Wealth Think

The old saying ‘sell in May and go away’ does not apply to daily investing life anymore, and many advisors know the reasons why.

Everyone knows that publicity is wonderful when you can get it. But far too many advisors think there is some sort of magic needed to get their name in print or to be interviewed on television or radio.

To me, the most interesting event of the year, so far in the financial planning space, is the Schwab organization's new Independent Branch Services initiative. The gist of it is that Schwab's retail division is looking for experienced advisors to come in and transform their practices into Schwab branch offices on a franchise basis.

Like they’ve done with every stage of their lives, the Baby Boomers are changing what it means to be retired. But unlike other stages where leading edge boomers set the path that middle and second-half boomers followed, retirement is likely to be transformed throughout the boomer generation in such a way that second-half boomers and the generations that follow will experience a very different retirement than their leading edge siblings.

Leona Helmsley, widely regarded as the “Queen of Mean” before she died at age 87 in 2007, left behind a fortune valued by some to be worth $40 to $80 billion. She earmarked twelve million dollars to take care of her dog, Trouble, until the Judge reduced it to a paltry $2 million.

Fidelity fielded a study that found 75% of the broker-dealer and registered investment advisory firms are planning to hire up to 30% more employees over the next 12 months.

Some ideas are transcendent. Humankind’s inability to learn from past mistakes—often reappearing in cumulatively more costly iterations as memories of yesterday’s blunders fade—is an oft-repeated theme. Scholars confirm what historical anecdotes reveal.

In the May issue of Financial Planning magazine, I discussed how client perceptions may have changed over the past three years. I use the term Client 2.0 to describe this more-cautious and aware buyer, and offered thoughts on how you can better connect using an evolved Client Communications 2.0 plan. I spoke with several smart, accomplished advisors and industry consultants such as Ed Jacobson, Steve Saenz, Carol Anderson and Amy Mullen to hear their comments.…

Hubspot’s latest study shows that the number of companies that blog has grown from 48% in 2009 to 65% this year. Indeed, it appears that non-bloggers are fast becoming the minority, and it’s not hard to see why: companies that blog have 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages, compared to those that do not.

I've put on my annual to-do list that sometime this year I'll create a Facebook page, and Lord help me, I may even start twittering before long. This means I'm about to stick my toe into the dreaded Social Media world.