When Do I Amend My Tax Return?

What if we missed a form? What's the procedure for that? In that case we may need to amend our tax returns. For anyone who thinks that may have to do that, here is some information to help it be as painless as possible.

source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/when-do-i-amend-my-tax-return-10524/

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Apr 29-30)

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the big news that TD Ameritrade has struck a deal with DFA that will cut transaction costs for DFA mutual funds by as much as 67% (down to $9.99/trade), potentially setting off a new pricing war with the other RIA custodians when it comes to asset managers that refuse to pay sub-TA and other revenue-sharing fees back to the platforms.

From there, we have several articles about marketing, including a look at what you should (and shouldn’t) be measuring for success when engaging in social media, how a face-to-face request can be 34 times more effective than just sending an email (though with the ability to send a high volume of emails, the latter can still be more productive in certain situations!), and when it makes sense to try to publish a book as a financial advisor (hint: don’t do it for the book sales, do it for the credibility it gives you to attract more clients, and get a ghost writer to help you put your thoughts down on paper if necessary).

We also have a number of practice management articles this week, focused around the theme of attracting and retaining next generation talent, including: how advisory firms are starting to formalize their career tracks as a way to compete for young talent, why having clearly written job descriptions (including criteria for advancement) are crucial to become an “employer of choice”, why it matters that you formally write down your business’ “core values” (and how to get started), why attracting and retaining next generation talent is essential to build an enduring business that has transferable value, and some tips for next generation advisors looking to buy into an advisory firm (and how to think about the risk of doing so).

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of personal and professional change: the first is a look at how a key role of the financial planner is helping clients to change and adapt to an uncertain future, but our own role as financial planners is changing as the nature of money itself continues to change and evolve; the second is a look at a financial advisor who was struggling with a near-failing advisory firm, and ultimately went through a process of deep self-reflection to figure out what it would take to turn it around (including a hard look at whether he really wanted to be a business owner or not, and how much income he really wanted and needed to feel successful); and the last is a fascinating look at how the Great Depression was one of the nation’s darkest and most stressful times, but also a period of tremendous productivity growth and invention, which helps to serve as a reminder that while it’s not always fun to feel stressed, it’s actually the stress that helps to drive us forward to achieve the things that ultimately help to bring financial success… and personal happiness, too. (So if you are wishing your life was less stressful… be careful what you wish for!)

Enjoy the “light” reading!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-29-30/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-29-30

Three Reasons to Track Finances Year Round When You’re Self-Employed

Being your own boss can be liberating and terrifying at the same time. You set your own hours, decide your path and keep what you earn. You are also responsible for finding new work, building relationships and you aren’t paid...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/self-employed/three-reasons-to-track-finances-year-round-when-youre-self-employed-30736/

What Does It Take To Really Specialize In Working With Retirees?

In the world of financial advice, focusing on retirement planning has long been the most popular strategy. And the reasoning is quite straightforward. Just as bank robber Willie Sutton once explained why he robbed banks – “Because that’s where the money is” – working with retirees means working with clients who have already accumulated substantial assets, and working with them on the retirement transition in particular means an opportunity to engage a new client when there is “money in motion”. Except there’s just one problem: really specializing in working with retirees entails far more than just managing retirement rollovers!

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we delve into what it really takes to specialize in working with retirees, with expertise that spans far beyond just creating a diversified retirement portfolio. 

In part, the challenge is simply that effectively managing a retirement portfolio, and the distributions that occur from it, is about more than just managing the investments themselves. Because retirement portfolios also have to face sequence of return risk – the possibility that even if the portfolio generates the desired long-term return, if it achieves that return with an unfavorable sequence, ongoing distributions could catastrophically deplete the portfolio before the good returns show up! As a result, the best strategy for retirement income isn’t necessarily the one that produces the best return.

But frankly, retirement income issues just scratch the surface of what it really means to specialize in retirement and retirees. There are also issues such as planning for the timing of Social Security benefits, retiree-specific tax planning, making Medicare and other health insurance decisions, health issues more generally, housing wealth and reverse mortgages, housing lifestyle choices and whether to “age in place” or utilize a Continuing Care Retirement Community, handling cognitive decline and the problems that come with it, and even the emotional issues associated with death, grieving, and losing loved ones. These are the issues that retirees face, and need help with – and this is the kind of expertise advisors need to truly differentiate themselves as being retirement experts!

Of course, this all raises the question of how you actually learn to be a true retirement specialist in the first place, and where to learn all of this other stuff? Fortunately, there are some retirement-specific designation programs, such as the Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP) program from the American College, the Certified Retirement Counsel (CRC) program from InFre, and the Retirement Management Analyst (RMA) program from the Retirement Income Industry Association, as well as specialized training programs, and a growing number of specialized conferences, too. In fact, while there are probably too many “generalist” financial advisor conferences already, we may need even more specialized conferences in the future, to support the increased importance of specializing into a niche!

But the bottom line is that if you want to be a financial advisor who truly specializes in retirement planning and working with retirees, it is going to mean doing a lot more than just focusing on a client’s retirement portfolio. It’s going to mean developing a much deeper understanding of the strategies and issues that are unique to this specialization!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/retiree-specialist-designations-investment-news-retirement-income-summit/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=retiree-specialist-designations-investment-news-retirement-income-summit

Buying Happiness And Life Satisfaction With Greater Cash-On-Hand Reserves

The classic view of cash in the world of investing is that it’s something to avoid, or at least minimize. To the extent cash is truly needed for immediate or near-term liquidity, holding some may be a necessity. But the investment goal is always to hold as little cash as possible, and put the rest to work on your long-term behalf.

Except a recent research study by Ruberton, Gladstone, and Lyubomirsky finds that maintaining a healthy level of cash-on-hand (or at least in a checking or savings account) appears to improve our feelings of financial well-being and life satisfaction. And the relationship holds up even after controlling for income, spending, and other investments, as well as age and employment status. In other words, no matter how much total wealth and income we have, we’re just not as happy unless it’s also accompanied by a healthy pile of cash (or at least, a sizable and readily available bank account).

From the investment perspective, it’s purely irrational for anyone to need to hold a substantial cash balance above and beyond what’s needed to cover actual near-term spending needs. But the research results are more understandable given the research on mental accounting, that we tend to bucket our holdings into groups of current income, current assets, and future income (or at least, assets to fund future income). Which means even if we have ample income, and ample assets for future income, we’re just not content until we also have a healthy allocation to current assets. Which in practice, means cash (or at least cash equivalents).

As a result, rather than always encouraging clients to fully deploy their available cash, perhaps instead it would be better for advisors to start by asking clients “how much cash do you need to hold to feel comfortable and sleep well at night”, and then invest what’s left around that constraint. Because in the end, what’s the point of trying to invest a little more cash for a little more return, if in the long run greater wealth buys little additional happiness anyway, but having more-than-enough cash today may have a more positive impact on financial well-being? Or viewed another way, perhaps holding some comfort cash is not “under-investing”, but simply giving up on extra yield as a way to “buy” a little more financial contentment?

