Let’s begin with a bold statement: no financial advisor (or asset manager for that matter) has ever been fired for over-communicating with their client. But according to a recent study, a lack of communication is perhaps the easiest way to get replaced. Even the best advisors sometimes forget this. A survey of individual investors reveals that 64% of clients with assets greater than $500K report being contacted “infrequently” or “very infrequently” by their advisor.  As we enter the eleventh year of the longest and best performing bull market in U.S. history, there has never been a better time for a proactive review of your client communication strategy.

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Reading Time - ~3.5 minutes

Last week, Blueprint hosted a webinar with our friend Jay Mooreland, author of The Emotional Investor. The event motivated me to reread his book, which I highly recommend. It also reminded me of the investment industry’s annual prediction cycle about what to expect for the coming year and how the market will behave based upon those predictions. Two points here: one, analysts and economists have no idea what is going to happen and two, what happens does not matter to the disciplined investor.  Read on!

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So much has been written about the consumption of TD Ameritrade by Schwab that we hesitated to say anything on the subject. However, our experience with elite advisors, investment platforms (TAMPS), and larger RIA consolidation firms leads us to the conclusion that this transaction is just the tipping point in the changing world of custody, and that now is the time for advisors to take a strategic look at all their options.

A study published in October by Cerulli Associates, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, found that only 7% of financial advisory practices were suited to do their own research and portfolio construction/management. Yet, according to the same study, 62% of advisors are in fact performing these functions on behalf of their clients. We do not necessarily agree with the assertion and prefer to frame this conversation in the context of fiduciary responsibility and best practice.

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Approximate Reading Time - 3 and a half minutes

Recently I answered a few questions for an author working on piece about gratitude in the workplace.  Gratitude has a huge impact on business culture, and I thought the topic was spot on for a blog, especially leading up to this season of gratitude – Thanksgiving. Read on for a few thoughts and observations from the last 50 or so years.