Enjoy the current installment of “weekend reading for financial planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the news that the DoL fiduciary rule still isn’t quite dead yet, with the attorney generals of three states now appealing to the full group of 5th Circuit judges to (re-)consider their request to take up the defense of the DoL fiduciary rule after the Department of Justice declined to defend it themselves, suggesting that it’s inappropriate that the judges who vacated the fiduciary rule itself should also be allowed to determine alone whether the states should be allowed to appeal their ruling.
Also in the news this week were some notable statements from the SEC’s enforcement division that its recent Share Class Selection Disclosure (SCSD) Initiative may be part of a broader enforcement policy shift where the SEC will try to use amnesty programs to encourage more advisory firms to step forward and fix widespread abuses (while the SEC focuses its resources on higher-stakes enforcement issues with less of a “broken-windows” approach to their firm exams), and an interesting survey finding that affluent clients are increasingly looking to their financial advisors to be tax experts (in addition to investment experts).
From there, we have several articles on building relationships with clients and colleagues, including one that explores why most networking meetings are useless (hint: if you really want to build new relationships, you need to engage in an activity with someone you don’t know, not just casual conversation), another looking at the kinds of (often unwitting) behaviors that advisors engage in with prospects that may prevent them from becoming clients, and the issues to consider when trying whether to spend more time socializing with clients outside of a professional setting (or not).
We also have a few retirement-related articles, from a look at why the uncertainties of retirement mean Monte Carlo analysis is especially appropriate to evaluate and craft potential retirement recommendations (because it implicitly explores a very wide range of “What-If” scenarios), to how to handle new retirees who excitedly retire early only to discover that retirement is a “total bore” for them, and a look at how the decisions of where retirees live is starting to reshape how cities develop, as retirees increasingly are not just moving to warmer climates to retire but instead are simply seeking out more distant suburbs and/or lower cost metropolitan areas.
We wrap up with three interesting articles, all around the theme of the financial advisory industry’s struggles with diversity: the first is a look at a recent CFP Board research study on the factors that are limiting racial diversity of financial advisors; the second is a study showing that financial advisors have the worst rate of sexual harassment (as compared to other industries); and the last shows that financial advisors also have the largest gender pay gap of any occupation, even after controlling for advisor productivity and years of experience, suggesting that the profession is still far less of a true meritocracy than is commonly believed… and that for all of these issues, there is a need for a broader change in the culture of financial services, beyond just building better “awareness” and “sensitivity training” programs.
Enjoy the “light” reading!
source https://www.kitces.com/blog/weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-may-19-20-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekend-reading-for-financial-planners-may-19-20-2
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