The Big Picture

APRIL 19, 2023

Check out these recent headlines about the classic 60/40 investment strategy 1 : The 60-40 Investment Strategy Is Back After Tanking Last Year BlackRock Ditches 60/40 Portfolio in New Regime of High Inflation Why a 60/40 Portfolio Is No Longer Good Enough The 60-40 portfolio is back Sorry, but all of these headlines utterly miss the point. No, the 60/40 mix of stocks and bonds is not dead; No, this is not the first time we had a regime of high inflation, transitory or otherwise.

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The Reformed Broker

APRIL 15, 2023

I spent the week in Paris with the family and it was really an amazing trip. As you guys know I’m big on history and art and food and stuff so I had been looking forward to it for a long time. And the city did not disappoint. Other than the lack of ice cubes Some shots: The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, which played host to some amazing moments in the history of the world.

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Food 339

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 20, 2023

In any business profession, establishing credibility and trust are important to attracting clients and building a reputation amongst colleagues. A key method to do so is through appropriate business attire. Traditionally, business attire for financial advisors meant wearing the typical suit and tie in all instances of client-facing activities. Because psychologically, a suit and tie has been recognized for many years as a symbol of trust and credibility.

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Abnormal Returns

APRIL 20, 2023

60/40 portfolio What is the motivation of people telling you the 60/40 portfolio doesn't work? (cnbc.com) Cullen Roche, "We don’t know how risky the 60% slice of stocks is in the coming years. But we know, with a high probability that the 40% slice of bonds is becoming much more attractive." (disciplinefunds.com) Strategy Don't use inflation as an excuse not to invest.

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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.

Accounting

The Big Picture

APRIL 21, 2023

My fishing pal Sam Rines has spent much of this year pushing a thesis of “ Price over Volume” ; I found it a compelling narrative, one that fits in nicely with an apsect of inflation that I had originally underestimated: “Greedflation.” The Price over Volume thesis is both compelling and underappreciated. I hope you find his take thought provoking… -Barry Price over Volume remains a key theme this earnings season with PG’s earnings report the tip of the iceberg.

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Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 18, 2023

Welcome back to the 329th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! My guest on today's podcast is Charesse Spiller. Charesse is Founder and Principal Consultant for Level Best, an operations and process strategy consulting firm based in Houston, Texas. What's unique about Charesse though, is how she has founded a consulting firm that doesn’t just try to teach financial advisors how to systematize and automate, and instead actually works as an outsourced provider to build and impl

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Consulting Financial Advisor Education Accounting 246

Abnormal Returns

APRIL 21, 2023

CDs Short duration assets, like CDs, look good right now, but they do have risks. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Bank CD rates are at 15-year highs. The question is for how long? (nytimes.com) CD investors face reinvestment risk. (barrons.com) Strategy A little diversification goes a long way. (morningstar.com) What stocks would you pick if you had to hold them for 25 years?

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Financial Advising Banking Media Taxes 245

The Big Picture

APRIL 17, 2023

I mentioned a few weeks ago how much better Europe ‘s return to office rate was doing versus ours : 90+% RTO, while the USA is ~60%. I cannot speak to Europe, but that U.S. number is an average across all regions, industries, age groups, etc. In some parts of the country, it is appreciably higher or lower; as you might imagine, it varies greatly.

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The Reformed Broker

APRIL 18, 2023

Join Downtown Josh Brown and Michael Batnick for another round of What Are Your Thoughts? On this week’s episode, Josh and Michael discuss the biggest topics in investing and finance, including: ►Goldman/Netflix Earnings – Stocks edge higher. ►Too Bearish – Has bearish equity positioning gone too far? ►Small Business Stress – “Only 1 in 4 small businesses think they could stay open for.

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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.

Accounting

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 17, 2023

New client growth is the lifeblood of financial planning firms and there are myriad strategies for attracting qualified prospects, but many of these come with a hard-dollar or time cost for the firm. Which is why many advisors seek to leverage client referrals, where their clients refer family members, friends, or colleagues to the advisor. At the same time, asking clients to make referrals (and having the referred individual actually reach out to the advisor) can be challenging.

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Abnormal Returns

APRIL 19, 2023

Podcasts Meb Faber talks with Ramit Sethi about his new Netflix show 'How to Get Rich.' (mebfaber.com) Christine Benz and Jeff Ptak talk with Micah Hauptman who is the director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America. (morningstar.com) Morgan Housel on why you need to play your own (money) game. (open.spotify.com) Direct indexing Ten years of live numbers on a tax-loss harvesting program.

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Taxes Planning Retirement Accounting 246

The Big Picture

APRIL 15, 2023

 This week, we speak with Joseph Baratta , who since 2012, has served as Global Head of Private Equity at Blackstone – the world’s largest alternative asset manager, with $975 billion in assets under management. Baratta, who joined the firm in 1998, is also a member of the board of directors and serves on multiple management committees, as well as the firm’s investment committees.

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The Reformed Broker

APRIL 18, 2023

The ‘Investment Committee’ weigh in on the traditional 60/40 portfolio from CNBC. The post Clips From Today’s Halftime Report appeared first on The Reformed Broker.

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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.

Accounting

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 21, 2023

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that in a settlement with the SEC, robo-advisor platform Betterment agreed to pay a $9 million penalty for allegedly misstating the frequency that its automated tax-loss harvesting system was scanning some client accounts between 2016 and 2019, highlighting the importance of ensuring that marketing messages and services provided match, not only for robo-advisors, but for human

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Financial Planner Advertising Taxes Clients 246

Abnormal Returns

APRIL 18, 2023

Quant stuff The difference between the Spearman and Pearson coefficients. (mrzepczynski.blogspot.com) Traders often come up with a strategy and then try to justify it. (priceactionlab.com) Factors Factors aren't forever. How exposure decay over time. (alphaarchitect.com) The case for factor timing. (institutionalinvestor.com) Equity risk premium More evidence that the vast majority of stock market returns come from a handful of stocks.