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/buying-happiness-life-satisfaction-wellbeing-with-cash-on-hand-reserves-ruberton-gladstone-lyubomirsky/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=buying-happiness-life-satisfaction-wellbeing-with-cash-on-hand-reserves-ruberton-gladstone-lyubomirsky

Financial Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Roommate

Splitting bills with a roommate can be a pretty sweet deal. I’ve known people who attended graduate school without going into debt or steamrolled through their student loan payments because they shared their place. Unfortunately, finding the right roommate can be tricky....

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/financial-questions-to-ask-before-choosing-a-roommate-30699/

#FASuccess Ep 017: Using Social Media and Blogging to Drive Business Growth As A Reformed Broker with Josh Brown

Welcome back to the seventeenth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

This week’s guest is Josh Brown, a financial advisor and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and regular guest on CNBC’s The Halftime Report, but known to most in the financial advisor community through his prolific presence on social media – including more than half a million Twitter followers – and his popular finance blog, The Reformed Broker.

What’s fascinating about Josh, though, isn’t just that he’s active on social media, but that his firm has been able to turn it into real business growth. As having broken away to become an independent RIA with less than $100M of AUM in late 2013, Ritholtz Wealth Management has grown in under four years to a 13-person firm managing nearly $500M in AUM. In fact, Josh and his team get anywhere from 10-30 inbound prospect inquiries each week now, thanks to the constant publication of valuable (and entirely free!) content produced through the blogs of Josh, firm founder Barry Ritholtz, and several other advisors-who-also-write in the firm.

In this episode, Josh tells the story of how he became one of the best known voices in the industry, after starting out doing cold-calling for nearly a decade in a number of small regional broker-dealers before finally deciding to make the switch to become an investment adviser, and how the trajectory of his entire career was changed when he decided it was worth racking up some credit card debt to accept an invitation to a financial conference where he ended up meeting his future business partner. Josh also talks about how his own role in the firm has shifted and evolved as the business has grown, and the steps he takes to make sure he’s still working on the business and not just in the business.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Josh shares some of the books that have been most influential to his career, and the advice that he offers to anyone – whether a newer advisor, or an experienced one – on how to get started if you want to build your own digital presence with blogging and social media.

So whether you’ve been curious to learn how an advisory firm with a prolific blogging and social media presence turns free content online into real business, or want to hear the story of how a cold-calling broker ultimately broke out to success by becoming an investment advisers, or just want some ideas on how to build your own business with more digital marketing, I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/josh-brown-ritholtz-wealth-reformed-broker-podcast-social-media-blogging-to-drive-business-growth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=josh-brown-ritholtz-wealth-reformed-broker-podcast-social-media-blogging-to-drive-business-growth

Advisor’s Guide To Choosing The Best Portfolio Rebalancing Software

For many advisory firms, portfolio rebalancing technology is one of the single most important pieces of technology that they have. While other software is certainly important – from a CRM for managing client relationships, to eSignature for streamlining account opening and administrative processes, to financial planning software for helping guide your clients long-term financial plan – arguably no other piece of software is impacting your clients’ portfolio on a regular basis more than rebalancing software. Yet, amongst a sea of different options and software features, it can be hard to know which solution is best for you and your clients.

In this guest post, Craig Iskowitz, CEO and founder of Ezra Group (a management consulting firm providing advice to the financial services industry on marketing and technology strategy), shares some of his own thoughts on the best portfolio rebalancing software available, including portfolio management features, pricing, integrations, user experience, and more! Reviews include all the major rebalancing software providers, from iRebal and Tamarac, to TradeWarrior, tRx, and RedBlack!

And arguably, in today’s environment, the need for rebalancing software is even more urgent to stay competitive, with the rise of “robo-advisors” that can already automate rebalancing, along with tax loss harvesting. The good news, though, is that as the original “robo” solution for portfolio automation, all the major rebalancing software platforms can handle this… and more! But only for advisors who are willing to move away from portfolio rebalancing Excel spreadsheets!

And so, whether you currently have a rebalancing solution and want to ensure it is up to date, know that it has been a while since you’ve evaluated rebalancing options and want to get started with the process, or haven’t been convinced of the value of rebalancing software and are still using spreadsheets or calculating rebalance trades by hand… I hope that you find this guest post from Craig to be helpful!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/best-portfolio-rebalancing-software-comparison-review-features-and-costs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=best-portfolio-rebalancing-software-comparison-review-features-and-costs

5 More Ways to Boost Your Next Year’s Tax Refund Now

I recently talked about five ways to get a bigger tax refund next year so it lasts into summer. Well, I told you I would have more to help you keep more money in your pocket. Here are five more tips on how to do just that.

source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/5-more-ways-to-boost-your-next-years-tax-refund-now-17199/

Happy Earth Day! 5 Savings Tips to Enjoy the Outdoors

Today marks Earth Day, a time to branch out of your indoor routine and enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer. Along with the tradition of planting trees, there are many ways you can celebrate the outdoors on a dime!...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/happy-earth-day-5-savings-tips-to-enjoy-the-outdoors-19624/

5 Ways to Boost Next Year’s Tax Refund Now

It’s oh-so-nice to get a tax refund in the spring – wouldn’t it be great if you could get one in the summer as well? Sorry, tax refunds come but once a year, but the next best thing is to get a bigger tax refund next year so it lasts into summer. Here are five tips on how to do just that.

source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/5-ways-to-boost-next-years-tax-refund-now-17107/

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Apr 22-23)

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with a fascinating new report from Morningstar, finding that the industry’s shift to adopt T shares and Clean shares under DoL fiduciary could improve mutual fund returns in the aggregate by as much as 0.50%/year, through a combination of cost savings and the anticipated pressure of advisors to adopt lower-cost fund choices (over comparable higher-cost ones). Also in the news this week was the announcement that front-end advisor software provider Oranj was purchasing portfolio rebalancing software provider TradeWarrior, and the blockbuster deal that private equity firms Stone Point and KKR were buying a 70% stake in Focus Financial valued at $2 billion (and helping to validate that the RIA aggregation/roll-up model is far from dead).

From there, we have a few articles about advisor technology this week, including a Joel Bruckenstein review of the new FinMason risk tolerance assessment tools, a head-to-head comparison of Redtail CRM versus Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, and a brief review of new advisor screensharing software app ScreenMeet.

We also have a number of marketing and sales related articles, including: why meetings with prospects should always include two people from the advisory firm, ideally with different and complementary sales styles (e.g., one “charmer” and one “analytic”); why the presentation of an advisor’s physical office space really matters (and when it makes sense to invest into an interior designer to get help!); and how to handle the looming “marketing wars” that may soon emerge in the increasingly competitive advisory landscape.

