Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast SA For FAs

Guest podcaster Jason Kirsch, CFP(R) discusses increasing demand for speculation among his younger clients.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The huge and rapid across-the-board gains of the current market make now the most relevant time to remind investors of the protective value of asset allocation. This podcast (5:46) argues that we should reduce risk and aspire to steady returns. While we cannot predict the future — indeed, because we cannot predict the future — we should plan our finances in such a way as to avoid calamitous outcomes.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Ancient Rome to Argentina under Peron to the U.S. over the past two decades, extreme spending unmoored to tax revenue has a hoary history ill befitting the title “Modern” Monetary Theory. This podcast (7:42) argues that MMT is not a theory awaiting adoption but rather a description of the bipartisan policy of the United States for some time now, though never more so than under its current “go big” moniker. But will “go big” become “go bankrupt?” 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not only have people not saved enough for retirement, but they have not planned enough. The two are doubtlessly related. This podcast (5:10) suggests that client hand-holding at its best involves explaining concepts and providing a sounding board so that investors can make better-informed, and thus better, decisions.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Mappa of Mappa Wealth Management in Glenview, Ill., is a financial advisor and author of a new book called “Cash Flow is King.” In this podcast (21:00), Mappa makes a forceful distinction between clients with millions of dollars, but not enough to retire, and clients with just hundreds of thousands of dollars who will be quite comfortable.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 2020 investment outlook from J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers a perceptive macro-analysis. This podcast (6:03) suggests that we not look to these outlooks for their investment recommendations, but as an exercise in thinking, to deepen our understanding of markets, something this analysis succeeds at.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among the unknown variables which advisors must address through their retirement planning is the uncertainy of our mortality, the ambiguity of investment performance and the anxiety of financial pressures. This podcast (6:18) suggests that helping with these issues can enhance clients’ feeling of well-being, as evidenced by a recent study showing advised investors feeling financially secure at over twice the rate of unadvised investors. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The British pound hit a 31-month high against the euro last week, presumably because the Conservatives maintain a healthy lead over Labour in this week’s elections. This podcast (5:54) highlights the reasons why investors will not come out ahead in this election, no matter the outcome.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent visit with a 95-year-old was a reminder of the relative rarity of such encounters. This podcast (5:27) illustrates the health, investing and income implications of reaching a ripe old age, and encourages learning from the wisdom and experience of the elderly to whom we have access.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Equity analyst Ian Bezek makes a solid case that Chilean stocks (ECH) have been oversold on political fears. This podcast (6:12) agrees with Bezek’s thesis and adds that the demonstrations in Chile are reminiscent of the yellow-vest protests in France, whose start was accompanied by a decline in the stock market, which then went on to recover and reach new highs.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many people have not even tried to save for retirement, and the reason could be that people are reluctant to start something they expect to fail at. This podcast (5:27) suggests that the despair may stem from the unknowability of the key variables in retirement planning and illustrates the sort of behavioral support that can make retirement saving feel doable.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a quarter of a century, Dalbar has highlighted the problem of poor investor performance, fueled by return-chasing and panic selling; now it is offering a practical solution it calls I-PRT (Investor Panic Relief Tool). This podcast (7:15) explains that Dalbar’s solution is not to prepare investors ahead of time with education that doesn’t work, but rather to prepare the advisor ahead of time with a tool that could tilt the scales of the “fight or flight” reaction toward “fight.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Argentine conglomerate Cresud lies at the intersection of real estate and commodities, sectors that tend to do well in periods of changing inflation expectations, and its P/E is just 5. This podcast (7:47) explores why the stock seems to be especially well positioned to thrive in the current period, while raising questions about management and deeper concerns about the political and economic environment that weighs down Argentina.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Generally speaking, achieving retirement wealth gradually rather than quickly is normal and safer, for several reasons. This podcast (6:32) suggests that progress in investing is slow at first, but that a careful perusal of bar charts show that the farther the bar chart moves to the right, the greater the progress. Even still, there is a way, also gradual, for advisors to help clients accelerate their progress.