Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the news of the Federal Reserve’s long-anticipated interest rate hike – the first of what will likely be a series of increases to combat the current spike of inflation – and a look at the wide-ranging effects it may have for consumers and investors, including volatile markets and higher debt costs (in addition to the already-existing effects of inflation).
Also in industry news this week:
- FINRA has issued a regulatory notice on the ability of retail investors to trade options and other “complex products” on brokerage platforms, which stops short of proposing new regulations but suggests that broker-dealers may need to do more to affirm the suitability of options trading for their retail customers
- A new report from Cerulli suggests that firms should focus on a target niche (or more generally, the advisor’s “ideal” clients) to increase their efficiency (a finding that echoes previous Kitces research as well)
From there, we have several articles on ways advisors can help clients maximize their cash flow:
- Why it is important for clients who are planning to leave their job to create a strategy to maximize the financial benefits from their employer before they go
- How advisors can support clients in appealing a college’s financial aid offer
- Why now is an opportune time to use airline miles and hotel points, and how advisors can support clients in earning and using travel rewards
We also have a number of articles on marketing:
- How advisory firms can make the best first impression with their websites using a few best practices (like making it clear who the firm serves, what makes it different, and what visitors are expected to do next in the first five seconds of viewing the site)
- How firms with limited resources to put towards their website can focus on their most-visited pages to maximize the return on their investment
- How advisors (even those with limited web design knowledge) can improve the search engine optimization of their website content to draw in more visitors
We wrap up with three final articles, all about productivity systems:
- How using a ‘productivity funnel’ can help advisors organize and execute on, but first and foremost select, the right projects
- Why advisors might consider different productivity systems for projects with a set deliverable and timeline, versus those that are more intangible in timeline but still ‘need’ to be done
- A look at a number of popular productivity systems that can help solve a range of challenges, from Getting Things Done to Zen To Done and more, supporting everything from tackling projects that require a consistent effort to organizing the firehose of information that advisors face each day
Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!
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