Advisors

Martin Seay of FPA Source: Financial Planning Association Martin Seay’s term as president of the Financial Planning Association has, to say the least, been an eventful one so far. Not only has the coronavirus pandemic changed just about everything in the advisory industry, but the Black Lives Matter movement and the nationwide protests that have

A student leaves the Thurgood Marshal Elementary school after all Seattle Public Schools were abruptly closed due to coronavirus fears on March 11, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. Schools will be closed for a minimum of two weeks. The system is the largest public school district in Washington State. John Moore/Getty Images Distance learning got off

Jamie Grill | Getty Images I was raised one and two sentences at a time, my father’s clichés serving up life lessons at the kitchen table, after baseball practice or on the way home from school. He didn’t have the patience for long-winded lectures and couldn’t find his voice after biting his tongue at work

Natasha Alipour Faridani | DigitalVision | Getty Images The government’s release of data on businesses that have participated in the Paycheck Protection Program confirms what many in the financial advice industry already knew: Wealth management firms were among those to have taken the government loans. The data released by the Small Business Administration and Treasury

Bloom Productions Financial advisors are largely an optimistic bunch when it comes to growing their practices, new research shows. Yet they know they have some work to do to make that happen. While most advisors expect growth in their assets under management to come primarily from new and existing clients rather than market returns, they

miodrag ignjatovic The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak is  anything the world has ever experienced. Unlike the recession in the 1980s, the bond collapse of 1994, the Asian currency crisis or the 2008 subprime mortgage disaster, this is not a financial crisis. It is an economic crisis. And, although financial crises occur with

AleksandarNakic Our nation is facing unprecedented times, and financial advisors are facing upheaval when their clients need them the most. More than 40 million people have applied for unemployment benefits since early March, while the economic outlook remains grim. The Atlanta Federal Reserve projects that the nation’s gross domestic product during the second quarter will

Johannes Eisele/Getty Images The country is in a recession and it’s certainly unclear how long this downturn could last. Chances are that you or someone you know has taken a financial hit because of the sudden downturn. Now, the National Bureau of Economic Research has determined that the U.S. entered into a recession in February.

Just as many U.S. businesses were thrown off their guard by the coronavirus pandemic, so were financial advisory practices. Close to 1.8 million Americans have contracted Covid-19, and more than 100,000 people have perished from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Lockdowns to minimize spread of the disease have also battered the

Carlina Teteris This summer, it may become more difficult for investors to determine whether a financial advisor indeed has their best interests at heart. Starting June 30, financial advisors who are affiliated with broker-dealers legally will be required to place clients’ interests first when they give financial advice. This rule, which was handed down by the

Martin Seay, president of the Financial Planning Association and chair of the Personal Financial Planning Program at Kansas State University. Financial Planning Association The coronavirus pandemic has forced businesses of all kinds to rethink how they work and interact with customers. Financial planning is no different.  Martin Seay, president of the Financial Planning Association, perhaps

For the second time in 12 years, the U.S. economy and financial markets are facing an unexpected crisis of uncertain proportions. While the 2008 financial crisis and the current coronavirus pandemic are very different in character, both have produced extraordinary volatility in financial markets. Both downturns have also presented major challenges for financial advisors as they

Chad Springer It’s obvious we are living in highly uncertain times. Markets are extremely volatile, and monetary and fiscal policies change from day to day. Most clients are extremely anxious, unsure of how the market is going to move and how those moves will impact their portfolios. While financial advisors must continue being proactive –

Our brains are wired to look for danger and react quickly to an approaching attack; however, this most recent threat is invisible, but no less distressing to our primitive brains. Plummeting stock prices are sending some investors over the edge, leading to irrational behavior that has dire long-term financial repercussions. In his book, “Your Money

Photo by Ariel Skelley via Getty Images Markets have been a roller coaster ride in the weeks since the coronavirus pandemic reached the U.S. Most of the country’s financial advisors think we haven’t hit bottom yet, a survey finds. Despite periodic rallies — like Monday’s more than 7% rise of both the Dow Jones and

For decades, financial advisors have counseled clients that they should be able to safely withdraw 4% of their assets each year as a means of providing income, while maintaining an account balance large enough to keep income flowing through retirement. While some of the underlying thinking behind the so-called 4% rule was prudent, it was

There could be a tug of war brewing over which standard financial professionals should follow when they provide advice or sell products such as annuities to individual investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission is unveiling a new regulation, called Regulation Best Interest, which requires broker-dealers and professionals associated with them to keep their clients’ best

Sophia Bera, CEO and founder of Gen Y Planning. When financial advisor Sophia Bera founded her Austin, Texas-based practice in 2013, she decided to work primarily with millennial clients. Bera, then 29, wanted to help her peers navigate their early careers and the thorny financial issues, such as managing student debt and buying a first

Ariel Skelley | DigitalVision | Getty Images For some financial advisors, the person behind the assets is the key to providing the best investment advice possible. That is, awareness of the nuanced differences that distinguish clients helps those advisors construct investment portfolios based on more than, say, a person’s age and how long until they

PeskyMonkey | iStock | Getty Images The bull market in U.S. stocks rolls on. From the trade war between the U.S. and China and the slowdown in global economic growth, to Britain’s messy exit from the European Union and the potential impeachment of President Trump, nothing has dampened the enthusiasm for stocks. The American economy