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ETF manager, author and popular investment blogger Mebane Faber covers a wide range of asset-allocation issues from buy-and-hold to global value investing. In this podcast (20:51), Faber sees asset allocation from the standpoint of market history, and insightfully addresses the difference between becoming rich and staying rich.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanksgiving is very much a day celebrating economic success, and as such, is something financial advisors can learn from. I would argue that their thriving when their main hope had been to survive was the source of their jubilation. This podcast (5:06) suggests that advisor’s concrete actions in the realm of wealth management over time take on an intangible quality, in which clients can enjoy wealth and financial stability as a result of the advisor’s influence over many decades.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investors have heavily favored bonds over stocks this year, and among fixed-income ETFs, corporate investment-grade bonds have attracted the lion’s share of inflows. Indeed, Seeking Alpha’s bond ETFs page shows that, year to date, long-term U.S. corporate bonds have had the best performance, at 18%. This podcast (5:42) suggests however that if the objective of holding bonds is safety, the extra yield of corporate bonds, despite the substantial yield spread, is not worth the extra risk, as a result of ever poorer credit quality and inflation.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Hennessy of Harbor Crest Wealth Advisors caters to boaters and business owners who live or work in proximity to Fort Lauderdale, “the yachting capital of the world.” In this podcast (18:52), the South Florida financial advisor “geeks out” on the quantitative side of wealth management while adding the deeper satisfaction he derives from helping retiring clients feel fulfilled. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Brookings Institution’s Retirement Security Project suggests that managed-payout funds might be the Goldilocks option between lump sums and annuities. This podcast (6:44) notes that Brookings’ policy wonks are proposing very much the sort of retirement portfolio that many financial advisors seek to put in place – a growth portfolio, a monthly paycheck, an emergency fund and longevity protection.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sales recruiter Jonathan Sack discusses how one commands respect, an issue of obvious relevance to financial advisors who must relate to clients and prospects. This podcast (5:42) argues that advisors’ knowledge and problem-solving ability counts most in earning respect, yet advisors never get to display what they know if they haven’t first demonstrated the mode of conduct that is socially required to succeed in business. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The standard advice to workers leaving their employment as to whether to take a lump sum or annuitize is to take the lump sum. This podcast (5:45) argues that retirees should ideally have both portfolio wealth and an income they cannot outlive, but that when a choice must be made, one should examine the decision from both investment and consumption angles.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MarketWatch’s Mark Hulbert and Seeking Alpha contributor Jeff Miller discuss whether America’s drowning in debt will sink the stock market. This podcast (6:18) argues that while markets don’t rise or fall on debt considerations in the short-term, in the long-term high debt corrodes our self-control and diminishes our ability to make midcourse corrections. I also point out that the indebtedness process is precisely the opposite of the process financial advisors employ to build their clients’ wealth.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite blockchain’s enormous potential, it is far from clear who would win, or how they would win, thus making micro-cap blockchain investing quite risky. This podcast (5:07) argues against succumbing to “hot” new areas lacking a clear path to profitability, while noting that profitability and conservative investing, issuance and accounting practices have proven reliable signals of long-term outperformance.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Government stimulus and Fed indifference are stoking an investor fear of inflation that has been dormant for decades. This podcast (6:07) looks at research by investment strategist Michael Crook indicating that a global-equity portfolio may offer the most protection against inflation. It also contains surprising findings about gold’s relationship to price changes and interest rates.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Ameritrade commissioned the Harris Poll to understand the rise of “unretirees,” the now majority of people who plan to continue working in a paid position after reaching retirement age. This podcast (5:53) argues that financial necessity is likely to be the key reason for this unsalutary trend, and that it is connected to the way people “benchmark,” as it were, their standard of living to that enjoyed by their peers.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A UBS survey of 3,400 clients shows the ultra-wealthy group moving into cash, with these investors “fearing” or “bracing for” a major market sell-off. But if you look behind the headlines at their actions and views, these are not fearful but rather patient investors. This podcast (5:31) argues that patience is action based on a thoughtful consideration of investment reality – the reality that the masses buy high and sell low, such that these wealthy investors are preparing to do the opposite.