With demand waning and supplies increasing, the housing market is in for a lot of pain. Low interest rates have been a boon to housing, making mortgages more affordable and allowing consumers to refinance existing loans, with many of them tapping the equity in their homes for extra cash.
You have a niche market selected, but now comes the tricky part: determining whether the niche is a viable client base. Here are 11 questions to help you assess whether you picked a good niche.
I have charged Ken Fisher with crimes against annuities. I will begin this proceeding by expressing my gratitude for his anti-annuity advertising campaign including its famous tagline, “I hate annuities and you should too!”
While I was raised to believe in the importance of helping others and to appreciate the help my own family was given, it was a personal tragedy that was the impetus for much of what I’ve done.
We have team members turning on one another because much of the new client servicing standards we agreed to set in place are not working.
I’m going to discuss some of the things my highly regarded, elite physician did that I rarely see advisors doing. There are five of them. Let’s start with the story of how I wound up in the cardiologist’s office.
I recently worked with a well-intentioned, highly competent advisor who made the mistake of obtaining a full power of attorney for a client.
ICYMI: In this roundup, we’re highlighting the five most popular pieces of content from the previous week.
Bari Tessler was practicing financial therapy before most of the rest of us had ever heard the term.
Hedge funds have long been criticized for underperforming the bull market in stocks for the past decade. But as markets get more challenging and interest rates climb, it’s their risk-management skills – not their performance record – that could underpin an upturn in the industry’s fortunes.
A new report from the U.K.’s Cambridge University Centre for the Future of Democracy offers investors a rare chance to think about the overall economy over the next decade. The authors compiled a large global dataset that suggests some not-often-heard claims, such as that the tide of populism, nationalism and inequality has turned, and is rapidly receding in favor of a more prosperous, peaceful, egalitarian and cohesive globe in the next decade.
As investors brace for an increasingly aggressive Federal Reserve, money is flooding into cash-like ETFs -- which are seen as relatively less vulnerable to interest-rate risk. Traders have been piling into exchange-traded funds mostly focused on ultra-short instruments like Treasury bills, while offloading ETFs tracking longer-dated debt -- even those that are considered short-term bonds maturing in five years or less.
The expanded child tax credit lapsed in December as the cost of President Joe Biden’s spending plans became a sticking point in Congress. Yet amid the debate over whether its success in reducing poverty is worth its large price tag, many are missing a crucial feature: It was uniquely well-designed to address the increasingly precarious economic reality that millions of Americans experience.
For a year and a half, Chinese authorities have been trying to reduce property prices, leverage, and the economy’s dependence on the real estate industry. As defaults and distress spread, from China Evergrande Group to Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. and others, the first signs of a shift toward policy easing emerged last year.
Congress should act quickly to pass legislation that creates regulatory guardrails for the fast-growing cryptocurrency stablecoin market, according to Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang.
Custom-designed, printed marketing materials help customers know, like, and trust you by making your brand more recognizable and memorable, and deepen relationships with existing clients. Here’s how.
The short answer is “yes.”
I work with student-athletes looking to cash in on their name, image, and likeness (NIL). But I also work with advisors and have found there are important similarities In how they achieve marketing greatness.
First the economy overheats, then winter comes to Wall Street. January was especially horrible for the cutting-edge investor, and February might be even worse. At the end of last month, big tech stocks were down nearly 8%, according to the New York Stock Exchange’s FANG+ index — and that was before shares of Meta Platforms Inc. (the company formerly known as Facebook) fell off a cliff last week.
Two key U.S. labor-market metrics may take until 2024 to recover to their pre-pandemic growth trend, keeping maximum employment out of reach for now, a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco showed.
Concerns that the Federal Reserve may overshoot with faster interest-rate hikes that could slow the economy have led to a flattening of the U.S. yield curve -- with shorter-dated yields rising at a faster pace.
Markets this year are putting the risk in risk premium. Any asset that typically pays more than a low-risk bond (or zero return) will expose you to losses from time to time, and that happened a lot last month.
The U.S. has become the world’s top destination for crypto miners after China banned the energy-intensive industry and as Russia considers doing the same. Now hundreds of thousands of mining machines worth billions of dollars are plugging into electrical grids across America, spawning an entirely new industry — complete with new tax revenue for local governments and big profits for many miners as well as concerns about power use and environmental impact.
Borrowing costs are soaring across global credit markets as investors prepare for the end of an era of loose monetary policy.
Sourcing your own E&O policy is not complicated or intimidating if you understand how to navigate the process.
Here are four ways to generate cash from an expensive whole-life insurance policy.
Quantitative finance is built on the premise that exposure to factors such as value/growth, market capitalization, momentum and profitability/quality explain the variation of performance of diversified portfolios. New research shows that carbon dioxide emissions represent a new factor.
Flying Blind is beautifully written and comprehensive, covering subjects as diverse as early aviation history, the rise of the shareholder-centric economic doctrine, and aeronautical engineering.
Given that someone else’s money is on the line, the potential for emotions to get supercharged, super-fast is very real.
Now is the best time for you and your clients to get your medical and end-of-life paperwork in order. It's worth revisiting these documents annually in case any of your plans or preferences need updating.
The strike price on the Fed put has moved significantly. The Fed may sit idly by if markets voice displeasure with abrupt changes in monetary policy.
This article can be forwarded to clients to help them understand inflation, its causes, and how various investment strategies protect against it.
The world’s biggest exchange-traded fund posted its worst monthly outflow in its near three-decade history with investors selling the Monday stock rebound en masse.
Not since the late 2000s, when lavish bonuses rained down before and after federal bailouts, have pay packages at U.S. investment banks swelled as much as they have right now.
Americans can expect to inherit $72.6 trillion over the next quarter century, more than twice as much as a decade ago, in the latest indication of how soaring markets are poised to bolster the next generation of the ultra-rich.
European shares and U.S. equity futures declined on Thursday amid the souring mood in the stock market. The greenback snapped three days of declines as investors sought a haven, putting pressure on gold and metals priced in the currency.
Oil retreated as traders wait to see whether OPEC+ can deliver on its latest promised increase in supply, while stock markets fell.
U.S. productivity surged last quarter by the most in more than a year, reflecting a sharp acceleration in economic output, while labor costs growth cooled.
It’s becoming more and more challenging to find employees to fill essential roles. Advisor are hitting roadblocks with succession planning and filling internal staff positions.
Looking to tap into Tesla Inc. gains while avoiding its white-knuckle volatility? A planned exchange-traded fund wants to do precisely that, just as the Elon Musk-loving retail mob gets tested in the tech market turmoil.
Flush from soaring stock markets and surging cryptocurrencies, the U.S. was the surprise leader of the luxury sector last year, as people splashed out on everything from Cartier jewelry to Christian Dior handbags.
Europe’s stricter environmental, social and governance rules might be forcing companies in more controversial sectors to look across the Atlantic for funding.
John Legend is starting an NFT platform for musicians and entertainers who are trying to navigate the frenzy around digital collectibles.
U.S. lenders issued more credit cards than ever last year, with a growing share of them going to consumers with lower credit scores.
Gold advanced and the dollar pushed lower after economic data showed the U.S. unexpectedly shedding jobs last month.
UBS made a huge investment in acquiring the robo-advisor Wealthfront. But neither this investment nor any other robo pose a threat to traditional financial advice.
I don’t know if we should downsize and move into a smaller space, give people the option to WFH and then lose the great camaraderie that has always made us so great.
There are pros and cons to hiring a motivational speaker. While there are reasons to do so, here’s a secret they don’t want you to know…
How would you answer this question, “What makes you different and unique from everyone else who does what you do?”
