The Wealth Consigliere

 It appears we are headed back to work. Our monthly podcast summary will give us items to put in our backpacks.  So Heigh Ho ! Business Consulting  Adam Grant teaches how to  not make work suck. Work Life These two industry icons share their different opinions for independent wealth advisors. Kices and Carl Reid Hoffman is one of the most successful entrepreneurs who believes in giving back. Masters of Scale Educational  This podcast will entertain and educate. Pivot The host is a law professor who shares insight on controversial issues. Deep Background  While I don’t prefer Houston, this podcast makes me want to visit and attend class. Unlocking Us Hope you all listen to the podcasts and get vaccinated. 

We are impatient. The recent pauses in the J&J vaccine (I took the shot on 4/6) confirm the need for experienced  third party checks and balances.  We will discuss how our impatience also impacts our wealth advisory business. Good things come to those who wait. This week we will discuss our need to wait before making important investment decisions and understand the math behind our financial planning recommendations. I understand that we are all impatient, but hopefully this blog can help you pause before you cross the investment street.    We learned many lessons from Bernie. They should start with a needed upgrade of our investment committee rules. Bernie proved that our due diligence team needed to ask better questions. We also need to wait for confirming answers that aren’t found at our golf club or from our religious peer groups. My experienced options friend confirmed that he had never heard of Bernie’s split dollar option strategy. This answer created que...

  The pandemic has reintroduced many of us to barbells.  This week we will discuss how the barbell approach to portfolio construction and our return to the office are similar. Most of the client meetings I attended with wealthy investors ended with a barbell solution.  One end of the barbell was short term cash and the other barbell was what we characterize as alternatives.  Many of the prospective clients made their wealth on the alternative side of the barbell and didn’t trust the volatility of the middle bar of the financial markets.  This belief created a stalemate for most advisors.  It also created an opportunity for ETFs and Ashvin Chhabra .   Discrimination  Wealth management seems like it is discriminating against all “other wealth”.  Many firms take this discrimination a step further by establishing account minimums.  My hope is we can provide wealth advisory services to all.  Our challenge is what is our time worth and ho...

  The Baylor basketball team has not been to the Final 4 since 1950! What has changed and how did they do it?  This week we will look at how Baylor basketball can help independent wealth advisory firms. I am guilty for using sports analogies, but I can’t help myself. The changes Baylor basketball made can help us all.  We will look at two major rule changes and close with the important items that remain.  Three Point Line The big rule change was the three point shot and it became an essential skill for players and helped teams catch up.  No lead was safe with the three point line.  We have a similar line in wealth advisory.  It is the passive ETF.  Many firms don’t embrace the reality that they can’t outperform the stock market.  Baylor basketball embraced the reality that players needed to make three point shots.  Unfortunately, there are still teams and wealth advisors who don’t embrace reality.  I wonder what Steph Curry would s...