What should advisors do when their AUM fees fall? Here are my top five ideas, in order of least to most favorite.
The single biggest barrier to establishing trust in a new relationship is the lack of reciprocity.
What about all the other components of your referral network beyond clients and COIs? Don’t succumb to wearing referral blinders.
Contact your clients and prospects at a rate you have rarely done before. But you must use the right script.
How can you continue to connect and stay relevant with your prospects, clients, referral sources, and other contacts as you spend more time at home working from your dining room table?
To counteract the panicked state induced at such a time, I often recall ideas from my favorite success book, Napoleon Hill's, Think and Grow Rich.
There is a general perception that expensive equipment and expertise are required to create successful video content, but that is simply not true. Here are three simple steps to create professional-looking videos.
I have received several questions about advisors unable to behave appropriately during this stressful time.
The S&P 500 ETFs tracked include State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR (SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), and Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO).
Labor market data has never looked as ugly, with more hits to come; but many are looking ahead at what an eventual recovery will look like.
The bear market is challenging defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors to reinforce timeless investing principles while also conveying new rules that bring relief to participants. Good communication practices are a key ingredient to achieving success in both these areas.
With recent data showing a coronavirus-driven recession in the United States appears inevitable, the question for many investors is how long it will last. Sonal Desai, Chief Investment Officer, Franklin Templeton Fixed Income, weighs in on the differences between this one and other recessionary periods—and whether policymakers can engineer a recovery.
Like a pilot relying on a plane’s flight-control instruments during an unfamiliar route with poor visibility, we are depending more than ever on our fact-based, unemotional investment methods. The overwhelming majority of our investments are in companies that we believe are built to withstand harsh economic shocks. Only on the margin have we slightly increased our trading activity.
Global equity index futures are trading up about 4% this morning. The coronavirus data over the weekend was less bad. The growth rate in new confirmed cases over the last 24 hours globally was the lowest since March 17—a welcome sign that containment measures are gaining some traction in slowing the spread of the disease.
Minimum volatility strategies are one way to seek more equity stability, which may help investors stay in the markets over the long run.
The latest monthly employment report showed a loss of 701K nonfarm payrolls, which consists of a loss of 647K service-providing jobs and a loss of 54K goods-producing jobs.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) has taken another step in its attempt to avert a financial crisis. It revived its Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a measure last used in the Great Recession.
Once again, no one cares about the economic calendar. There are a few items with recent data – jobless claims, mortgage applications, and Michigan sentiment – but most reports are old news. Everyone is focused on the increase in coronavirus cases and deaths. There are plenty of predictions, each based on model from a reputable source. The variation is wide.
Doctors think differently than economists. They put patients with a potential for brain damage in an artificial coma to stop swelling, and when it stops, they bring them out. This fits with the Hippocratic Oath all doctors take, which states "First, do no harm." The idea is to "limit" damage and then "restart" a more normal body with fewer problems.
Until there is a better sense of when and how the COVID-19 public-health crisis will be resolved, economists cannot even begin to predict the end of the recession that is now underway. Still, there is every reason to anticipate that this downturn will be far deeper and longer than that of 2008.
The latest JOLTS report (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary), with data through February, is now available.
Let's take a closer look at Friday's employment report numbers on Full and Part-Time Employment.
The price of Regular and Premium are down eight cents each from last week. According to GasBuddy.com, Hawaii has the highest average price for Regular at $3.19 and Wisconsin has the cheapest at $1.41. The WTIC end of day spot price closed at 26.08, up 27% from last week.
All eight indexes on our world watch list posted losses through April 6, 2020. The top performer is China's Shanghai with a loss of 9.38%. Our own S&P 500 is in second with a loss of 17.55% and in third is Hong Kong's Hang Seng with a loss of 17.57%. Coming in last is India's BSE SENSEX with a loss of 33.12%.
Switching to a tax system where all people filed individually would increase the women’s labor-force participation far more than subsidizing childcare, the IMF found.
