Sat.May 21, 2022 - Fri.May 27, 2022

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I need your help with the IIA’s SOX Methodology for ITGC scoping

Norman Marks

Some years ago, the IIA developed a methodology that helps people use the top-down and risk-based methodology required by the regulators (required by the PCAOB for the audit firms and recommended by the SEC for companies) when it comes to determining which IT General Controls (ITGC) to include for SOX. The GAI Methodology (download it […].

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What Dominates Portfolios

The Irrelevant Investor

"Most portfolios are still dominated based on what's been great for the last decade" Greg Jensen, the co-CIO at Bridgewater was talking about this on the Odd Lots podcast. The last decade has been dominated by U.S. megacap tech stocks. And to Jensen's point, people are positioned for that trend to continue. This chart shows the 50 stocks that most frequently appear among the largest 10 holdings of hedge funds.

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Bear Market

Dear Mr. Market

Dear Mr. Market: Simple title. Simple reality. That’s exactly where we’re at right now. We’re not going to wait for the financial media to announce it or tell us that it’s only a bear market if we officially drop -20% or more. The intent of this article is to explain not only what a real bear market is, and how this one has behaved differently, but also what to do next.

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Making Up For Lost Time: Prepping for Return to Normal Spending in 2022

Walkner Condon Financial Advisors

I originally wrote this blog post in July 2021. I am updating the post as a great deal has changed in our lives since last summer. We are still dealing with the impact of COVID on a daily basis; albeit, it is in many different ways. Our consumer habits are much closer to pre-pandemic patterns. We are dining in restaurants and shopping in stores. Travel is returning to more normal levels as well.

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, 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.

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Risk and Strategic Intelligence

Norman Marks

One of the issues that has concerned me over the years is who is not only responsible for understanding what might happen (both risks and opportunities) but also has the capability to do so. The easy answer is that operating management is responsible for understanding, evaluating, and addressing what might happen that could affect their […].

More Trending

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Part 1: Identifying Your Target Audience & Personalizing Your Online Presence

Advisor Websites

It’s a dog-eat-dog digital world out there. With the enormous shift to digital marketing as of late, thousands of financial advisors are working hard to strengthen their online presence and generate more leads online, which brings new challenges to an already competitive landscape.

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The Better Letter: Say What?!

The Better Letter

I love Top Gun , the quintessential San Diego movie, and am excited to see the new sequel this weekend. But it offers the antithesis of critical thinking and scientific reasoning. “You don’t have time to think up there,” Maverick explains, the faintest glimpse of a furrow working its way across Tom Cruise’s perfectly airbrushed brow ( quoting a guy with the perfect film critic name, Adam Nayman). “If you think, you’re dead.” Critical thinking – sci

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Financial Services Challenges & Innovative Marketing Opportunities

Steven J. Wilson

Financial services companies are under constant pressure to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. They also face intense competition from other companies offering similar products and services. As a result, innovation is essential for financial services companies to stay ahead of the curve and meet the needs of their customers. However, innovation can […].

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Effective Strategies To Deal With Difficult Clients

BlueMind

Category: Client Relations. Every business has those clients that are difficult to deal with. These clients are usually irate, emotional, and short-tempered. Difficult clients are unavoidable in any business and while facing them, an advisor must have the temperament and patience to deal with them in a calm and professional manner no matter how unreasonable or inappropriate they might become.

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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

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.

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Inflation and the Stock Market

Integrity Financial Planning

In the news, we’re hearing a lot about inflation and the stock market. What do you need to watch out for and what does Brian have to say about it? After months of rising inflation, April’s inflation numbers went down the slightest bit. How do these numbers factor into a financial plan? Brian talks about a company that tracks inflation and how now compares to how it was calculated in the past.

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WFH

Conneqtor

Why did you choose to work from home? For me, it was to have more balance in my life. But what is work from home creep, and how do we avoid it? In a recent LinkedIn post, I shared my thoughts on Work From Home Creep after reading this article by The Atlantic here.

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SEO for Financial Advisors: Everything You Need To Know About Google Reviews

Twenty Over Ten

As a financial advisor, it can be difficult to market your firm and get your message out, especially with the rules and regulations that come with working within the financial industry.

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The Stock Market Is Down—What Should I Do?

Wealthfront

Stock market volatility can be unnerving. No investor, whether they’re new to investing or have been making deposits for years, likes to see the value of their portfolio go down—even if it’s just temporary. When the market takes a turn, some people will inevitably sell investments in an attempt to minimize their losses, while others […]. The post The Stock Market Is Down—What Should I Do?

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

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.

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Animal Spirits: The Most Obvious Recession Ever

The Irrelevant Investor

Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by YCharts: See here for YCharts' latest research on the real impact of mega-cap stocks on your portfolio. On today’s show we discuss: Strong household finances mean the Fed might have to do more $8 trillion in household wealth lost compared to the end of 2021 Softbank cutting startup investments 50-75% The average age of US vehicles hit a record 12.2 years New car prices continue to rise UK inflation hits 40-year high Fed will keep pushing until inflat

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How Financial Services Can Effectively Leverage Social Media

Steven J. Wilson

Financial services companies have long been struggling to harness the power of social media. The problem is that financial services are regulated industries, and social media platforms are largely unregulated. This means that financial companies must be cautious about the way they use social media or risk violating industry regulations. However, there are ways for […].