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prowling the internet for free advice is no substitute for an advisor-client relationship, since life circumstances are always changing. This podcast (4:36) argues that just as the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, so too the price of financial freedom is the sort of vigilance provided by financial advisors.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s understandable why large pension funds or insurance companies would buy negative-yielding bonds, and it’s pretty clear why central banks do, but why would ordinary investors do so? This podcast (6:34) suggests that while negative-yielding bonds can pay off under certain circumstances, their zero or negative yields strengthen the case for zero- or negative yielding cash or gold which serve as effective hedges but with greater flexibility.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new report by the Empower Institute, called “The Over-Stated Retirement Crisis,” challenges the generally dim view of Americans’ retirement readiness, citing a massive growth in retirement assets over the past several decades. This podcast (7:12) counters that a massive increase in consumer liabilities over the same period confirms there is a crisis, but argues that advisor encouragement of asset growth can compensate for today’s excess of consumer credit.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Protecting against the downside is the first step in investing. This podcast (4:16) argues that advisors should encourage clients to reduce risk and aspire to steady returns as the best means of attaining long-term solvency and stability in their financial lives.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DoubleLine bond manager Jeffrey Gundlach tells Switzerland’s Finance and Economy publication that it’s time to prepare for a downturn. This podcast (4:51) credits Gundlach with some astute observations, but notes that he’s issued plenty of doomsday warnings throughout years of the market’s relentless ascent. The moral of the story is thus that we should always be prepared for a downturn – and positioned for an upturn – and not wait for portfolio-manager pronouncements.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It takes $26 to buy what one dollar could buy in 1913. So why should retirees want dollars, which may fare even worse in the coming decades? This podcast (5:38) argues that disparaging cash as trash misses a paradox that Warren Buffett penetratingly expressed, that “in order to succeed, you must first survive.” With enough cash not just to meet their expenses but to re-risk their portfolios with new stock investments – retirees can both survive and thrive.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ETFguide.com founder Ron DeLegge’s new book, Habits of the Investing Greats, proposes that investing success and character are intimately related. In this podcast (18:25), DeLegge makes this link explicit by suggesting how we can emulate Stanley Druckenmiller’s responsibility, Anne Scheiber’s thrift and steer clear of the disorganization that led one investor to seriously undermine his family financially. DeLegge concludes with the suggestion that advisors give their clients homework that will strengthen the traits that undergird investment success.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Harvard study finds that about one-third of Americans age 65 or older are being ravished by the costs of housing. This podcast (6:45) suggests that financial advisors who focus on investment securities alone are withholding the holistic view of their clients’ finances that is increasingly needed, given the trends brought out by this academic study.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The lesson I take from the GameStop affair is that the stock market does not necessarily reward investment sophistication but is exquisitely responsive to investment speculation. This podcast (4:29) argues that no matter how smart you as an individual may be, your chances of success in the stock market are overwhelmingly influenced by how dumb everyone else is. To succeed in such a market, we must take a self-consciously long-term approach, as if we’re purchasing shares for our grandchildren.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry Dent, author of Zero Hour and editor of Economy and Markets.com, explains why he anticipates the “crash of a lifetime.” His message is that now is not a time for “just re-allocating.” In this podcast interview (26:05), Dent discusses the technological, demographic and geopolitical reasons for a crash he expects to register at no less than 70%. The next three years, he says, is a time to just “get out of the way.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard professor Teresa Amabile, writing in the academic journal Work, Aging and Retirement, argues that retirement research is overwhelmingly quantitative, to the detriment of the field. She calls for more qualitative research into areas such as post-retirement identity. This podcast (5:02) proposes that financial advisors have a front-row view of these issues, could break ground in the area, or become valuable resources for academic researchers.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Money is fleeing to safety, economic growth is fizzling out and political tensions are always just a spark away from igniting, yet U.S. stock indexes are reaching new highs. For those with the guts to stay invested at a time like this, the logical strategy is to buy the margin of safety offered by value stocks, an approach Seeking Alpha contributor Mario Glogovic outlines in a recent article. This podcast (5:40) extols the virtues of remaining cautiously pessimistic by staying invested yet armed with lots of liquidity, in the same way that not being too greedy benefits investors in giddier times. In other words, it rejects being all-in or all-out at different phases of the market cycle.