Wealth Think

Assessing your current business is an absolutely mandatory analysis you must make to achieve success. The assessment needs to address where you are today, where you want to be at some point in the not to distant future (perhaps three years) and the gaps between the two.

Gen Y planners foresee RIAs booming and perceive fundamental flaws within the wirehouse model. They see advisors making big mistakes with next generation clients. They have fears about the future of the industry along with some ideas on how society should change to create a more financially secure world.

Working with clients can be difficult. You need to balance rational tasks of navigating capital markets with non-rational challenges of managing client emotions. In many ways, navigating client behavior is more complicated than navigating capital markets, since human emotions can swing wildly and less predictably. Check out some helpful ways to stay ahead of the curve.

In his 19 years in the industry, Ken Wren has seen young bank advisors repeating some of the same mistakes. Here are three career tips to help keep them on track.

The core portfolio allocation for moderate investors has traditionally been a 60% equities and 40% fixed-income mix. But changing market dynamics may pose a challenge to this construct going forward for three important reasons that you and your clients need to be aware of.

In order for advisors to stand their ground to direct providers like Fidelity, Schwab and ETrade, they must not lose sight of younger and low to middle market investors, says Bing Waldert, director at Cerulli Associates.

RIAs love the flexibility of running their own business, but, when your bedroom becomes your office, it becomes difficult to keep a schedule. Dave Grant says he loves the flexibility of being self-employed, but internally he's screaming for a schedule. Check out some of his ideas and offer him some ideas that have worked for you.

Investors remain wary of the financial sector, which is bad news for advisors. But by examining the best practices of successful advisors, we can all learn valuable lessons about how to strengthen trust and build greater public confidence.

Women are a growing economic force. They currently control the majority of wealth in the U.S. and are estimated to receive approximately 70% of the $41 trillion in intergenerational wealth transfers over the next several decades. It makes good business sense to learn how to attract and retain these economically powerful female clients.

FINRA's social media spot check notification last week shouldn't come as a terrible surprise to the industry. The announcement underscores the need for firms to thoughtfully develop clear policies to supervise and manage usage, content and engagement.