independent broker/dealer channel and the pure RIA channel.
  • The “push, pull” dynamic that drives advisors’ decisions around moving to a new firm.
  • The rise of the ‘middle ground’ professional options and multi-affiliate business models that sit between fully employed and fully independent.
  • Why money should never be the top reason to make a move (but it’s not unimportant.)

Resources: WealthManagement.com| Diamond Consulting | Mindy Diamond LinkedIn

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