Michael Kitces

It's important to categorize necessary and discretionary expenses, but advisors need to know how clients are defining them.

It’s not as easy as hanging out a shingle. Advisors and back-office employees need to master certain traits.

Adding clients may increase the top line, but it may come at the expense of profits, free time and even happiness.

Younger investors tend to have limited assets, but that doesn’t mean their advice needs are simple.

There is no secret formula but there are some time-tested calculations that can reveal a firm’s productivity, or lack thereof.

Capital gains tax rates are not just taxed at a single, more favorable, rate anymore.

Retirees who use a smaller withdrawal rate may amass significant excess wealth. That can mean trouble for advisors.

There’s a lot to be said for being lean and mean.

It’s crucial to know how much of a drawdown an investor can tolerate before panic sets in.

Career-switchers may think becoming a financial planner is an easy transition, but done improperly can pose dangers to themselves and clients.

Even as BDs transition from their commission roots, too many still treat advice as a liability.

No client wants to pay up. But, some could benefit from more tax exposure in retirement than actual spending.

Bringing on new employees can spur growth, but can also complicate compensation structures.

The planning association says it needs to undertake “transformational change,” but its latest proposal may just multiply its problems.

By allowing disciplinary actions to be expunged from certificants’ records, the board is sabotaging its own efforts to raise industry standards.

The research firm’s headcount and related job forecast are based on a highly elastic idea.

The certification could stop being the gold standard and become the requirement, if only the regulatory path were clearer.

Building income streams that mimic the predictability of a working lifestyle is a delicate skill.

The SEC may have had good intentions, but the guidelines have distorted markets and reinforced the allure of companies that forego the IPO.

The anxiety is real — and so are the expenses — but the situation might not be as bad as some imagine.