We wrap up with three interesting articles, all on the theme of big data: the first is a look at how a number of tax prep services offered free tax preparation this year, from TurboTax to H&R Block and even Credit Karma, as the providers are realizing that not charging for tax preparation, and using tax filers’ big data, has even more income potential, whether to recommend tax strategies, credit cards, or loan refinancing deals; the second looks at the recent launch of USAFacts, a new initiative from former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer, that brings together Federal, state, and local government data to understand where tax dollars go, and the results they achieve, in a way that no one has been able to produce before; and the last is a discussion of behavioral economics professor Dan Ariely’s new “Common Cents Lab”, that is partnering with FinTech software providers to run behavioral finance “experiments” and harness the value of big data to understand what it takes to actually help consumers change their financial behaviors for the better!

And be certain to check out the video at the end – the start of a new video series being offered from journalist and financial consumer advocate Dan Solin, that provides simple 1-minute video tips for consumers, and can even be embedded by financial advisors directly onto their own websites for free (just be certain to include proper attribution back to Solin!).

Enjoy the “light” reading!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-22-23/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-22-23

Why Conferences Don’t Need More CE, They Need Better (Practice Management) Content

One of the most common challenges these days for financial advisor conferences is deciding whether or how much practice management content to include. On the one hand, a practice management session that has just one material takeaway that impacts the advisor’s business can generate a good ROI for the entire conference. On the other hand, practice management isn’t eligible for CFP CE credit, and most practice management sessions end out having a lower turnout. Does that mean it’s time to give CE credit for practice management sessions to equalize the playing field?

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we delve into the issue of whether conferences should still offer practice management sessions, and why the real problem isn’t really about whether practice management is eligible for CE, but simply that almost any particular practice management session will only be relevant to a small subset of advisors! 

In fact, the irony is that the most common reason financial advisors ask for CFP CE credit from conference sessions is not because it’s hard to get CFP CE credit, or that we need to go to a conference to get it. It’s because a lot of conferences have mediocre sessions… which means if we as advisors are going to attend, at the least we want some CE credit as a consolation prize for the time and dollars spent! And with so many conferences unwilling to invest into paid speakers, and still relying on sponsors to fill their speaking slots – despite the fact that most sponsors have a long history of delivering sales pitches in lieu of real education – it is no surprise that CE is a common demand. If you expect the content to be mediocre, the CE is the only remaining reason to bother showing up!

But when it comes to good content, the value of the content can more than pay for itself, regardless of CE credit. And good content can come in the form of a technical session or practice management. In fact, financially, good practice management content – that provides real takeaways that can be implemented to make meaningful changes in the business – can actually provide a much higher ROI than technical content. And in point of fact, it really is the conferences that spend the most time and effort (and in some cases, hard dollars) on content that are seeing the most growth and financial success!

The caveat when it comes to practice management content, though, is that even the best session isn’t likely going to be useful for all advisors, or even most of them. After all, a great session on selling a firm won’t be valuable to the majority of advisors who currently aren’t looking to sell their firm anytime soon. A great session on technology won’t be valuable the large number of advisors whose platform makes the technology decisions for them. And a great session on marketing won’t be valuable for the large number of paraplanners or associate planners who don’t have business development responsibilities. Which means even the best practice management speaker will rarely draw a large crowd for a practice management session. But that doesn’t mean conferences should avoid this content altogether! Rather, they should be careful about how it is scheduled – put practice management content in breakout time slots, paired with different content for those who won’t find the session relevant, and be cognizant only to put practice management speakers into general sessions if their content is truly relevant to the whole audience!

Ultimately, as CFP and other types of CE becomes more and more commoditized and accessible from many sources at a low cost, the value in attending a conference is not the CE. Advisors may leave audience feedback requesting CE, but that’s not a sign they truly need CE – it’s a sign that the conference needs better content, so the audience isn’t demanding CE as a consolation prize!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/practice-management-cfp-ce-financial-advisor-conference-content-quality-relevance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=practice-management-cfp-ce-financial-advisor-conference-content-quality-relevance

Goodbye Tax Season! But Wait, What Records Should I Keep?

The tax deadline has come and gone – time to breathe a sigh of relief! But before you throw all of your tax documents up in the air to celebrate the occasion, we need to discuss just how long you...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/goodbye-tax-season-but-wait-what-records-should-i-keep-19660/

Dynamic Programming As A Methodology For Financial Planning Retirement Projections

While most financial planners are familiar with the leading practitioner-based research in retirement planning – for instance, Bill Bengen’s 4% safe withdrawal rate studies – the reality is that economists have actually developed their own research approach to evaluating financial planning trade-offs, including optimal strategies for retirement spending and asset allocation. Notably, though, the two tracks of retirement planning research employ substantively different approaches – where practitioners most commonly “test” a particular retirement plan or strategy to see if it’s sustainable (or not), while economics researchers try to create models that can be optimized. However, the gap between these distinct lines of research and practice are beginning to blur, as practitioner-oriented research becomes more sophisticated, economic research becomes more practical, and computing technology makes it easier than ever to conduct complex analyses.

In this guest post, Derek Tharp – our Research Associate at Kitces.com, and a Ph.D. candidate in the financial planning program at Kansas State University – takes a deeper look at dynamic programming, a economics-based methodology for conducting financial planning retirement projections, that introduces new opportunities beyond traditional financial planning software in optimizing retirement spending and asset allocation, and may be outright superior in projecting and modeling how retirement spending and asset allocation might change over time, based on whatever future market returns turn out to be.

The core of the dynamic programming (also known as dynamic optimization) approach is really just a methodology of solving larger problems by breaking them down into smaller problems. In the context of financial planning and retirement projections, it’s about taking a long term retirement plan, and breaking it down into a series of sequential retirement years, each of which can then be optimized based on what happened (or didn’t happen) in the preceding years. What’s powerful about dynamic programming, though, is its capabilities to model a greater number of retirements that might all vary at the same time; for instance, dynamic programming could allow spending (consumption), asset allocation, investment returns, and longevity to all vary at the same time, and then truly optimize the financial plan across all of those variables at once – rather than the more manual process of testing “a plan” and then repeatedly tweaking it with “What If” scenarios until a client is satisfied with it, as is more common amongst practitioners today.

A key advantage of dynamic optimization is that a single dynamic programming analysis also has the potential to provide guidance about what to do now and in the future in a way that a one-time Monte Carlo projection cannot. Dynamic programming can do this by effectively providing a three-dimensional road map of how over time a retiree might adjust spending, and adapt the allocation of their portfolio, based on the actual investment returns that are experienced in the future. And, by being more responsive to an individual’s consumption preferences and investment returns that are experienced, dynamic programming not only helps guide retirement spending decisions that are better suited to an individual’s unique goals and desires, but it may increase a retiree’s consumption in retirement, as prior research from Gordon Irlam & Joseph Tomlinson has found that dynamic programming can provide significant enhancements in retirement income over traditional rules of thumb utilized by advisors. Financial planners who want to explore dynamic programming further can explore products such as Gordon Irlam’s AACalc or Laurence Kotlikoff’s ESPlanner.

