Tag: RIAs
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

By |

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.



Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More
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

By |

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More
Julie Littlechild on Client Feedback and the Engagement Engine

Julie Littlechild on Client Feedback and the Engagement Engine

By |

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.



Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More
Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

By |

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).



Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Feature Image
18. Advisor Innovations: Mark Bruno on Billion-Dollar RIA

18. Advisor Innovations: Mark Bruno on Billion-Dollar RIA

By |

Ten years ago, the idea of a $1 billion AUM client-facing RIA was hard to fathom. Today, the $100 billion RIA is the new hurdle, and a few have already crossed it.

That speaks to the incredible growth and whirlwind of mergers and acquisitions in the independent advisory channel, and few have watched that transformation as close as Mark Bruno, Managing Director at Informa Wealth Management, the home of Wealthmanagement.com, Inside ETFs and Wealth/Stack.  In this episode, David Armstrong talks to Bruno about the past decade, what’s fueling the growth of the most aggressive RIAs in the market and what that means for RIAs who are poised to join in the frenzy. Mark also reveals the evaluation drivers behind determining a businesses value and discusses the question of what the flood of private equity money in the space means for the future of the industry.

David and Mark discuss:

  • His tenure leading media and industry research efforts at Investment News as associate publisher and at boutique investment bank Echelon Partners
  • The explosion of mergers and acquisitions over the past decade, and why the velocity of deals is increasing
  • What growth funding from “outside” investors means for the wealth management space 
  • What valuation drivers mean the most to acquirers and investors;
  • The potential timeline of private equity investors and what they bring to the table in terms of professional management and M&A experience;
  • His plans for RIAEdge, a new initiative to create a business community around professionally managed RIAs with research and small-scale events to examine and understand the valuation drivers and dynamics of the fast-changing industry.  

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With Mark Bruno:

About Our Guest:

Mark Bruno is Managing Director, Wealth Management at Informa Connect. In his role, Mr. Bruno focuses on the expansion and enhancement of the organization’s Wealth Management media and event properties, which currently consists of WealthManagement.com, Inside ETFs podcast and the WealthStack podcast. He is also charged with driving several innovative new community and advisor-based initiatives.  

In addition, Mr. Bruno is overseeing strategic partnerships and acquisitions to accelerate Informa’s growth within the financial advisor and wealth management communities. Mr. Bruno brings over 20 years of experience in the wealth management and asset management industries to Informa, including prominent leadership roles in industry media, research, and consulting organizations. 

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Feature Image
4. Trends in RIA M&A with David DeVoe

4. Trends in RIA M&A with David DeVoe

By |

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Archives

Categories