Practice

CPAs have long been sought after as centers of influence by members of the financial services profession. But, the role they play and how they are perceived and accessed by financial advisors is undergoing a dramatic shift.

Social media is great for marketing. For customer authentication, not so much.

What makes you different from other advisors? Why should your ideal clients choose you over all the other advisors they have access to? And is that uniqueness something you developed as part of your marketing plan, or is it who you are?

Financial advisors know there’s a lot of competition in the marketplace today. And they know they need a unique value proposition to help market their services and attract new clients. But creating the right unique value proposition can be a challenge.

As many as two-thirds of organizations are said to be ineffective or inefficient in some capacity. Sometimes the inefficiencies are brought on by laziness -- other times they are the result of a massive corporate scandal.

Few advisors could imagine running their business without email, but many probably wish they could run it with a little less email.

The most vulnerable groups were singles, households with no pensions, African-Americans and Hispanics.

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that taxpayers need to report Roth individual retirement account conversions from 2010 on their returns this tax season.

Men and women 35 – 64 with income of $150,000 - $249,000 may represent the ripest sales opportunities for advisors, according to poll by Nationwide Financial.

The good news: ultra-wealthy individuals tend to put their trust in wealth managers. The bad news: most, still cautious after the Financial Crisis, tend to prefer using multiple advisors.