Ultimately, it’s still not clear that there’s one “right” way to do retirement planning. Whether it is Monte Carlo versus historical… goals based versus cash flow based… or dynamic programming versus non-optimizing approaches… all can provide different insights, which in turn can help guide decision for clients given the risks and sheer uncertainty they face in planning for retirement. But in the end, if the whole point of doing financial planning is at least in part to come up with an actual plan for how to handle an uncertain future, dynamic programming provides a unique toolset that isn’t available in today’s traditional financial planning software solutions… at least, not yet!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/dynamic-programing-irlam-tomlinson-methods-for-financial-planning-optimization/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dynamic-programing-irlam-tomlinson-methods-for-financial-planning-optimization

Happy Tax Day!

Today is the last day to file your taxes, which means you have until 11:59 PM local time to e-file your tax return. For those of you who have already filed your taxes, congratulations on getting your #TaxesDone! If you’re...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-news/happy-tax-day-22882/

#FASuccess Ep 016: Building Authentic Client Relationships By Practicing Skills (Not Pursuing Passions!) with Deena Katz

Welcome back to the sixteenth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Our guest this week is Deena Katz, the co-chairwoman of Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial, a $1.6 billion independent RIA in Coral Gables, Florida. In addition, Deena is an author, editor, and contributor to 9 books on financial planning and wealth management, including 3 specifically on practice management for financial advisors… one of which had a tremendous impact on me when I was early in my own career!

More recently, Deena transitioned from financial advising to academia, and is now a professor in the financial planning program at Texas Tech University as well! Though in point of fact, Deena’s transition to becoming a professor isn’t entirely surprising, because she was also a teacher early in her career before making the change into financial planning almost 40 years ago.

In this interview, Deena talks about the early years of financial planning, how she and her partners established one of the first sizable fee-only financial advisory businesses, and how she was able to break through in her own career – at a time when there were even fewer female independent advisory firm owners – by adopting a niche of working with recently widowed and divorcee women.

We also talk a lot about the delivery of financial planning itself, and various business models, including why it is that Deena’s firm does not provide full-length comprehensive financial plans to new clients anymore (and instead breaks up their financial planning process into modules over the first year), the simple process her firm uses to demonstrate its ongoing financial planning value over time, and why success isn’t about following your passion but practicing your skills instead.

And be certain to listen to the end, where we talk about various types of financial advisory business models, the future of the AUM model, and the infamous question of whether it’s better to charge separately for financial planning, or not.

So whether you’re looking for perspective on the future of financial advisor business models (from a woman whose firm has tried almost all of them at some point or another!), ideas in how to get your growth going by focusing into a niche, or are looking for inspiration about how to get started in your financial planning career from here (especially as a woman in a still-male-dominated industry), I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/deena-katz-evensky-foldes-podcast-building-authentic-relationships-practicing-skills-practice-management/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deena-katz-evensky-foldes-podcast-building-authentic-relationships-practicing-skills-practice-management

5 Things You Need to Know About Filing a Tax Extension

Many people believe that a tax extension is somewhat of a cure-all. Don’t have the money to pay taxes? File an extension. Still trying to get everything in order? File an extension. However, the tax extension isn’t exactly what it...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-filing-a-tax-extension-14166/

Tomorrow is the Tax Deadline: 7 Things You Need to Know to File on Time!

The tax deadline is upon us! If you haven’t filed yet, you are not alone. Most people who are due tax refunds file early in the year, so you might be one of the taxpayers who hasn’t filed because you...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/tomorrow-is-the-tax-deadline-8-things-you-need-to-know-to-file-on-time-22834/

The Virtue Of The Weekly Advisory Team Staff Meeting

Anyone in a growing business has had the displeasure of being stuck in an unproductive meeting. At best, they happen from time to time. At worst, the day is so filled with unproductive meetings that it seems like there’s no time left to actually get anything done… leading many to want to just eschew internal team meetings altogether.

Yet the reality is that done well, meetings can be a mechanism to keep your team on the same page, working towards the right priorities, accountable on a weekly basis to getting things done, and provide a crucial opportunity for everyone to work together on solving the business’s biggest challenges from week to week.

Accordingly, the real problem is not that “(team) meetings are bad”, but that “bad (team) meetings are bad”, and that the remedy is to formulate a better structure to the weekly team staff meeting in the first place, with time to review key business data, evaluate the tasks that need to be done, prioritize for the coming week, and then take more than half the meeting time to actually solve problems that are occurring in the business!

Personally, I’ll admit that I was a long-time skeptic of having a weekly team staff meeting – having spent an incalculable amount of my own time in unproductive meetings over the years! – but have ultimately found that the pulse of the weekly team meeting really does become the heartbeat of the business as it moves forward!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/financial-advisor-weekly-team-staff-meeting-agenda-wickman-traction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=financial-advisor-weekly-team-staff-meeting-agenda-wickman-traction

Unable to Pay Your Tax Bill? Here’s What To-Do

It doesn’t feel great to file your tax return and find out you owe money. It’s like getting an unexpected bill or discovering your car won’t start! But just like your mechanic might offer you a payment plan, the IRS does too. You actually...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/unable-to-pay-your-tax-bill-heres-what-to-do-19548/

3 Days Left to File! TurboTax Experts Share Their Favorite Tax Tips

Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Well, that’s how we feel about tax season! April 18th is quickly approaching, and even if taxes aren’t your definition of fun, check out some favorite tax tips straight from our very own...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/3-days-left-to-file-turbotax-experts-share-their-favorite-tax-tips-30596/

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Apr 15-16)

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the interesting announcement that TD Ameritrade is raising its revenue-sharing agreements for its advisor referral network, as the DoL fiduciary rule looms along with the assimilation of hundreds of Scottrade retail branches that could soon turbocharge the advisor referrals coming through the network… and both raising questions about whether this will kick off revenue-sharing increases at other custodians as the struggle for advisor growth becomes more widespread, and also raising concerns about how abruptly TD Ameritrade distributed the news and made the change (giving advisors barely two weeks to agree to a substantial change in terms or be kicked off the referral platform). Also in the news this week is an emerging trend that advisors are getting more political in their communication with clients – what was traditionally a third rail never to be touched in client meetings – and whether doing so is really bad for business, or might actually be good to help attract like-minded prospective clients with similar beliefs.

From there, we have a few articles about regulatory trends, including: a deeper look at how the DoL fiduciary delay until June 9th (and delay of the full Best Interests Contract Exemption until the end of the year) may still not be enough to really deter the fiduciary rule from taking effect; the trends in the 401(k) marketplace for more advisors offering 3(38) services instead of operating as just a 3(21) fiduciary; and an interesting list of other regulatory battles for financial advisors that may be looming (including a potential “fiduciary lite” proposal that could come from the SEC on the titles that advisors use when holding out to the public).