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A listener recently sent me a note asking what advice I would offer a new advisor just staring out. This podcast (6:17) proposes that rookies need to address both the substance and business of financial advice. From the business perspective, advisors must let people in their target audience know that they help people like them meet the retirement challenge.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeking Alpha contributor Ploutos proposes an intriguing approach to timing one’s purchases of gold based on calculating “gold yield,” which cleverly adapts earnings-yield analysis to the yellow metal. This podcast (3:58) argues in favor of using gold yield as a rough guide, but cautions advisors to look out for further validation of this formulation over the coming decades.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Center for Retirement Research investigates what would improve a situation in which 50% of workers are set to have less income in retirement than during their working lives. Its study’s headline finding emphasizes the benefit of remaining in the workforce two additional years. But this podcast (4:32) highlights another finding, likely of greater interest to advisory clients, namely the Center’s finding that younger investors do see big gains from modest savings increases.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent study commissioned by Charles Schwab and conducted by Cerulli Associates aims to help financial advisors incorporate behavioral finance into their practices. This podcast (5:50) argues that while behavioral finance provides interesting research opportunities for academics, the field remains something of a nothing-burger for most clients.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Moody, a political journalist laid off by CNN, used the opportunity occasioned by his financial dislocation, to search for a redefined American Dream. I offer my takeaways as to the relevance of Moody’s experience to clients planning their retirements. Specifically, this podcast (5:20) argues that just as we need to allocate our clients’ investment assets properly, clients’ goal-setting requires thought about the ideal allocation of their time and the right balance as to how much wealth will really benefit them.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heading for the exits in a market panic is a powerful human instinct. Is there a successful model for moving forward onto the battlefield in the midst of a slaughter? Yes – that’s exactly what soldiers are trained to do. Napoleon was especially adept at keeping his army moving forward. This podcast (5:02) argues that advisors waging war against harsh markets and galvanizing dispirited clients could benefit from some Napoleonic strategizing. The first step is drawing up battle plans ahead of time.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The premise of “The Millionaire Next Door” was that ordinary people could become wealthy, by spending less than they earn. Medical research suggests that financial stress is highly associated with heart attack. The common denominator of these findings is that removal of stress is beneficial. Interestingly, research shows advised investors enjoy more than twice the rate of peace of mind than the unadvised. This podcast (4:42) argues that by helping clients save and invest and by imparting a sense of knowing where we’re going, advisors play a big part in their clients’ well-being. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The dollar is worth about one-twenty-sixth of its value a century ago, and loose fiscal and monetary policies portend a deepening of the trend. This podcast (8:03) looks at the few currencies that have held up well to the dollar over a decade or more, reflecting underlying monetary and fiscal discipline.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial advisors cannot ignore the business aspects of their profession, and should put thought into how to market themselves. This podcast (4:58) argues that the key objectives should be to become discoverable; to define one’s unique abilities; and to use the advisor’s best communication method to demonstrate how the advisor’s offering addresses the prospect’s unique pain points.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A best-advisor algorithm can only rank abstractions; it cannot rank real people because it can differentiate between qualitative factors like empathy or judgment. This podcast (4:41) argues best-advisor rankings are just business, and not in its best sense. Marketing often carries a negative connotation, but it’s really a neutral method that can be used positively or cynically. Every advisor should define and highlight the value of the service they offer.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The more you look into the various “Best Advisor” rankings, the less you will want to eat the sausage. This podcast (9:07) argues that this data is extremely heavily skewed toward the most “productive” advisors, meaning the ones who attract assets under management, and the other data crunched in these algorithms do not speak to “best advisors.” It would be fairer to call these rankings “America’s Wealthiest Advisors.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices