The Wealth Consigliere

As we have discussed in the past monthly summaries the number of Podcasts is exploding.  That is the good news but the bad news as discussed in the Wall Street Journal is that the free model with limited advertising is not working.  Specifically podcast listeners are not buying enough products from the sponsors of the shows to pay the bills.  Several popular podcast are signing up name brand (read wealthy) companies to sponsor the podcast and pay the bills.  This reality coupled with the fact that most podcasts hit the wall at 12 episodes has caused us to tweek our monthly categories to include monetary support and frequency.  This “pivot" should improve our summery. Please share your opinions through the comment field.   Funded HBS has the dough and they are releasing numerous podcasts that I have found very helpful.  My current favorite is Cold Call .  I know we hate that term but the podcast covers case studies from HBS and the presenters are actual HBS profe

Last week’s tumultuous market moves caused me to revisit an old economics concept of elasticity of demand. Don’t worry there won’t be a test at the end of our post, but we want to examine several real world concepts that impact the wealth advisory world.  Unfortunately the academic concepts and other rules of thumb aren’t helpful in the real world. Fees Most business relationships start and continue with a fee analysis.  The only guaranteed fee reduction is to cut out the middleman.  Once the client identifies the Middleman we can start focussing on the fees that matter.  ETFs and The Internet have been effective disrupters of the Middleman.  The challenge for clients and advisors is that indiscriminately cutting fees can leave us with a poor solution.  We need to understand what is provided for each fee so we don’t end up driving a car that runs but is embarrassing. Tariffs  The trade war with China was one of the many reasons for the market selloff.  Whethe

Technlogy is a double edged sword.  Technology has made our lives easier but as we bought more smart phones we also became more vulnerable to being hacked.  The Russians and other hackers have attacked our elections and recently have attacked our businesses .  These hacks are news worthy but until we are personally hacked it is someone else’s problem.  I have been hacked but the credit card monitoring software caught the hacker before they could buy a car using my identity.  While it scared me it confirmed Jamie Dimond’s statement that hacking is our country's greatest risk.  Banks will contunue to invest in solutions to combat hackers and we will need to trust but monitor our accounts.  Our monthly  review of our favorite podcats will continue.  Hackers be damned! First Person We are moved by the real world podcasts that summarize the experiences of real people from the first peson perspective.  Real trumps fiction and actual stories move us.  Our favorite is Room 20 .  F