As the age-denying Baby Boomer generation grows older, it may need your help to face reality. The growing gap between the Boomer and Echo-boom generations is highlighting the fact that...

Retirees may be in for a surprise when they discover that Medicare will only pay for 51% of their health care expense instead of the 68% they guessed on a recent survey.   Over half of...

With many life-planning programs providing training to advisors to help them advise clients on the “soft side” of money, here’s a a simple but effective low-cost methdology for...

FINRA plays a significant role in alerting the SEC to insider trading infractions. As an industry watchdog, the regulatory group gathers information on firms even beyond their broker-dealer scope...

Fiduciaries have a duty to monitor and evaluate their target date funds’ (TDF) performance, but what's the right benchmark?

When news broke last Wednesday about the reintroduction of legislation that would make FINRA the regulator of RIAs, all of the advisor trade publications covered the story. Financial Planning even...

Harold Evensky, long a leading voice in the movement to make the financial advice business a profession, is joining the board of governance for the Retirement Management Analyst (RMA) designation....

Setting up a succession plan to segue your business to junior partners sounds like a great idea. But it may be a difficult one to implement. Issues segueing advisors face include how much...

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) estimate of the cost to setup, operate and oversee a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for investment advisers (IA) underestimates overhead...

The European Central Bank (ECB) has stopped lending to some Greek banks in an effort to mitigate risk. The ECB is pushing Greek banks to take responsibility for their own recapitalization before...

As many as 40% of advisors participating in a recent survey no longer believe the basic 60/40 portfolio allocation is effective in balancing returns with investment risk. Many pointed out a need...

The so-called fiscal cliff was a noted concern when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met in April according to minutes released in May. Expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, the payroll tax...

Developing a successful team may seem to be as simple as finding people with complementary skills. Yet, that simple formula has the potential to work against you and to create a group of people who...

As I write this article, I’m feeling pretty good from a cash flow standpoint.  After all, the market was cooperative last quarter and my bank account is grateful.  I, like most of...

Whether you're a rookie or 20-year-plus veteran, at some point you’ve probably experienced an inability to make contact with enough prospects to keep your sales pipeline full. 

Advisors incorporating social media into their marketing are overlooking a vital link to success. The failure to translate social media involvement to the bottom line of a business is not an uncommon...

  A recent video blog post demonstrates why target marketing is so important.

A recent white paper highlights the role of broker-dealers in helping advisors stay on top of their game in what it takes to acquire affluent clients.The industry is changing not only from an...

Lists of apps abound, but this one happens to be unusual. It includes an app to turn your Android into a metal detector, send a text to your phone after you've misplaced to change from your ring from...

MIT media lab-developed has developed an open-source software application essentially facilitates cross-application and cross-device data exchange through swipe gestures.

I haven’t followed the developing field of augmented reality but a post about Nokia City Lens going to beta test caught my eye. It’s further evidence that Microsoft is on the comeback...

Economic cyber crime may not be the topic of popular crime shows but it has the #2 spot on financial services firms’ radar. Misappropriation is the first concern with 78% of firms falling...

If you are not paying A4A’s $60 a year fee, please do. I’ve been slowly going about the droll business of getting sponsors. This is not how I want to spend my time. But we do need...

At dinner last night here at the FPA Business Solutions in San Francisco, an advisor who manages a successful practice told a story about how he came to buy his practice from its former owner....

Scott Martin just posted a little ditty about a story in Financial Advisor magazine featuring a couple of advisors who have built successful firms in these challenging times. It's a great story....

When advisors face a complex tax-planning situation, they’re often quick to refer the client to outside help. A better result would be to understand the basics of these advanced strategies...