The Big Picture
AUGUST 12, 2024
I’m deep in my book writing work discussing federal debt when I see a tweet that simply epitomizes the entire genre. Full disclosure: My priors on federal debt are that I don’t know where the line of too much should be drawn, but I do know that none of the terrible things we were warned about over the past 50 years due to excess debt have come to pass.
Abnormal Returns
AUGUST 11, 2024
Top clicks this week Good luck trying to figure out the stock market these days. (sherwood.news) The stock market is not economy, and vice versa. (awealthofcommonsense.com) On the differences between individual bonds and bond funds. (humbledollar.com) What to do the next time the stock market tanks. (tonyisola.com) You may be surprised by what Olympians eat.
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Nerd's Eye View
AUGUST 28, 2024
Historically, advisors haven't had many avenues to manage clients' 401(k) plan accounts, since unlike traditional custodial investment accounts, advisors generally lack discretionary trading authority in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Which wasn't necessarily a big issue back when most clients hired advisors after they had already retired and were able to roll over their employer plans into an IRA managed by the advisor; but as advisors have increasingly taken on working-age clients (and t
A Wealth of Common Sense
AUGUST 18, 2024
After the Great Financial Crisis, everyone was trying to figure out how it would impact the coming wave of millennials entering adulthood. Millennials were getting blamed for killing everything — napkins, diamond rings, chain restaurants, motorcycles, bar soap and more. Sure, whatever. The one that never made sense to me was all the pundits predicting millennials would never buy a home or move out of big cities.
Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System
Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.
Advisor Perspectives
AUGUST 20, 2024
US job growth in the year through March was likely far less robust than initially estimated, which risks fueling concerns that the Federal Reserve is falling further behind the curve to lower interest rates.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Big Picture
AUGUST 11, 2024
Our story so far : Stuck at home over the pandemic, it was a perfect time to revisit a pastime of my youth – buying cheap beater cars, and turning them into something fun and worthwhile. Only this time, I have a lifetime of experience with what does and doesn’t work well, along with a somewhat more generous budget. All of this got restarted about a decade ago; I was personalizing a 2013 flood salvage-title Rubicon ; it reminded me how much fun it was to do these little projects.
Abnormal Returns
AUGUST 25, 2024
Top clicks this week 15 sure-fire ways to lose money in the markets. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Successful investors have a long time horizon. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Stop paying attention to stuff that doesn't matter. (behaviouralinvestment.com) What do you get when you buy a share of Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.B)? (sherwood.news) It's not your imagination, market moves are getting faster.
Nerd's Eye View
AUGUST 21, 2024
Irrevocable trusts lie at the heart of a variety of estate planning strategies, as gifts to irrevocable trusts can allow for the transfer of assets outside of an owner’s estate for estate tax purposes with more structure than an outright gift. The downside, however, is that irrevocable trusts are "irrevocable" and can't easily be undone; in moving assets to the trust, the original owner gives up their authority over the assets, with the trustee taking over the management and distribution o
A Wealth of Common Sense
AUGUST 27, 2024
The firehose of information we’re afforded these days is a double-edged sword. There is an abundance of news, analysis, charts and opinions but it can all be overwhelming if you don’t have an effective filter in place. When it comes to finance I have some filters to help understand which types of sources and people to safely ignore. These are the types of financial voices and data I immediately ignore: Pricing.
Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant
Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.
Wealth Management
AUGUST 23, 2024
According to the federal complaint calling for a class action, the firm’s policies “maximize profits for UBS while at the same time disregarding its clients’ best interests.
Carson Wealth
AUGUST 5, 2024
Houston, We Have Turbulence The S&P 500 fell 2.0% last week, declining for the third consecutive week, but unlike the past few weeks, this time the selling was across the board. Economic data last week showed the economy slowing more than expected, adding to worries about a potential recession. We still think a recession can be avoided, but risks have increased.
The Big Picture
AUGUST 10, 2024
The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads: • The End of Spam: Robocalls and texts… your days are numbered : The industry blasting your phone with spam calls and texts is about to implode. The feds could throw a wrench into the opaque, sometimes sketchy, and incredibly lucrative lead-generator industry. ( Sherwood ) • The Well-Off People Who Can’t Spend Money : Tightwads drag around a phantom limb of poverty, no
Abnormal Returns
AUGUST 19, 2024
Markets There is big difference between politics and policies when it comes to investing. (optimisticallie.com) 20 pandemic darlings that have yet to rebound. (investmenttalk.co) Companies Couche-Tard seeks to buy US$31 billion owner of 7-Eleven stores (bnnbloomberg.ca) Why Carl Icahn and Icahn Enterprises ($IEP) just settled with the SEC. (ft.com) How the cannabis landscape is changing.
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Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.
Nerd's Eye View
AUGUST 28, 2024
Historically, advisors haven't had many avenues to manage clients' 401(k) plan accounts, since unlike traditional custodial investment accounts, advisors generally lack discretionary trading authority in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Which wasn't necessarily a big issue back when most clients hired advisors after they had already retired and were able to roll over their employer plans into an IRA managed by the advisor; but as advisors have increasingly taken on working-age clients (and t
A Wealth of Common Sense
AUGUST 20, 2024
There’s plenty of investment advice out there based on what one must do to be successful. You don’t see many people who take the opposite approach and talk about what you shouldn’t do. There are many ways to succeed as an investor but only a few avenues to failure. Here are some surefire ways to make poor investment decisions: 1. Pretend you’re smarter than the market.