We also have a number of investment-related articles this week, from a look at the rise of “evidence-based” investing, to a theoretical exploration of why it is that stocks continue to persistently outperform bonds (even when we “know” they’re going to outperform, which theoretically means an efficient market should bid up their prices until they don’t outperform anymore), a fascinating new study that shows how incredibly skewed stock returns really are with the entire wealth creation of the US stock market actually coming from just 4% of all stocks (and half the wealth creation from just 0.3% of them!), and a retrospective look at how TIPS have done for the past 20 years since they were first introduced in 1997.

We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first is a look at how the recent United Airlines incident is an example where having “too many” rules to manage behavior actually caused a breakdown in the system (which has significant implications regarding how many fiduciary rules should or shouldn’t be prescribed for advisors); the second is an important reminder that advisors should not market themselves as being “conflict-free” just because they’re independent, because all advisory models still have at least some conflicts of interest; and the last is a good reminder of why at least some regulation is necessary in most industries, because otherwise it’s just too easy for marketers to take advantage of low barriers to entry and communicate in a way that misrepresents their products (but lets them profit before anyone realizes the profit that has been caused), and thus why smart and ethical marketers (and financial advisors?) should recognize that some level of regulation is actually a positive (both for consumers, and in providing clear guardrails to practitioners).

Enjoy the “light” reading!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-15-16/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-15-16

Tax Tips for Last Minute Filers

This post can be found en Español here. The deadline to file your taxes is right around the corner: Tuesday, April 18! Between work, your children, activities and everyday responsibilities, it is very common to leave your taxes to the...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-tips-for-last-minute-filers-22827/

Why The Latest DoL Fiduciary Delay Is Likely The Last

This past Tuesday, April 10th, the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule and its requirement for advisors to engage in a Best Interests Contract with their clients, didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen because last week the Department of Labor finalized a new regulation which enacted a 60-day delay to the applicability of the rule, which means the final DoL fiduciary rule is now scheduled to take effect June 9th, instead. Yet while many commentators have been suggesting that we’ll see further delays until opponents of the DoL fiduciary rule ultimately kill it, I wouldn’t be so sure of that, and particularly when you delve into the details of what this delay actually said.

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we delve into the fine print details of the recent DoL fiduciary 60-day delay, why it was actually more like an 8-month delay for many key provisions, and why that actually reduces the likelihood of more DoL fiduciary delays!

First and foremost, the new regulation that enacted a 60-day delay (shifting the applicability date for the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule out until June 9th), was actually a 63-page regulation with a number of key changes, and even a few surprises. First, while the new definition of “fiduciary” is delayed until June 9th, the requirement to actually fully implement the Best Interests Contract Exemption (the crux of the new fiduciary rule) was delayed until the end of the year. Which means that the Impartial Conduct Standards (that advisors must give best interests advice, for reasonable compensation, and make no misleading statements) will go into effect on June 9th, but the remainder of the new disclosure rules, policies and procedures requirements, and enforcement mechanisms – such as the ability to bring a class action lawsuit against Financial Institutions for fiduciary breach – will not go into effect until 2018.

This delay is important to acknowledge because, contrary to much speculation, it ultimately reduces the likelihood of further delays! Segments of the industry have been fighting hard against DoL fiduciary – lobbying the DoL, suing the DoL for overreach and hastiness, lobbying Congressional Republicans to block it, and ultimately lobbying the current administration for a delay. But as I noted immediately following the election, the rule is still a done deal, finalized and formally adopted last year. Which is ultimately why President Trump didn’t unwind the rule, but instead, only issued a proposal to consider whether to delay another 60 days. And based on the prior lawsuits over the “hastiness” of the rule (which was originally developed over five and a half years!), it’s hard for opponents to now come back and say the rule should be killed or substantially changed in as little as 60 days! Especially when 90% of the 193,000(!) public comment letters received by the DoL were against even the 60-day delay! It’s getting harder and harder to substantiate further delays to the rule now.

In fact, it seems that the only real path currently open for significant delay would be if a new regulatory impact analysis can shed new light on why the fiduciary rule would be somehow harmful after all, and undermine the prior cost/benefit analyses that have been conducted. Yet it’s not clear how the industry would make that case, particularly given so many studies out there about the financial services industry’s conflicts of interest, and how consumers are being harmed by those conflicts. And with the 45-day comment period to conduct a “Regulatory Impact Analysis” closing next week on April 17th, it’s not clear how the DoL would possibly have enough time to substantively review the comments, propose a new rule, subject that rule to another comment period, take that feedback, complete a final rule, and submit that rule to the OMB for review and approval, and publish that new fiduciary rule in the Federal Register, all by June 9th.

In other words, the 60-day delay may have literally delayed the rule, but it’s just not long enough of a delay to actually stop the rule. And when the industry’s own lawsuits have claimed that the 5-and-a-half-year process of creating the rule was “too hasty”, it’s hard to make the case for substantively changing it in 60 days anyway. Even a re-delay will actually be challenging now, as with so many of the Best Interests Contract Exemption requirements pushed out to 2018, arguably the industry already has gotten an additional 8 months to adjust to the rule – which means advocates can emphasize that there’s no reason to delay the applicability past June 9th anymore.

Notably, this doesn’t mean that the rule won’t be changed at all – modifications are still a definite maybe, perhaps around certain aspects of the policies and procedures requirements, disclosure obligations, or even the class action lawsuit provision. But the bottom line is that for all of the talk about the DoL fiduciary rule dying or going away, it really doesn’t appear to be happening. So, if you haven’t finished your preparations for the DoL fiduciary rule, I’d really encourage you to start doing so now!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/dol-fiduciary-delay-april-10-june-9-regulatory-impact-analysis-comment-period/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dol-fiduciary-delay-april-10-june-9-regulatory-impact-analysis-comment-period

Is This Deductible? My Volunteer Work

How do you spend your spare time? Many people spend time giving back to their communities. Whether you volunteer at your children’s schools, the  animal shelter, or participate in a local clean-up effort, you may be one of the people...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/is-this-deductible-my-volunteer-work-30599/

You Can Deduct That? 6 Surprising Tax Deduction Tips for Telecommuters

Working remotely offers professionals quite a few perks. No commuting, a comfortable office space and less stress are typically what comes to mind. But what about the tax benefits of working from home? Those exist, too! Let’s review some of...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/you-can-deduct-that-6-surprising-tax-deduction-tips-for-telecommuters-30498/

The Taxation Of Reverse Mortgage Loan Proceeds And Interest Payments

A reverse mortgage allows homeowners to borrow against their primary residence, without making any ongoing payments; instead, interest simply accrues on top of the principal, and most commonly is not repaid until the homeowner either moves and sells the home, or when it is sold by heirs after the original owner passes away.

The caveat, however, is that if reverse mortgage interest accrues annually instead of being paid, it cannot be deducted each year under the “normal” rules for deducting mortgage interest. And a similar caveat applies to mortgage insurance premiums, which might be deducted (at least, if Congress reinstates and extends the rules that lapsed at the end of 2017), but only if they’re actually paid – which, again, typically isn’t the case with a no-payment reverse mortgage.

