Author: Akhil Lodha

SEC Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) became effective on June 30, 2020, a little more than a year after the SEC formally adopted it. Reg BI established a “best interest” standard of conduct for broker-dealers when making recommendations to retail…

When visiting a new country, the best way to find your way around is to map out the directions. You will also want to make an activity plan for all you’ll do once you get there. Your financial future is…

As a financial advisor, you already know how unprecedented it is for a global health pandemic to impact the U.S. stock market powerfully. The incredible volatility that we are experiencing due to COVID-19 has been gut-wrenching for many, and your…

As families all over the nation focus on the health of loved ones, financial advisors play a significant role in helping clients take financial control of their lives. Although our client’s job security, steady income levels, and stock market prices…

Stay at home. No groups of more than two outside. Social events canceled. These are words financial advisors don’t want to see as they are trying to grow their business. Networking right now has changed, you are no longer able…

Over the last number of years, you likely had to tell your clients the importance of being defensive. This is despite markets rallying to new highs month after month, year after year (except for 2018, of course). Why were you…

These are stressful times. When the markets are strong, advisors can keep their client base on autopilot and can grow at the pace they want. However, at times like these, when markets are incredibly volatile, your client base is stress…

If you thought the last few weeks in the markets were bad, you did not go to bed very happy Monday evening on March 3rd. Market breakers got triggered, and it was a historic day in the stock market one…

When clients hire financial advisors, there’s an expectation that their advisor will work with them to develop an investment strategy that reflects their investment profile. That’s what advisors do. And, for that, advisors are evaluated based on how those strategies…

Warren Buffett has been accused of “investing like a girl,” a charge to which he has proudly professed his guilt. The world’s most successful investor is patient and exercises self-control, muted confidence, and discipline because he strictly adheres to his…

As regulatory activity in the wealth management industry hits a fever pitch, financial advisors and their firms are increasingly finding themselves at odds with compliance departments who are under increasing pressure to keep their firms out of trouble. In some…

There are few things more life-changing than a liquidity event. It takes extensive preparation – financially and emotionally – to ensure the successful transition of wealth so that it can be preserved and used in the pursuit of new ambitions.…

After a nearly 14% gain in the first four months of the year, the MSCI EAFE index slogged through a 3% decline in the month of May, triggering concerns by advisors that it may be over for international stocks. Our…

You are your brand. Your brand is you. You may never think that this is a top business priority as a financial advisor, but your clients – current and prospective – crave insightful information. If you provide this to them…

The future is now. Financial advisors who can see it, and grab it, have an advantage over their competitors. While it is popular for some financial advisors to lament the rise of robo-advisors, the fact is that robo-advisor firms control…

For many financial advisors, email marketing is an effective way to communicate with their target market. Advisors favor email because, once it’s set up, it is easy to manage – simply Define a campaign, create content, send it out, measure…

Most financial advisors begin their careers as generalists, offering a full range of investment and insurance products to anyone who will see them. Some remain as product salespeople while others develop the knowledge, skills, and credentials to perform comprehensive financial…

Today, the vast majority of a financial advisor’s potential clients reside in a parallel universe called social media – a digital cosmos that exists alongside the physical world. It’s a place where they commune with friends, including people they really…

Most financial advisors understand the value of an ideal client profile in helping them identify the type of prospects they should pursue to grow their practice. While that may have been useful in the past, it does very little to…

The greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history is underway. As a financial advisor, it represents either an unprecedented opportunity or a threat to your survival. It will ultimately come down to trust The financial advisory industry has a trust…

For much of the past decade, advisors have benefitted from market-driven growth. As the markets advance, assets under management increased. Now, as the bull market trounces onward in this, its 10th year, financial advisors are increasingly thinking about something that…

In February 2019, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hit a new high, less than two months after one of the worst one-month declines on record. From its December 24, 2018 low, the S&P 500 has gained nearly 20%, brushing…

For much of the past decade, investment profits have flowed to anyone who simply bought stocks and sat tight. But now the stock market is beginning to show signs of aging. Volatility is increasing, and many investors believe that a…

One of the key lessons of the 2018 investment year is that extreme volatility can wreak havoc on investment portfolios, even those that are thought to be relatively safe due to diversification. For some investors, the answer to those problems…

The recent stock market decline  is a stark reminder to investors that there is risk in index funds. This is coming as a shock to many. After years of quantitative easing, artificially low-interest rates and, more recently, a “Trump bump,”…

In 2018, volatility in the stock market returned with a vengeance, catching most investors and many advisors off guard. Advisors, who have experienced at least a couple of market cycles, understand that volatility is normal and market pullbacks are temporary,…

One thing we can say for certain is that, after a 10-year bull run with minimal volatility, the market is due for a change. With the return of extreme volatility this year and a late year selloff, the market may…

You have an online presence, either intentionally or unintentionally, or both. Go ahead and “Google” yourself or the name of your firm. Does anything come up on the first page of search results? Keep looking, you’re there, somewhere. Hopefully it…

Leading RIA firms understand that the key to profitable growth is to optimize their ability to specialize in their core business functions of client management and business development, while effectively managing the complexity of growing investment and back-office operations.  But,…

Call it what you will – cynicism, disillusionment, enlightenment – an increasing number of clients are no longer willing to tolerate product-centric recommendations masking as financial advice. Increasingly, they are beginning to question the value of investment advice that isn’t…

More than any other type of professional advisor – be it a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant or a counselor – financial advisors have an extraordinary opportunity to build a profitable business around unique abilities that can be shared with…

It has been nearly a decade since the global financial crisis and, while investors are beginning to regain their confidence in the markets, many are still having difficulty overcoming the trust deficit created by financial advisors who treated them as…