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Portfolio Investing Investments Marketing 246

The Big Picture

APRIL 18, 2023

My Two-for-Tuesday morning train WFH reads: • With the Odds on Their Side, They Still Couldn’t Beat the Market : In 2022, conditions were heavily in stock pickers’ favor, but most trailed the market. This year looks worse. ( New York Times ) • Scary economists and bad news : The news cycle has swung back to recession talk, even as inflation is coming down and unemployment is at a 50-year low.

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Engineering Economics Taxes Economy 278

The Reformed Broker

APRIL 21, 2023

Welcome to the latest episode of The Compound & Friends. This week, Michael Batnick, Ben Carlson, Ric Edelman, and Downtown Josh Brown discuss regulators vs Bitcoin, advice for financial advisors looking to get in the content game, the 2023 banking crisis, the new 60/40, exponential technology, how AI will impact financial advice, longevity, and much more!

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Financial Advice Financial Advisor Banking Marketing 204

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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.

Banking

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 19, 2023

When an RIA reaches the threshold of $100 million in Regulatory Assets Under Management (RAUM), it must generally switch from being registered at the state level to registering with the SEC. But while $100 million may be the general rule, in practice it isn’t always a hard line. The reality is that volatile markets and shifting client bases can often cause an RIA’s RAUM to flutter above and below the $100 million line.

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Assets Management Investing Investments 244

Abnormal Returns

APRIL 15, 2023

Autos How trucks, including SUVs, have overtaken U.S. roads. (washingtonpost.com) U.S. school buses are next up for the electrification wave. (bloomberg.com) Does it make more sense to lease a new EV? (axios.com) The Chevy Bolt is a deal. (barrons.com) Energy A Q&A with Robert Zubrin author of "The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future.

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Food Medicine Financial Advising Numbers 246

The Big Picture

APRIL 15, 2023

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads: • Make Something Wonderful : Steve Jobs in his own words ( Steve Jobs Archive ) • Inside Rupert Murdoch’s Succession Drama : With the $1.6 billion Dominion lawsuit threatening to hobble Fox News, the ink on his divorce to Jerry Hall still wet, and his broken engagement to Ann Lesley Smith even fresher, it’s been a chaotic 12 months for the 92-year-old conservative media baro

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Electronics Insurance Media Taxes 277

A Wealth of Common Sense

APRIL 20, 2023

A reader asks: I manage my investment portfolio, largely with a very boring mix of three funds: U.S. index fund, international index fund and a total bond fund. Looking at the yield on my bond index fund, it looks like I may be able to get I better yield in a money market fund. Is there any reason to keep my bond allocation where it is rather than moving it into a money market fund?

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Investing Investments Portfolio Management 145

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

Numbers

Calculated Risk

APRIL 20, 2023

Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report released today from chief economist Danielle Hale: Weekly Housing Trends View — Data Week Ending Apr 15, 2023 • Active inventory growth continued to climb, with for-sale homes up 49% above one year ago. The number of homeowners shifting home listing timelines around spring holidays helped push active inventory growth up this week.

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Abnormal Returns

APRIL 19, 2023

Strategy Five real investing lessons from Warren Buffett's career. (realreturns.blog) The 60/40 portfolio never went away. (ritholtz.com) Is gold worth the headache? (savantwealth.com) Know what you own. (morningstar.com) Companies Netflix ($NFLX) is phasing out its DVD-by-mail business. (thestreamable.com) Did Meta ($META) kill the link-in-bio business?

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Financial Advising Startup Banking Media 242

The Big Picture

APRIL 19, 2023

My mid-week morning train WFH reads: • The Myth of the Broke Millennial : After a rough start, the generation is thriving. Why doesn’t it feel that way? ( The Atlantic ) • How 2022 Became a Record Year for US Income Taxes : An asset-price boom, a progressive tax code and inflation interacted to drive effective rates higher than ever. Now the process is working in reverse. ( Bloomberg ) • Tax season is getting longer.

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Taxes Assets Management Marketing 272

A Wealth of Common Sense

APRIL 18, 2023

Whenever there is an extreme move in the economy or markets most people want a simple explanation. We want a single variable to explain what just happened. Interest rates rose because of X. We went into a recession because of Y. Stocks crashed because of Z. But when it comes to something as complicated as the economy or markets, it’s never just one variable.

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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.

Financial Advice

Calculated Risk

APRIL 17, 2023

Altos reports that active single-family inventory was down 1.3% week-over-week. Inventory still hasn't bottomed seasonally. Click on graph for larger image. This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of April 14th, inventory was at 405 thousand (7-day average), compared to 411 thousand the prior week. Year-to-date, inventory is down 17.4%.

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Abnormal Returns

APRIL 18, 2023

Strategy Four questions you should ask yourself before making an investment. (behaviouralinvestment.com) Due diligence hasn't changed. (theinformation.com) AI What's holding AI in getting deployed in finance? (ft.com) AI is computationally intensive. (theinformation.com) Intel ($INTC) has stopped making Bitcoin mining chips. (coindesk.com) Apple Apple ($AAPL) devices just have better resale values.

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Financial Advising Taxes Media Economy 241

The Big Picture

APRIL 20, 2023

Over the past few years, I have been featuring more and more fund managers from the private equity space on the podcast. It is a fairly decent and continually expanding list. I was a little concerned about top-ticking PE but decided to ignore that worry. Lots of listeners had asked for more private credit, CRE, and PE investors; many of these folks who had previously maintained a low profile (~ the 2000s and 2010s) became more comfortable being more public this decade.

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