Dimon said people could return to work more quickly if governments made tests widely available to determine who has recovered from the disease.
The bank will focus on helping nonprofits and businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
Advisors had little use for actively managed funds over the recent bull market; index funds did exceptionally well. But just when those actively managed funds were most needed – over the recent market downturn – they failed to protect investors.
Our monthly market valuation updates have long had the same conclusion: US stock indexes are significantly overvalued, which suggests cautious expectations on investment returns.
Here is a summary of the four market valuation indicators we update on a monthly basis.
Here's an interesting set of charts that will especially resonate with those of us who follow economic and market cycles. Imagine that five years ago you invested $10,000 in the S&P 500. How much would it be worth today, with dividends reinvested but adjusted for inflation? The purchasing power of your investment has increased to $12,854 for an annualized real return of 5.03%.
Advisors around the country are helping small-business clients apply for federal stimulus loans to stay afloat as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus. But not many are applying for loans for their own firms – yet.
As an investment advisor, clients often ask my opinion about a private deal they’ve been offered. Here’s the general framework of how I assist the client in reviewing such investments.
Legendary investor, Benjamin Graham, explained the stock market in the following way: “In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it’s a weighing machine.” Since the emergence of COVID-19, the weighing machine is broken.
Below is a letter we recently sent to clients about how we are responding to the recent market selloff.
This commentary has been updated to include yesterday morning's release of Nonfarm Employment. March's 701K decrease in total nonfarm payrolls had revisions that resulted in 57K fewer jobs than previously reported. The Investing.com consensus was for 100K jobs lost and the unemployment rate to increase to 3.8%.
The stage is being set for what we internally call the “convertible trifecta.” The markets are uncertain right now. But when markets eventually calm, the team would expect to see the combined forces of equity upside, credit upside and convert valuation gaps closing, which can be very powerful on the way back up.
Major adjustments in capital markets around the globe have changed our long-term expected return forecasts for the 100+ assets we model. Before the corona crash we forecast long-term real returns for US equities to be only 1% a year. Now new, lower valuations suggest higher returns.
U.S. stocks ended lower Friday, capping a volatile week of swings both higher and lower, as investors reckoned with the increasing evidence of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic toll.
The phrase “a picture paints a thousand words” seems truer than ever as images of lockdowns flood our newsfeeds. From the eerie emptiness of Time Square to closed retailers, there is concrete evidence that all are doing their part to combat the outbreak.
With the economy shut down, layoffs in the millions, and no clear visibility about the economic recovery post-pandemic, companies are going to become vastly more conservative on the use of their cash. Given that source of market liquidity is now gone, the market will have a much tougher time maintaining current levels, much less going higher.
There’s always a story behind the economic data. The Employment Report understated the labor market deterioration in March, while seasonal adjustment amplified the level of job losses in the first half of the month. More importantly, claims for unemployment benefits doubled from the astronomical level of a week earlier.
During this horrible crisis, I feel very fortunate that “social distancing” is very practical and easy for my family and me. We are blessed to live in the country on a 20-acre estate with a private lake and a backyard that is steaming with wildlife.
Most of the bond market sold off in March as the coronavirus crisis intensified. But as past crises have shown, indiscriminate selloffs can generate big opportunities.
The US Federal Reserve announced it would buy exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as part of a range of measures to help support the markets in the wake of the coronavirus. David Mann, Head of Capital Markets, Global ETFs, examines which ETFs it might actually buy, and when.
The Fed has moved aggressively to stabilize core assets, including mortgages. Yet several market indicators are still concerning.
Are you a safe distance from portfolio risk? As the stock market struggles, risk reduction becomes more appealing to many.
Allocating capital as the pandemic progresses; emerging markets may be next domino to fall.
Many consumers entered the crisis with no cushion.
While the US economy continues to suffer the wrath of the coronavirus, a recovery will eventually come. Franklin Equity Group's Grant Bowers provides his latest update on the US equity market, and what he and his team have an eye on with a long-term investment view.
