The theme of the month is focus.
As we head into Q4 2022, financial advisors maintain an important role in protecting their clients’ livelihoods. Throughout the year, Americans have been navigating layoffs, a transition back to normal routines from the COVID-19 pandemic, and burnout from the pressures of increasing life responsibilities.
It’s understandable that your clients may be feeling on edge and expressing their frustrations to the financial advisors who are overseeing their money. If you’re a financial advisor, you have the power to bring a sense of optimism and stability to clients who are feeling stressed or generally anxious during this upcoming winter. Sound decision-making is key.
At CircleBlack, we’re continually immersed in research to determine how to best support our clients. We’ve put together a curation of 5 resources that we hope you’ll enjoy reading during your down-time, in-between, or self-enrichment moments. We hope these resources will help you navigate important conversations with a higher level of assuredness and confidence.
- Managing material risk
Source: CFA Institute
In July 2022, the CFA Institute published a report co-authored by Richard Bookstaber, co-founder at Fabric IQ and Dhruv Sharma, head of portfolio intelligence at Fabric IQ. Both specialize in techniques for providing risk management to wealth managers and asset owners.
The report introduces techniques for advisors to account for long-term dynamics of market risk and personal risk. The co-authors discuss factors to extend current methods for long-term risks.
You can read the report here.
- Retirement planning and financial literacy, at the crossroads. A bibliometric analysis
Source: ScienceDirect
Long-term, countries around the world anticipate continued challenges of ensuring their aging populations have sufficient retirement income. The issue of financial literacy is core to these challenges.
In this research paper, a team of researchers led by Rocío Gallego-Losada at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain analyzed a range of published academic articles at the cross section of financial literacy and retirement. The goal of the study was to assess the level of academic research into the issue of financial literacy and retirement saving.
“Are citizens prepared to take on greater responsibility needed to make informed decisions about their retirement? Or is, in turn, the State who has to care about individuals’ retirement? The answers given to these questions will critically influence the decisions and behavior of the economic agents, leading to new breakeven points which will decide the political agenda.”
The reference citations at the end of the study allows for a deeper level of exploration and analysis into the topic.
The study is available here.
- Dynasties in the making: Family wealth and inheritance for the first-generation ultra-wealthy and their wealth managers
Source: The Sociological Review
Wealth management is a growth industry, with a bigger-picture generational wealth transfer fueling this momentum. One understandable question is how relationships are likely to evolve between affluent individuals and their financial advisors, as a result.
Katie Higgens, a professor and researcher in the department of social policy and intervention at the University of Oxford, conducted a study into the criteria for managing family wealth. What makes a good inheritor? What makes a good financial advisor?
There may not be clear answers to these questions; however, this article brings up an interesting philosophical discussion about the topic.
You can access the research report here.
- How do commodities fit into client portfolios?
Source: Financial Planning Association
This study provides an in-depth look at the role of commodities in overall portfolio diversification strategies, pre and post-2005.
Jason D. Fink and Kristin Fink, both finance professors at James Madison University, conducted an in-depth analysis of whether commodities “are useful diversifiers for the benchmark efficient portfolios often recommended by financial planners.”
The duo came to the following conclusion in their research:
“While commodities may still provide a useful contributor to diversification, their benefit appears to be present in only certain circumstances.”
You can access the research report here to read more about the study, the authors’ mathematical assumptions, and their hypothesized rationale.
- Top Software Trends for Financial Advisors
Source: Morningstar
It’s understandable that financial advisors are under pressure to manage and execute upon many responsibilities, in a rapid timeframe, to a high-degree of precision.
This report sheds insight into how advisors are using technology to make decisions and manage client relationships.
“Not all advisors offer financial planning for clients, so it is a bit surprising to see such a high percentage of advisors with this software,” writes Sheryl Rowling CPA who is a columnist for Morningstar. “Maybe more advisors have gotten the message that financial planning must go hand in hand with investing, and advisors not offering this service are becoming scarcer.”
If you’re thinking about upgrading your practice’s technology stack, Rowling’s perspectives may help you find the right direction.
If you found this resource valuable, we encourage you to please share it with fellow financial advisors in your network or in any communities in which you belong.
Learn more about CircleBlack
CircleBlack is an all in one management platform for the wealth management industry. You can think of it as an operational dashboard to better connect financial advisors and their clients around a shared perspective. The outcome is better collaboration and communication for relationship-focused advisors.
To learn how our software can help you build, manage, and grow your wealth management practice, get in touch.
Disclosures
This material has been prepared for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment, accounting, legal, or tax advice.