Of course, the reality is that when the loan is ultimately repaid in full – even if all at once – the accrued mortgage interest and mortgage insurance premiums do become deductible at that time when actually paid. The problem, though, is that if compounded for enough years, the size of the deduction may be too large to use… or at least, the liquidating homeowner (or heir) may need to plan to create income in the year the reverse mortgage is paid off, just to ensure there’s enough income to be offset by the deductions.

Furthermore, reverse mortgages can also complicate the tax deductibility of real estate taxes. To the extent real estate taxes are paid directly – even as a cash payment with proceeds from a reverse mortgage – they remain deductible. However, with the HECM reverse mortgage’s new Life Expectancy Set Aside (LESA) rules, it’s not entirely clear whether real estate taxes paid directly from the set aside are fully deductible in the same manner, or whether they might have to be accrued and claimed at liquidation, similar to the reverse mortgage interest deduction and mortgage insurance premium deduction!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/hecm-reverse-mortgage-interest-deduction-insurance-premiums-and-real-estate-taxes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hecm-reverse-mortgage-interest-deduction-insurance-premiums-and-real-estate-taxes

What To Expect When You’re Expecting…a Tax Refund

Ready for your tax refund? You’re not alone! Close to 75% of taxpayers received a federal tax refund close to $2,800 last year! TurboTax is now accepting tax returns, which means you’re one step closer to receiving your maximum tax...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-refunds/what-to-expect-when-youre-expectinga-tax-refund-20980/

#FASuccess Ep 015: Why Life Planning Is Simply Financial Planning Done Right With George Kinder

Welcome back to the fifteenth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

This week’s guest is George Kinder, who is known to most as the “father” of the life planning – a way of holistically delivering financial planning that focuses on delving into clients’ real goals, beyond just their financial concerns, in an effort to help them use their money to deliver freedom into their lives.

What’s fascinating about George, though, is that he didn’t start out trying to create a movement towards life planning. George was actually a math major at Harvard, who then became a CPA (and earned the Bronze Medal for the third highest score in his entire state on the CPA exam!), and only began to explore the intersections between financial planning and psychology after forming a niche financial advisory practice delivering advanced tax strategies for self-employed psychologists and therapists!

In this episode, George talks about his early career and the inception of life planning itself, how he ultimately transitioned away from and sold his financial planning firm to teach life planning full time, his now-famous three questions that he asks of new clients to get to know them and begin the life planning process, and the five pursuits that most clients articulate in the life planning process… which rarely have anything to do with “traditional” financial planning goals like retirement! Though notably, George doesn’t view life planning as an alternative to financial planning, but simply as “financial planning done right”.

So whether you’ve been curious to learn more about life planning in particular, or are just looking for ideas about a whole new way to approach financial planning (and differentiate yourself in a crowded financial advisor marketplace!), I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/george-kinder-institute-life-planning-podcast-seven-stages-maturity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=george-kinder-institute-life-planning-podcast-seven-stages-maturity

Do You Know These 6 Tax Facts?

Tax Day is almost here! Did you file your taxes early or are you waiting for that last weekend? For those procrastinators out there: get started now and you’ll be done before you know it. We ask you simple questions and...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/do-you-know-these-6-tax-facts-30573/

Finding Absolute Engagement To Get Unstuck In Your Advisory Firm

One of the greatest strengths of providing ongoing financial planning and investment management for an AUM fee is also the model’s greatest challenges: because the revenue is recurring, and industry retention is so high, as long as advisors can survive long enough, they can eventually accrue enough clients to build a sizable business. Thus, one of the greatest predictors of an advisor’s income, and the size of his/her business, is simply the number of years the advisor has been in practice.

However, the fact that advisory firms steadily accrue (and rarely lose) any clients means that eventually, the growth of the business will necessitate hiring. And then more hiring. And at some point, there are so many clients, and so many employees serving them, that the advisor ends up spending more and more time doing tasks in the business that aren’t enjoyable, and less and less time working with the clients he/she once enjoyed.

In a new book entitled “The Pursuit of Absolute Engagement”, industry consultant Julie Littlechild studies how financial advisors and their firms can unwittingly veer off course, and what it takes for the advisor to become re-engaged in the business again. Because the reality is that failing to do so can eventually lead to a point of burnout, where the advisor loses control of the business – and instead it feels like the business controls you!

Ultimately, the path to finding meaningful engagement with the business again is all about (re-)creating its future with a specific intent – to identify the kind of clients that you enjoy working with, the kind of work you enjoy doing for them, and the role in the business that is the most personally engaging and fulfilling for you. For most advisors, the idea of finding a focus – to the exclusion of clients and tasks that don’t fit the mold – is terrifying, both for the change it entails, and the risk to the business. But as Littlechild points out, the truth is that for many advisors, the best path forward for future growth is all about focusing in on the right clients, the right work, and the right role, that helps the advisor find “Absolute Engagement” – because when you’re truly engaged in the business, your newfound energy is likely to do more to propel the business forward than any other business strategy could have accomplished anyway!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/absolute-engagement-book-review-julie-littlechild-avoiding-burnout/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=absolute-engagement-book-review-julie-littlechild-avoiding-burnout

How Going Green Saves You Green on Your Taxes

We all know that turning off the lights when you leave a room can add up to big savings on your electric bill. And keeping a moderate finger on the thermostat during the summer and winter months can make a...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/home/how-going-green-saves-you-green-on-your-taxes-22548/

8 Last Minute Tax Tips to Help You File Before the Tax Deadline

There’s just a little over a week left in the tax season. If you still have not filed, don’t worry there is still time and TurboTax can help you with these 8 last minute tax tips to get you to...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/8-last-minute-tax-tips-to-help-you-file-before-the-tax-deadline-22738/

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Apr 8-9)

Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the big news that the DoL fiduciary rule was in fact delayed this week, not only with a 60-day delay to the applicability date itself, but also including a further delay until the end of the year for complying with the full-BIC, the need to acknowledge fiduciary duty to clients, and the application of the Best Interests Contract Exemption to annuities… though the debate is on as to whether this is still the beginning of the end of the DoL fiduciary rule, or if the extended delays for key provisions will actually make it harder to eliminate the rule now that the industry has been granted more time to accommodate! Also in the news this week is the launch of the CFP Board’s new “I’m A CFP Pro” campaign to encourage more people to become CFP professionals (particularly amongst Millennials, women, and people of color, who are all currently under-represented amongst financial advisors), and a ‘heads-up’ from the SEC that it is increasingly scrutinizing RIAs who have ‘independent’ investment adviser representatives affiliating with them as 1099 contractors.

From there, we have a few articles about industry trends, including: a look at how regardless of the DoL fiduciary rule and its prospective delay, the biggest broker-dealers are in the process of reinventing themselves for a fiduciary-advice future; how advisors who are considering changing broker-dealers in this environment should scrutinize how the payouts really work, as some broker-dealers who offer 90%+ payouts also have higher costs (from trading charges to custody fees to compliance and technology fees) that may mean the advisor actually finishes with less on the bottom line; and a look at how a new “breakaway” trend is starting to emerge, not amongst the brokers who are breaking away to form RIAs, but amongst independent RIAs themselves, where advisor teams are breaking away to form their own new independent RIA firms.