Calculated Risk
AUGUST 19, 2024
Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 0.8% week-over-week. Inventory is now up 41.4% from the February seasonal bottom. Click on graph for larger image. This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of August 16th, inventory was at 698 thousand (7-day average), compared to 693 thousand the prior week. This is the highest level of inventory since June 2020 ; however, inventory is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Wealth Management
AUGUST 12, 2024
Our columnist sees the future of wealthtech in a small band of young entrepreneurs solving the “lead generation” problem.
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As we step into 2024, the lending landscape evolves rapidly with technology, regulations, and market dynamics driving change. For banks and financial institutions to stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of their customers, these drivers must be understood and engaged with. Lenders can anticipate significant transformation fueled by technological advancements, regulatory shifts, and changing consumer behaviors.
The Big Picture
AUGUST 2, 2024
This week, we speak with Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. Achuthan met his mentor, Geoffrey H. Moore, at Columbia University in 1990; they formed ECRI with Anirvan Banerji in 1996. He serves on the board of governors for the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. In 2004, he co-authored Beating the Business Cycle: How to Predict and Profit From Turning Points in the Economy.
Abnormal Returns
AUGUST 18, 2024
Also on the site When it comes to finances, you are on your own. No one is coming to save you. (abnormalreturns.com) Top clicks this week Callie Cox, "Your portfolio’s success depends on your behavior during the wild panics." (optimisticallie.com) Big up and down days in the stock market tend to cluster. (downtownjoshbrown.com) There is nothing normal about the distribution of angel investment returns.
Nerd's Eye View
AUGUST 16, 2024
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that a total of 26 broker-dealers, investment advisers, and dually-registered firms agreed to pay combined civil penalties of almost $400 million for failing to maintain and preserve required records for "off-channel" communications, signaling the regulator's interest in cracking down on text messages and other communi
A Wealth of Common Sense
AUGUST 16, 2024
I’m a neat freak, so occasionally, I clean out my office and re-organize. While doing so earlier this week I came across an old Life magazine a reader sent me a number of years ago. It’s from June 1962 and the stock market was the cover story: The pictures are fantastic. So was the lede of the story: The signs, like rumblings of an Alpine ice pack at the time of thaw, had been heard.
Speaker: Joe Buhrmann, MBA, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC® Senior Financial Planning Practice Management Consultant eMoney Advisor
During an era of evolving consumer preferences, the banking sector is undergoing a profound shift. As customers continue to broaden their perspectives, banking professionals must support their customers' financial wellness by providing holistic financial advice that aligns with individual goals and circumstances. Without adapting, financial institutions will find that loyalty may crumble amid uncertainty.
Calculated Risk
AUGUST 7, 2024
From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey Mortgage applications increased 6.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending August 2, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 6.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
Wealth Management
AUGUST 1, 2024
The finding is part of a broader Cerulli report examining the opportunities and challenges surrounding the use of alternative investments in the retail channel.
The Big Picture
AUGUST 28, 2024
Why Fees Really Matter with Eric Balchunas , Bloomberg Intelligence (Nov 8, 2023) Fees matter more than you think. Over the long term, the difference between a few basis points can turn into real, big money. On this episode, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas joins us to discuss how fees can significantly impact your portfolio. ~~~ About this week’s guest: Eric Balchunas is been an ETF Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.
Abnormal Returns
AUGUST 7, 2024
Markets Good luck trying to figure out the stock market these days. (sherwood.news) Mortgage spreads have room to come down. (axios.com) Strategy The stock market is not economy, and vice versa. (awealthofcommonsense.com) What to do the next time the stock market tanks. (tonyisola.com) 'Don't panic' isn't necessarily helpful advice. (edgyoptimist.substack.com) Disney Disney ($DIS) warns about theme park weakness.
Speaker: Carolina Aponte - Owner and CEO, Caja Holdings LLC
In today's rapidly changing business environment, building a resilient balance sheet is crucial to the survival of any business. A resilient balance sheet allows a company to withstand financial shocks and adapt to changing market conditions. To achieve this, companies need to focus on key strategies such as maintaining adequate liquidity, managing debt levels, diversifying revenue streams, and prioritizing profitability over growth.
Nerd's Eye View
AUGUST 23, 2024
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that a new study indicates that while financial advisory firms are largely satisfied with their tech stacks, they take a range of approaches to applying tech: from "innovators" that invest in tech to differentiate themselves from their competition and to enhance the client experience to "operators" that invest in technology largely to improve operations and internal efficiency
A Wealth of Common Sense
AUGUST 4, 2024
Boy that escalated quickly. Markets sold off in a hurry this week. The S&P 500 is down almost 6% from the recent highs. The Nasdaq 100 is in an 11% drawdown. After an extremely calm year, the past week or so has finally seen some volatility in the stock market. Here’s the thing — it’s what happened before this that was not normal: This really cool chart came out a couple of weeks ago (via Sherwood).
Calculated Risk
AUGUST 8, 2024
From Dodge Data Analytics: Dodge Momentum Index Expands Another 8% in July The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI), issued by Dodge Construction Network, increased 7.9% in July to 216.3 (2000=100) from the revised June reading of 200.5. Over the month, commercial planning increased 6.8% and institutional planning expanded 11.1%. “While data centers have had an outsized influence on nonresidential planning activity in recent months, more momentum is building across many other major sectors and diversifyin
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