Life Events

A new exchange-traded fund is making the case that having women at the top of corporations translates into better returns.

Yep, you read that right. I’m about to teach you how to get new clients for less than $10 a month.

Any of the variable spending strategies I analyzed will reduce sequence risk in retirement and allow for greater initial spending rates, potentially greater average spending amounts, and a generally more efficient spenddown of assets than the baseline constant inflation-adjusted spending rule.

There’s one strategy that is not only a great wealth-building solution but is also triple tax-advantaged…

For the first time in decades, Wall Street strategists are collectively pessimistic about the stock market over the coming year.

Being flexible with spending matters. My analysis shows that variable spending strategies – including floor-and-ceiling, guardrail, actuarial and other methods – can dramatically increase sustainable retirement spending.

In the final analysis, Dan's confidence borne of providing good financial advice for 17 years proved meaningless.

If your clients still have jobs, this article will discuss what you can do to help them prepare for a possible layoff.

Gold investors are betting the Fed will continue to be negligent with its monetary policy.

When it comes to the clients they serve, advisors need to think about the now and the new, not the next, and step up their offerings in key areas.

What can we, as advisors, do to promote healthy finances?

Let’s explore whether the CFP Board, the most powerful and prominent organization supporting the advisory profession, can do more to support the adoption of a full fiduciary standard. We’ll also ask whether the CFP Board actually owns the trademark for “certified financial planner,” as it claims.

There are several ways to include philanthropic giving in your estate plan. Here are five common options.

Last year, most US investors and central bankers underestimated how high inflation would climb. Now they may be underestimating how high interest rates will need to go to bring it back down.

Like all trusts, a charitable trust is a legal entity that you create for the purpose of holding and managing assets. The trust is wholly separate from you. It owns any assets it holds, pays taxes and requires management just like any other legally recognized entity.

The United States must grasp the opportunity that the money revolution has made possible by undertaking a government-financed investment program in 21^st century industries and technologies on such a large scale that it would be certain to succeed.

It is far easier to engage people and reach them at an emotional level with video than with any other medium.

If a US recession is looming, no one told the smiling well-suited women and men drinking top-shelf liquor at Miami’s rooftop pools and mingling along Tampa’s bayside terraces during two top metals industry events.

“Geopolitical recession” doesn’t exist as a defined term. But it should, according to Ian Bremmer. If relations among global powers were framed in economic terms, we would be in the “bust” phase of the business cycle, he said.

There are four pillars for delivering and conducting the ultimate discovery meeting.

The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply troubling.

For RIAs, self-knowledge – which includes an understanding of the firm’s ideal client persona – is the first and most necessary step on the road to success and scalability.

Cathie Wood’s funds had a scorching start to the year and she wants investors to know it.

RIAs will be more financially successful, will retain and attract more investment assets, and will produce superior financial results for their retiree clients when they embrace new thinking that begins with the acknowledgment that, in practice, the safe withdrawal rate is a fiction.

Here are six steps to implement multiple niches, bring in new clients, and accelerate their growth goals.

No advisor would dream of engaging in the kind of behavior that occurred at Purdue University in early December.

If you are competing with the best of the best, how do you rise above the competition?

Paying down student debt or saving for retirement can seem like mutually exclusive goals. A little-known workplace benefit could soon allow more workers to do both.

Word is out among hedge fund managers on how to get tax breaks for giving to charity - without actually handing over their money just yet. They can even keep it in their funds.

Behind the five-decade low US unemployment rate of 3.5% lies a 2.6 million-person mystery.

Advisors must redesign their entire approach, starting from the client's point of view.

Let me share a story of an RIA who will be forced to mount a legal defense because of a lawsuit that is likely to be filed by two of his retired clients.

I've put together four steps to grow your client base – this month.

Here’s a worthy goal to contemplate for 2023: Reduce stress and anxiety in your life, especially from family. The benefits of achieving this goal are significant.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is making a $1 billion wager that small private equity firms without the heft of the biggest buyout institutions can boost the pension giant’s returns and clout.

Tight monetary policy and rising government debt will drive a regime of high interest rates, depressing stock prices and destroying the wealth of clients, most severely those at or near retirement.

The $6.5 trillion US ETF industry boomed in 2022 as innovative product debuts and market volatility fueled a near-record number of launches. But the fanfare revealed a major flaw in the space: the lack of women helming the funds.

Build your ladder with multiple target-maturity ETFs representing different segments of the bond market, with different target years.

Even after a year in which the vast majority of the wealthiest Americans lost a chunk of their fortunes — and in some cases, lost big — in at least one way, they’re still coming out ahead.

As we talk with and counsel our clients, they need to have the right emotional attitude about money and investing. And most of those attitudes center on concepts that are central to both investing and life in general.

Relative to the accumulation phase, strategies that mitigate the unique risks faced by retirees in decumulation are less understood and researched. By identifying and illustrating those risks, planners can better prepare clients for retirement.

Contrary to what financial theory predicts, new research from Europe shows that the elderly accumulate assets later in life than expected, likely because they want to leave bequests, are receiving pensions, or are reluctant to part with assets such as their homes.

I’m looking over my previous “trends” article, published at this time a year ago, and some of my ”fearless predictions” were outlandish then but now seem ordinary. That means I did something right.

They don’t make technology predictions like they used to.

Congress is on the verge of passing a bill called SECURE 2.0 to help American workers save for retirement.

The end of 2022 can’t come soon enough for many in the banking industry. Sputtering capital markets, job cuts, raging inflation, the crypto meltdown and rising interest rates marked a year of upheaval.

Grayscale Investments’ proposal to buy out certain holders of its flagship Bitcoin trust is the money manager’s latest bid to stanch losses in a fund that’s been a linchpin in the dramatic rise and fall of the cryptocurrency universe.

Over the years, clients have told me what resonated when I spoke to them. But there have been three situations that go beyond my expertise and ability to be helpful.

Here are nine tips that will help your family members stay healthy and financially secure as they age.

Allan Roth’s recent article, The 4% Rule Just Became a Whole Lot Easier, promises too much, makes inaccurate comparisons and blurs the notion of risk.

Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of trading in your traditional bank for a virtual banking experience.

“I have never seen so much bearishness in the market,” Jeremy Siegel said, “which is a great sign for stock investors.”

There are two types of tax-advantaged accounts for saving for college expenses: A Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) account and a 529 Plan. While both plans have their differences and advantages, consider both as viable options.

Things are looking up for people who are close to retirement, according to a Morningstar report published Monday.

The client had been with us for more than 15 years. When she left, I called her to ask if there was anything we could have done differently or better.

One thing to consider when opening a 529 plan is whether it should be a custodial or individual account. While both allow you to save for college costs and enjoy some tax breaks, they differ in terms of who has control of the account and the assets in it.