Having Your Cake and Eating it Too: Equity Swap Contract

Good to Know Think about this situation. You have a client who has a significant amount of their wealth in a concentrated position. This might be because they are an executive with a company and have received equity-based compensation over the years or simply have accumulated the position through an inheritance or other means. Regardless…

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Get In Trouble with the SEC — You’re In Trouble with CFP Board

CFP® Certificants in the News CFP® certificants licensed to sell securities are subject to SEC’s Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) if they make recommendations to retail customers. This article illustrates the reach of Reg BI into potential CFP Board discipline. Here’s the game plan: Identify key terms, Disclose SEC involvement in a Reg BI violation,…

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Protect Concentrated Positions With No Out-of-Pocket Cost

Good to Know Unmanaged concentrated position risk can be a ticking time bomb in your client’s portfolio. For example, one of the nation’s oldest (founded in 1879) and most respected banks was trading at $38/share in 2007. It had a long-term, loyal stockholder following, many of whom with holdings — accumulated over generations — valued…

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Financial Planning and Happy Marriages

Good to Know Question: What can be a more common cause for divorce than infidelity? Answer: Unresolved money conflicts.1   While being on the same page over money may not guarantee the coveted fiftieth anniversary, fighting over money can undermine marriages well before the golden anniversary. The issues vary, but communication around marital finances can…

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Get the Bear, or the Bear Gets You

Good to Know Loss aversion, taken to its extreme, can wreck long-term retirement planning and investment success. We’ll unpack what drives “irrational” loss aversion, identify a dangerous decision error, and illustrate a potential guardrail to remain on track with our long-term investing plans. “Irrational” Loss Aversion We’re a logical, evolved species, right? Before you answer,…

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CFP Board Announces Dates for 2022 Conference

CFP® Board Updates The 2022 CFP Board Conference will be the first year for a combined conference of CFP Board Registered Programs and the Annual Firms Summit.  This exclusive conference is an intersection of today’s employers of CFP® Professionals and the colleges and universities preparing the CFP® Professionals of tomorrow. The conference will be held…

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Get the CFP® Certification: 3 Key Reasons

CFP® Certificants in the News CFP® Certification is fast becoming a “must-have” designation for at least three reasons: Client awareness, Fiduciary Ethical Standard, and Doing well by doing good. Client Awareness An impressive 83% of consumers are aware of the CFP® Mark,1 far outstripping consumer awareness of other financial planning designations. CFP Board played a…

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Avoid Turning $1,000,000 into $12,000

Good to Know Imagine an individual investor passionate about a specific stock (it happens more often than you might think). Assume the investor’s portfolio is worth $2 million, but $1 million is in just one stock. How could that $1,000,000 concentration hemorrhage into only $12,000 in just over one year? Sadly, that’s precisely what happened…

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Independent RIAs: Three Trends to Thrive

CFP® Certificants in the News CFP Board reports in its March 24, 2022 article that “Registered investment advisor (RIA) firms are an important factor in the future of the financial planning profession…” The article discusses how three trends offer independents a path to continued growth including: Hyper-specialization, Increased personalization and Digitalization. The text in quotation marks…

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Managing Concentration Wealth Risk — Swap (Exchange) Fund

Good to Know Purpose The goal of a swap fund is to reduce concentration of wealth risk through a unique approach to diversification. We will review this intriguing strategy’s operation, legal structure, tax implications, pros, and cons. Operation A swap fund (after this referred to as “the fund”) is a pool of concentrated positions in…

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