We also have several more technical articles this week, from a new study by David Blanchett on the interplay between the amount of a retiree’s guaranteed income and their ability to sustain a higher “safe” withdrawal rate from the portfolio that complements that guaranteed income (especially for retirees who have at least a little income flexibility), to discussion of another study that finds mutual funds holding ETFs tend to have inferior performance to those that hold stocks and bonds directly (whether due to bad market timing, or adding a layer of ETF fees while acting as a closet indexer), and an explanation of how conservation easements work and why they can be an appealing tax planning strategy for high-net-worth clients that have substantial positions in (undeveloped) land.

We wrap up with three interesting articles about personal development and learning: the first is an overview of the latest research on how we actually learn, and what we should do as adults to try to learn better; the second is a fascinating series of short interviews with prolific readers about how they read, and what strategies they engage in to get the most out of their reading material (hint: it’s ok and normal to read for a while, then skim, then lose interest before getting to the end and picking up another book instead); and the last is a fascinating look at how the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, comes about naturally, and why it is that you don’t have to be twice as good to get twice the results… it’s only necessary to be 1% better, and do so persistently over an extended period of time.

Enjoy the “light” reading!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-8-9/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-apr-8-9

Is This Deductible? Business Clothes for the Self-Employed

When I first started working, I didn’t have what I’d call “work clothes”. Fortunately, I was working in a corporate office environment that only expected business casual. I could even wear jeans! I stopped by a local store to pick...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/self-employed/is-this-deductible-business-clothes-for-the-self-employed-30509/

How Do I Know if I Should Amend My Tax Return?

Whether you forgot, transposed numbers, or you received essential paperwork after you filed, you can still amend your tax return, but here are some things you need to know about whether you should amend or not.

source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-planning-2/how-do-i-know-if-i-should-amend-my-tax-return-14541/

Key Questions To Ask In A Financial Planning Job Interview

When interviewing for a financial planning job opportunity, it can be easy to get caught up in the process. Especially if it’s your first job interview. You want to answer the questions “right”… You want to put your best foot forward… And you want to make a good impression. But the reality is, a job interview should be a two-way street. The firm interviews the candidate, but the candidate is also interviewing the firm! Unfortunately, though, few prospective financial planners really interview the firm they’re applying to work at. And as a result, too many new financial planners wind up in bad first jobs – whether it is a sales job, an admin job, or something else that involves little real financial planning – all by failing to ask good questions of the firm during their interview process!

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, I discuss the 10 best questions that you, the financial planning job seeker, should be asking the prospective firm before you take the job, and what answers you should be looking for in response! And why just looking for a fee-only RIA is not actually the best way to find a good financial planning job opportunity!

First and foremost, though, if you want to find a good financial planning job, you will need to do due diligence on the firm yourself. To start out, there are three particularly valuable sources of information. First, check out the firm’s website. Realize that some great firms may not necessarily have a great website, but see what you can learn about them online. Who are they? How do they work with clients? What can you learn about the founder and the firm’s leadership? Second, look up their regulatory information, via BrokerCheck or IAPD. Do they have any infractions? If they are an RIA, look up their Form ADV Part 2 and see what you can learn about them from this document. Finally, get a copy of the actual job description itself, and really read through it. It stuns me the number of times I hear new advisors unhappy in their jobs, but then I see a copy of the job description, and it says they were going to do exactly what they’re doing now (but they didn’t really read it themselves before saying ‘yes’!)!

The next step is the interview itself. If you’ve done your due diligence well, not only will you be prepared to ask great questions, but the prospective firm will likely be impressed you took the time to look up information about them. When the opportunity comes in the interview, be ready to speak up and ask your questions. A few important questions to ask include asking about the software the firm uses, how often they update financial plans for clients, whether they’re growing and where their new clients come from, what a typical week looks like (for someone in the position you’re applying for), and whether they think it’s important to get the CFP marks?

Notably, it’s not necessarily about whether the firm is a fee-only RIA, but whether they really put a focus on financial planning, regardless of their business model. In fact, the value of these questions isn’t just the exact answers that the firm provides, but what the answers reveal about the overall attitudes and culture of the firm (regardless of whether it’s under a broker-dealer or at an RIA), whether they’re really serious about financial planning, and whether the job you’re applying for is really a good way to get CFP experience, or if it’s just an admin or sales job instead!

In the end, the reality is that there are no perfect answers to all of these questions. Most advisory firms are small businesses, and the truth is that this may be a new scary process for them, too. But, ultimately, the sense you should get from the interview is that the position is really about financial planning and it’s not simply a sales job. And if it’s a growing firm, and they take planning seriously, it may be a great first job, even if it’s not the perfect job! So, if you find yourself interviewing for a new financial planning job, hopefully you’ll find these questions helpful, because ultimately a successful interview is not just about the questions you answer, but also the questions you ask!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/best-interview-questions-financial-advisor-job-opportunity-cfp-experience/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=best-interview-questions-financial-advisor-job-opportunity-cfp-experience

1099-MISC or 1099-K: What’s the Difference?

Self-employment comes with many perks, including deserved business expense deductions. Did you drive during the course of the work you performed? You can take a mileage deduction. Did you buy computer or office supplies to use for consulting? Then you...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/self-employed/1099-misc-or-1099-k-whats-the-difference-29903/

Tax Benefits for Having Dependents

Kids can be overwhelming when they are cooped up in the house while on break, but they are also blessed tax-savers when you file your taxes. Here are some of the tax benefits for having children and other dependents.

source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/family/tax-benefits-for-having-dependents-12835/

Financial Planning Research Highlights From The 2017 CFP Board Academic Research Colloquium

From February 7^th through February 9^th, the CFP Board’s new Center for Financial Planning hosted their inaugural Academic Research Colloquium (ARC) in Washington D.C. The event brought together 215 academics from 130 colleges and universities to share and discuss research relevant to the financial planning profession, as a part of the CFP Board Center’s longer-term goal of establishing itself as the “academic home” for the financial planning profession (and the research that supports it).

In this guest post, Derek Tharp – our new Research Associate at Kitces.com, and a Ph.D. candidate in the financial planning program at Kansas State University – provides a recap of the 2017 CFP Academic Research Colloquium, and highlights a few of the latest research studies with particularly relevant takeaways for financial planning practitioners.

The 2017 CFP Academic Research Colloquium had a strong showing from some core financial planning academic programs, with scholars from Texas Tech, Kansas State, Georgia, and The American College serving as lead authors for nearly 50% of all research presentations and poster sessions. Additionally, the colloquium was successful in drawing in scholars from outside of the core financial planning programs, featuring lead authors from 27 other academic institutions, including Wharton School of Business, Harvard Medical School, and Yale.

