Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with a look at the latest part of the Senate Republican tax plan generating buzz amongst advisors… that all investment sales may be required to use FIFO treatment in the future, eliminating the specific lot identification method, which would substantially curtail tax loss harvesting strategies.
Also in the recent news is the announcement that the military is overhauling its traditional 20-or-nothing pension system to a slightly scaled down version of the pension combined with government involuntary plus matching contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan (and a choice for enlisted military with less than 12 years of experience about whether they want to stay in the old system or switch to the new one). And there’s also a timely article on providing ideas for client holiday gifts, just in time for Black Friday sales!
From there, we have several articles about pricing and marketing advisory services, from a look at how to properly set and then communicate your fees, to an outsider’s perspective on how financial planners should be pricing their services (or rather, offering a menu of variously-priced services), and a good reminder about how it’s impossible to effectively market the value of your services until you get a clear understanding of your internal business strategy on how you plan to create (and differentiate) your value to your intended target market.
We also have a few practice management articles, including: how a growing number of advisory firms are shifting from lifestyle practices to enduring businesses (which provides more upside value potential to sell the business, but introduces substantial complexity along the way); a good primer on how a valuation expert looks at the real issues involved in trying to determine an advisory firm’s value; and a look at what today’s RIAs may be missing in how the DoL fiduciary rule will apply to them (including during the current “transition BICE” period until the full rule takes effect in July of 2019).
We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of how the advice industry, and the needs to be successful in the industry, are changing: the first looks at the challenges in attracting women into the financial planning profession, noting that the real challenge may not be the concern about whether there’s “too much math” or not, but that too many financial planning jobs are still overly sales-oriented, too inflexible, and too unwilling to given upwardly mobile Millennials the autonomy they crave; the second explores the emerging field of financial therapy, and how just as financial planners have been blurring the line between advice and product sales, so too is financial therapy blurring the line between advice and making (and treating) mental health diagnoses; and the last notes that as more advisors master the technical skills in financial planning, it’s the communication skills that are increasingly important, especially in a world where money remains such a taboo subject, which means perhaps it’s time to rename the “soft skills” to something more commensurate with the gravitas they are taking on in the path to being a successful financial planner!
Enjoy the “light” reading!
source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-november-25-26/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-november-25-26
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