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1. S&P 3500 By Year End If QT Continues
“Don’t Fight the Fed” echoes through the financial media, Wall Street, and in the minds of retail and institutional investors. The phrasing pertaining to Fed-generated liquidity is often the sole basis for investors to chase bull markets when the Fed employs easy monetary policy. Unfortunately, some investors forget the phrase is equally meaningful when the Fed is not friendly to markets. As we share in this article, we have developed a model to track Fed liquidity, allowing us to quantify the Fed’s influence on the S&P 500. — Michael P. Lebowitz
2. Investigating I Bonds
Not many corners of the fixed income market are drawing rave reviews in 2022. That’s understandable as the widely followed Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index is down 9.13% year-to-date. Among the fixed income assets that are proving durable/less bad are, not surprisingly, those with positive correlations to inflations. However, that conversation doesn’t begin and end with Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). Thanks to I bonds, also known as I savings bonds, advisors have another option to add to the inflation-fighting toolbox. — Todd Shriber
3. Technology: Full Integration Is Key to Advisor Success
The right technology can make all the difference when it comes to a financial advisor’s success, especially in today’s competitive business environment. Recent innovations in financial technology have provided state-of-the-art applications to handle everything from client relationship management to investment modeling to billing and document production. — Axos Advisor Services
4. Long Term Returns Are Unsustainable
I realize that is a bold statement that flies in the face of mainstream analysis. How often have you seen the following chart presented by an advisor suggesting if you had invested 120 years ago, you would have obtained a 10% annualized return? — Lance Roberts
5. Where’s My Self-Driving Car?
Silicon Valley gurus told us we’d be commuting to work in robocars by now… In 2016, the CEO of ridesharing firm Lyft predicted driverless cars would “all but end” car ownership... Heck, even Tesla founder Elon Musk said robotaxis were just two years away… That was in 2015. — Stephen McBride
6. Should You Position Your Wealth Management Firm Like a Family Office?
What is the difference between wealth management and a family office? When we think of wealth management we think of someone who is taking care of our wealth, managing our money, and doing a little bit of goal planning and financial planning. When we think of a family office it's only reserved for the wealthy. Why is that? Is it because they do a better job of wealth management? Or is it because they do a better job of planning and advice — Grant Hicks
7. 3 High-Value Questions To Ask Prospects
A high-value question is one that brings value to either the person asking the question or the person being asked. For you, the advisor, the more context you have about a prospect or client, the more you are able to help them. Sometimes the value is perceived by the prospect or client in the form of learning something new and/or opening up their awareness and thinking to a new concept. — Bill Cates
8. Envestnet’s Ingenious New Marketing Campaign with Mary Ellen Dugan
Mary Ellen Dugan is the Chief Marketing Officer at Envestnet, a financial service company that empowers advisors and financial service providers with innovative technology, solutions and intelligence to make financial wellness a reality for everyone. Doug and Mary Ellen talked about Envestnet’s creative marketing campaign that meshes a beloved money-loving cartoon character with planning and investing in an informative way. — Permission to Succeed
9. Helping Advisors Harness the Power of AI
Over the past several years, there has been a great deal written about artificial intelligence (AI) from an investment perspective. And to be sure, AI and robotics are disruptive, industry-altering concepts. Indeed, AI proliferation is disrupting the financial advisory industry, but not just in the ways many advisors think of first, such as automated investing platforms. As FP Alpha proves, AI has tangible benefits in everyday endeavors, including estate planning. That’s right. Estate planning – one of the pillars of advisors’ offerings – can be enhanced thanks to AI. — FP Alpha
10. What Is the Real Return on Client Engagement?
Every now and then I find myself having a conversation and wonder, much later, if we were actually talking about the same thing. Client engagement is a case in point. Most, if not all, advisors I speak with tell me client engagement is a goal. At the same time, I have yet to find two people who define it in exactly the same way. The reality is that it’s easy to set goals that ‘sound right’. But it’s very hard to achieve those goals without a clear and shared definition of exactly what you're aiming for and what drives you toward that outcome. And yet it happens all the time. — Julie Littlechild
11. Three Trends That Will Help Define the Green Transition
While soaring energy prices, conflict in Ukraine and the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic still dominate headlines around the world, the secular transition to a sustainable economy continues to evolve. Indeed, the disruptions and shortages in fossil-fuel supply only reinforce the need for and significance of this green transition, however distracting short-term crises may be. Here, we highlight three trends that we believe are crucial to the green transformation – and which could present opportunities for sustainability-themed investment strategies. — Vishal Banè
