Tag: Advisor
Advisor Innovations Podcast: Tim Maurer on Personal Finance is More Personal Than Finance

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Tim Maurer on Personal Finance is More Personal Than Finance

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Tim Maurer is a financial advisor and author who most recently took on the role of Chief Advisory Officer at SignatureFD. In this episode of the Advisor Innovations podcast, Maurer talks with David Armstrong about what, exactly, a Chief Advisory Officer does, and how he sees the lessons of life planning and qualitative financial advice being tactically implemented in advisor-client relationships. 

Tim  discusses:

  • Why he made the move to fast-growing RIA Signature FD after years at the larger Buckingham Wealth Management.
  • How he sees his role as a Chief Advisory Officer, and what it means to sit at the nexus between advisor development and the client experience. 
  • How he’s attempting to embed the lessons from behavioral finance and psychology into the relationship between clients and advisors. 
  • Why advisors who focus more on the qualitative side of financial planning, as opposed to the quantitative, are more successful.
  • How he makes a distinction between advisors as financial therapists, and financial coaches: Most advisors should follow the coaching model. 
  • What he’s learned from pioneers in the “life planning” field like Kinder Institute’s George Kinder and Money Quotient’s Carol Anderson
  • Most importantly, how the sometimes softer side of financial planning is being coded into advisory firm’s workflows and processes in a scalable, efficient way. 

Resources:

Connect With Tim Maurer:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Tim Maurer is a speaker, blogger, author, and financial advisor. As Chief Advisory Officer at SignatureFD he serves as an industry leader to the media and an educator to both consumers and financial advisors. He is a regular contributor to CNBC, Forbes, Time/Money.



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Advisor Innovations Podcast: Dumb indexes, “Smart” Beta and Intelligent Design—How Larry Swedroe Helps Advisors Make Sense of Investments

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Dumb indexes, “Smart” Beta and Intelligent Design—How Larry Swedroe Helps Advisors Make Sense of Investments

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For many advisors, Larry Swedroe needs no introduction; He’s the author of numerous books on investing, a frequent columnist in advisor publications, including Wealthmanagement.com, and the Head of Financial and Economic Research at Buckingham Strategic Wealth, one of the largest RIAs in the country.

He’s also active on social media where he can be found in sometimes heated debates with other industry luminaries on the merits of different compensation models for financial advisors, the dire prospects for most active stock managers, and what the latest academic research on investment management and the markets tells advisors about how to build better portfolios.

In this edition of the Advisor Innovations podcast, Swedroe describes how he views his work, why it is getting harder for active managers to generate alpha in the publicly traded markets, and where he sees opportunities for income in the increasingly accessible private markets. 

Swedroe discusses:

  • Why, in the face of growing evidence of subpar long-term returns, retail investors and active stock managers are proliferating.
  • How a three-year track record tells investors almost nothing about a manager’s long-term prospects.
  • Why “dumb indexes” don’t solve the investors’ problem, and why “smart beta” is an oxymoron and how investors are best served by “intelligently designed” portfolios. 
  • How some research shows stock turnover and management fees are the two variables that can determine active managers’ outcomes. 
  • Why easier access to private markets for investors, including interval funds, are a good option for some investors—himself included.
  • Where he is placing some of his investments now.

Connect With Larry Swedroe:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Larry Swedroe is a principal and the director of research of Buckingham Asset Management[1] and BAM Advisor Services. Previously, Larry was Vice-Chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage, the nation’s second largest home mortgage lender. He has held positions at Citicorp as Senior Vice-President and Regional Treasurer, responsible for treasury, foreign exchange and investment banking activities, including risk management strategies. Larry has an MBA in Finance and Investment from NYU, and a BA in Finance from Baruch College. He is the author of 17 books.

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Julie Littlechild on Client Feedback and the Engagement Engine

Julie Littlechild on Client Feedback and the Engagement Engine

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Advisors have long been aware that the better they know the client, the better client experience they can provide. Advisory boards and feedback surveys have been around forever to give the advisor some guidance over how to better engage with clients and prospects.  

In this episode, David Armstrong speaks with Julie Littlechild, founder and CEO of Absolute Engagement, on taking client engagement feedback to the next level. Littlechild recently launched the Engagement Engine, a digital platform that brings client feedback into real-time, ongoing metrics for the advisor. The idea is that through a series of questions and prompts, tucked unobtrusively alongside the standard client touch points and communications, advisors can instantly gauge a client’s confidence and fears, preferences and aversions, and plot some of that data over time to track and measure impact. It’s a game-changer in client engagement. 

Julie discusses:

  • Why client feedback is essential to creating preferred services.
  • How technology has changed the way feedback is collected and used.
  • The balance between personalized planning and managing an entire business worth of clients.
  • The development of the Engagement Engine, and the possibilities for using real-time client feedback across the advisor’s techstack, including the CRM. 
  • Thoughts on evolving from a consultant to a “tech entrepreneur”, putting together a killer board of advisors and what comes next for her company. 

Connect With Julie Littlechild:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Julie is a recognized expert on the drivers and evolution of client experience, client engagement. and referral growth. She is responsible for: designing the firm’s strategic vision and product roadmap, conducting on-going investor and advisor research, driving firm growth and representing the company on conference stages around the world.

 

Products are issued by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz). Variable products are distributed by its affiliate, Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC, member FINRA, 5701 Golden Hills Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55416-1297. 800.542.5427 www.allianzlife.com. This notice does not apply in the state of New York.

Allianz is not affiliated with WealthManagement or the featured guest.



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Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

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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

12. Christopher King on Advising Advisors About Cryptocurrency

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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

11. Brian Hamburger on The Advisor Transition Game

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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.

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

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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

4. Trends in RIA M&A with David DeVoe

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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

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

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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

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

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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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