Wow, wow, wow! There’s no other way to sum up what over 4,000 people just experienced at the third annual Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach this week. As someone involved in planning and executing this event for the past three years, I was completely blown away by how it has grown while maintaining a…
Wealth Management/Industry News
It Takes a Village
My son’s coach pitch baseball team won the playground championship last week. They were first among 22 teams in the league, surviving a two-week, double-elimination tournament. What an awesome experience! In his victory speech, our head coach talked about the community at the playground and how everyone was like family. I was reminded of the…
Sins of the Brokers
In recent months, I have spoken to several clients of traditional wirehouse brokers. I don’t know if this string of brokerage clients is a random occurrence or a sign of general dissatisfaction with the brokerage industry. However, given the chance to review many portfolios and hear about investor experiences at these firms, I think I’ve…
Reinventing Philanthropy
I don’t write much about my community involvement. I serve on two nonprofit boards, chair an advocacy organization, and participate in a church committee focused on restorative justice. As you can see, I have trouble saying no to these opportunities. Giving my time back to my community is in my blood. I serve as the…
Epic Week
The events of this week, at least in the slice of the world I inhabit, have been nothing short of epic. Charlie Munger died, four weeks shy of his 100th birthday. Best known as Warren Buffett’s pithy sidekick at Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meetings, Charlie is on the shortlist of the greatest investors of all time….
Recap: CFA Institute Asset and Risk Allocation Conference
The CFA Institute has finally resumed in-person conferences, and I was lucky to be invited to emcee the Risk and Asset Allocation conference last week in Washington D.C. Held at the Watergate Hotel, where the room keys cheekily read, “You don’t need to break in” on the back, the conference was a nonstop firehose of…
Women of Wealth Management, Assemble!
Future Proof Festival is happening in a few weeks. This is an event you don’t want to miss if you work in wealth management. The speaker lineup is unbelievable. The venue is a boardwalk in Huntington Beach, CA. No cold hotel ballrooms, and no coffee and tea bars at the back of the exhibit hall….
Squad Goals
Prospective clients always ask me, “What sets your firm apart from other wealth managers?”. My answer is simple, the people. One of my favorite things about working at RWM is being part of a team of elite financial advisors. These are the rock stars behind the scenes. The ones you don’t see as often on…
Asset Destruction
“I am so sorry.” These are the only four words that come to mind. I don’t know what else to say to an investor who’s been sold a load of garbage by a life insurance agent. I can no longer keep quiet as I witness this silent epidemic of bad incentives, high pressure sales tactics,…
The advice business is permanently changed
This is an op-ed that was originally published on CNBC here. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in mid-March, there were three types of financial advisory firms: high-tech, low-tech late adopters and firms somewhere in between. The overnight shift to work-from-home was vastly different for each type. Low-tech firms transported printers and fax machines…
