Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the announcement that Golden Gate University has launched the first Master’s in Financial Planning with a concentration in financial life planning, as financial planning education providers increasingly shift to focus on training new financial advisors in the communication and empathy skills needed for future success. Also in the news this week was the announcement that the Treasury is shutting down the MyRA program (after it failed to blossom into a full-blown automatic IRA enrollment solution, and only a lackluster 20,000 households have signed up in the past two years), and for the first time an independent RIA successfully sued a large broker-dealer (for $1.5M!) for poaching one of its advisors who improperly took client information when he left (signaling a new escalation in the growing battle between broker-dealers and RIAs, as in the past it was only broker-dealers suing RIAs for poaching advisors, not the other way around!).
From there, we have a few practice management articles this week, including one about the importance of becoming an “emotionally intelligent CEO” for advisory firm founders who must transition from “just” being the lead advisor into being a leader and executive of the firm, another about what to do if an employee declines a promotion or opportunity for partnership, and why advisors need to be wary of asking “platitude” questions like “What keeps you up at night” when talking to prospects, and instead reframe question to get more concrete responses that help the advisor really understand how he/she can help.
We also feature several more technical articles, from a review of the rules on deducting long-term care expenses (not just LTC insurance, but the underlying expenses themselves for those who aren’t fully insured!), to issues to consider when choosing a (family or corporate) trustee as part of the estate plan, and the rules for Medicaid recovery (where the state files a claim against a decedent’s probate estate to recover state Medicaid expenses against any of the decedent’s remaining assets at death that weren’t already spent down).
We wrap up with three interesting articles, all looking at the connections between happiness, fulfillment, and how we spend our dollars: the first is a review of a recent study finding that spending money on timesaving tasks (e.g., hiring a maid, or ordering takeout for dinner) provides a greater happiness boost than spending on material goods; the second looks at the decline of conspicuous consumption amongst the affluent, and the rise of “inconspicuous consumption” amongst the upper-middle-class (spending on things like services and education), in a manner that doesn’t overtly display social status, but may reduce social mobility; and the third is a fascinating interview about the latest research on positive psychology and what leads us to really feel fulfilled in our lives.
Enjoy the “light” reading!
source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-july-29-30/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-july-29-30
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