The colloquium featured a wide range of topics. Some particularly relevant themes for financial planning practitioners ranged from diversity issues within financial planning (including an analysis of the experiences that increase female likelihood of pursuing a career in financial planning, as well as an examination of the predisposition of women to use the services of a financial planner), to client trust and communication (including the use of solution-focused financial therapy techniques to help clients set financial goals, and an investigation of how different types and frequencies of communication are associated with client satisfaction, trust, and commitment), and the always important topic of retirement planning (including a detailed examination of the use of QLACs in retirement income planning).

Overall, the inaugural CFP Academic Research Colloquium was an objective success. Attendance was strong from a wide range of educational institutions (including many not traditionally known for financial planning), research submissions were higher than expected, and the Center for Financial Planning was successful in recruiting a diverse group of academics and practitioners, above and beyond even what the FPA has been able to achieve in recent years with its partnership with the Academy of Financial Services. In the coming years, we will see whether the Center for Financial Planning is successful in their pursuit to become the academic home of financial planning research, but so far it’s off to a very strong start.

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/cfp-board-center-academic-research-colloquium-2017-recap/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cfp-board-center-academic-research-colloquium-2017-recap

CIS Sub-contractors – Claim Your Tax Refund Now!

It’s now time to start the process of claiming your tax refund if you are a sub-contractor working within the Construction Industry Scheme (‘CIS’). The good news is that refunds usually take around only 2 weeks through Taxfile. Why you’re due a tax refund CIS construction workers like you are usually taxed at source before […]

source http://www.taxfile.co.uk/2017/04/claim-your-cis-tax-refund/

5 Tips to Save for College Tuition

College can be expensive: according to the College Board, a private four-year college costs an average of $32,410 a year. Four years comes out to nearly $130,000! While it’s hard to argue against the value of a college education, no...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/education/5-tips-to-save-for-college-tuition-30507/

#FASuccess Ep 014: Validating Your Advisor Value Proposition And Overcoming Imposter Syndrome With Carl Richards

Welcome back for the fourteenth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

This week’s guest is Carl Richards, a financial advisor who has successfully grown and sold his own advisory firm, but to most financial advisors is best known as the creator the famous “Behavior Gap” sketch (of the difference between investment and investor returns), and an industry writer and speaker on how to better communicate with clients about complex financial issues.

Carl has a career that many people would be envious of. He’s worked for top-notch financial planning firms, built his own RIA, written two books, publishes a column for The New York Times, and travels internationally to speak to financial advisors around the world about financial planning. Yet ultimately, like so many of us, Carl still faces his own self-doubts about whether the value he provides is really worth what he charges (despite all evidence to the contrary!), a phenomenon known as the “imposter syndrome” that can threaten anyone’s success.

In this episode, Carl shares his story, from accidentally falling into the securities industry, to building an advisory firm, starting his Behavior Gap platform and getting a regular column in the New York Times, how his speaking career built to the point that he’s now paid $10s of thousands of dollar to give a speech, and what he’s learned about the imposter syndrome, and why many great financial advisors constantly question whether or not they’re providing enough value for their clients given what they pay (despite the fact that our client retention rates suggests the overwhelming majority of clients are happy with what we deliver to them!).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Carl talks about how he sees the future of financial planning changing, to a world where technical competency is just the minimum tables stakes to be a financial advisor, why communication skills will be the real key to success going forward, and his number one tip on what any advisor can/should do to get better at this themselves.

So whether you’re struggling to achieve success because you doubt your own value to clients, or if you’re already successful but still nervous that you may not be providing enough value to keep your clients in the long run… or you’ve simply been curious to hear the story of Carl Richards himself, I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/carl-richards-behavior-gap-podcast-overcoming-imposter-syndrome-do-it-anyway/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=carl-richards-behavior-gap-podcast-overcoming-imposter-syndrome-do-it-anyway

The Latest In Financial Advisor #FinTech (April 2017)

Welcome to the April issue of the latest news in Financial Advisor #FinTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors and wealth management!

This month’s edition kicks off with the announcement that Schwab has fully rolled out its “Un-Robo” Schwab Intelligent Advisory solution, pairing investment technology with human CFP certificants providing personal financial planning advice in time to capture market share opportunities with the looming applicability date of the DoL fiduciary rule… ironically pivoting away from its pure Schwab Intelligent Portfolios robo solution, just as Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, and T. Rowe Price have all announced the launch of their own pure robo-advisors, and raising the question of whether the others will ultimately follow suit by un-robo’ing their robo-advisors into tech-augmented human solutions as well. And, in the meantime, pure “robo” advice itself may also be undergoing a pivot, as a major new pilot program between IBM Watson and H&R Block aims to shift “robo” solutions from investments to tax preparation and tax planning instead.

From there, the latest highlights also include:

• A slew of advisor FinTech platforms shutting down, including NerdWallet (ending its Ask An Advisor service), AdviceIQ (acquired by FMeX), WealthMinder (acquired by AdvisorEngine), and PrairieSmarts (acquired by Covisum).
• Trizic aims to reboot its robo-advisor-for-advisors platform with a $3.3M VC round, and its first major enterprise deal (with John Hancock)
• Blooom raises $9M of capital for its B2C “robo” solution in the 401(k) channel, one of the few bright spots of robo tools that are still growing
• Oranj rolls out a major new release of its client portal solution
• PocketRisk rolls out its 2.0 version of risk tolerance solution, expanding into a two-dimensional risk tolerance assessment process

You can view analysis of these announcements and more trends in advisor technology in this month’s column, including whether advisors have missed the boat on PFM (Personal Financial Management) solutions that are now being adopted and rolled out directly by banks instead, how Quovo is trying to position itself as the glue that holds together the future of account aggregation with a new Authentication API, and the latest in estate planning software solutions such as Wishlife, another tool that aims not to facilitate estate tax planning strategies, but the transition of the estate itself and the stories, wishes, and guidance that the decedent wishes to leave behind to his/her heirs.

I hope you’re continuing to find this new column on financial advisor technology to be helpful! Please share your comments at the end and let me know what you think!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to TechNews@kitces.com!

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source https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-latest-in-financial-advisor-fintech-april-2017/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-latest-in-financial-advisor-fintech-april-2017

Real Talk: I Recently Lost My Job. Am I Able to Deduct My Travel or Vehicle Expenses While I Job Search?

Q: I recently lost my job. Am I able to deduct my travel or vehicle expenses while I job search  A: First off, I am sorry to hear about your situation. Job search can be a stressful, but hopefully some...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/real-talk-i-recently-lost-my-job-am-i-able-to-deduct-my-travel-or-vehicle-expenses-while-i-job-search-30478/

No Fooling Us: 5 Tax Benefits to Boost Your Tax Refund

Tax season is almost over, and you might be wondering if there’s anything you’re forgetting. Though TurboTax has you covered and asks you simple questions to determine your tax deductions and credits, it’s good to know some common ones so...

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source http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-deductions-and-credits-2/no-fooling-us-these-5-tax-benefits-really-can-boost-your-tax-refund-2-22634/