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Changing Direction Slightly

Aleph

Photo Credit: mark m || Every now and then, a change in tactics is justified. In 1994, there did come a limit where valuations of long debt undershot and started to come back. After more thought, the short-term yield effect of convexity hedging probably peaks out around 2.5-3.0% on 30-year mortgages. Unless the Fed becomes an aggressive seller of the their long bonds, and now-long MBS, I don’t see long rates going past their recent highs.

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What’s in it for Clients? 7 Ways They Can Benefit from an Advisor’s Transition

Diamond Consultants

Many advisors cite “improving client service” as the catalyst for a move—but knowing what the real impact will be is critical. What motivates top advisors who are knocking the cover off the ball to risk disrupting momentum by making a move? No doubt, every advisor wants to improve their ability to grow the business. But ultimately, most will share that the quest to deliver more – and better – service for clients drove them to make the leap.

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2024 Lending Outlook: Innovations and Evolutions in the Financial Sector

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.

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Recession

The Irrelevant Investor

The bad news is piling up. The recession that people are looking for may already be here. We heard about inventory buildup at Target and Walmart last week and the stocks responded with their worst day since.1987. Those were not isolated incidents. This week we heard the same from Kohl's and Abercrombie, whose stock is cratering 30% on the news. In other news, Snap just warned of an imminent slowdown.

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Love, Mastery, and High Job Performance with Marcus Buckingham

Steve Sanduski

Marcus Buckingham says love, the most powerful of human emotions, has been systematically drained from our lives – our work, teams, and classrooms, and it’s time we brought love back in. Does everyone who works for you spend at least 20% of their workday doing something that they love? More importantly, perhaps: Do you? According to work and leadership expert Marcus Buckingham, truly successful people don’t chase work-life balance.

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How will Restricted Stock Units impact my finances?

MainStreet Financial Planning

Many friends and clients are changing jobs these days as part of the Great Resignation which is making for a very competitive job market. In response, more and more U.S. companies are using equity compensation to attract and retain talent. The most common form of equity compensation given is Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Amazon, Apple, Google and other companies have recently announced that they will give existing employees additional RSUs to entice employees to stay.

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Quoted: Member Media Roundup

XY Planning Network

XY Planning Network members regularly serve as subject matter experts for major media outlets—impressive, we know. (We help make connections by inviting our journalist friends to submit requests for XYPN members' expert input using our media portal.) We've compiled this roundup of recent articles featuring some superstar XYPN member advisors.

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Pricing for Profit: How to Set, Negotiate, and Succeed

Speaker: Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader

In today’s competitive market, pricing is more than just a number — it’s the cornerstone of profitability. The right pricing strategy ensures that you capture the true value of your offering, paving the way for sustainable growth and long-term success. Join Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader, in this exclusive session where he will explore how a well-crafted pricing approach balances customer perception with business objectives, creating a powerful tool for securing both competitive advantage a

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Animal Spirits: Listener Mailbag

The Irrelevant Investor

Today's listener mailbag is brought to you by Rocket Dollar : Click here to get the Rocket Dollar Guide to Self-Directed Retirement Plans for free. We discuss: Wash sale rules and selling in a taxable account Where to invest after you're no longer allowed to fund a Roth IRA The Backdoor Roth Investing in the private markets Mortgage rates and HELOCs Buy a home now or wait for a dip later?

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First Meeting with a New Client—Preparation Checklist

Don Connelly & Associates

The first meeting with a new client should be a momentous event for both you and the client. For your client, it's the first opportunity to validate their decision to select you as their advisor. For you, it's the first opportunity to showcase your professionalism and reinforce your new client's decision. You both hope this will be the beginning of a long and trusting relationship.

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Examples of great things ethical financial advisors really like to do!

Envision Wealth Planning

Ethical financial advisors are on the rise and are now doing things within their businesses with the hope to serve as an example of the right behavior for the rest of the industry to follow. I’m tired of the nonsense “top advisor” lists based on AUM or how many Twitter followers somebody has. I feel that to proclaim that somebody is a top advisor based on AUM or Twitter followers is an abridgment of morality, and it is my goal to overshadow any media voice that claims such.

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Where do material errors occur in the financial statements?

Norman Marks

Every so often, the firm of Audit Analytics shares a report with information of interest. Their latest is 2021 Financial Restatements: A Twenty-One-Year Review. They introduce it: In this report, we cover twenty-one years of trends in financial restatements – including a closer look at the effect of SPACs on recent trends in financial restatements. […].

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Banking on Loyalty: Holistic Financial Advice for Unparalleled Business Growth

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.

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These Are the Goods

The Irrelevant Investor

Articles Let’s face it: there is no blueprint to be found in any of these stories. There is no shortcut to wealth (By Frederik Gieschen) I think we can now safely say inflation is not transitory. (By Allison Schrager) Financial systems tend towards instability (By Marc Rubinstein) The rules of the system are baked into the code. (With Mario Gabriele and Chris Dixon) Investors used to put a premium on growth.

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Financial automation in not for profit organisations

Accounting for Good

The post Financial automation in not for profit organisations first appeared on ACCOUNTING FOR GOOD.

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Market Update for April 2022

ModernAdvisor

April was a difficult month for equity markets around the world, while bonds continued to suffer. April 2022 Market Performance All index returns are total return (includes reinvestment of dividends) and are in Canadian Dollars unless noted. *Absolute change in yield, not the return from holding the security. April was a difficult month for equity markets around the world, […].