Gaining Perspective

What if you could have an indexed portfolio tailored to personal priorities such as ESG that was highly tax efficient? My guests today, J. Womack and Erich Holland, will discuss how that is now possible, and how mass personalization like this is pivotal for advisor growth in an increasingly digital and personal world.

One of the most widely studied aspects of the capital markets is the low-volatility anomaly. It is the fact that low-volatility stocks have achieved higher performance than what theory predicts. My guest today, Dan Waldron, oversees one of the most popular ETFs based on that strategy. He is here to talk about how a low-volatility and high-quality strategy will achieve superior returns over time.

Shundrawn Thomas is perhaps the only and certainly one of the few African Americans who leads a global investment firm. He’s been quite outspoken and visible with his views on racism and inequities. Over the last year, he wrote three open letters to civic and business leaders which addressed them in an extremely personal and direct manner. He has also appeared numerous times on television presenting the investment case for gender diversity.

Our listeners do not need to be reminded of the lofty valuations in the U.S. equity market. The Shiller CAPE ratio is approximately 35, a value exceeded only at the peak of the dot-com bubble. Some claim those valuations are justified by the low-yield environment. But interest rates are pushing up, and equity prices continue to climb higher and higher. That has left advisors seeking solutions that protect against downside equity risk, but still offer upside opportunity.

As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, women investors are more concerned about their finances and feel less prepared than they’ve been in years. Nearly three in four women with investable assets of $100,000 or more said the pandemic has negatively impacted their ability to retire. Ann Bair and Lori Hall present findings from Nationwide’s sixth annual Advisor Authority study, powered by the Nationwide Retirement Institute®, reflecting the responses of more than 2,500 individual investors, advisors and financial professionals.

My guest today, Dr. Daniel Crosby, is the author of a New York Times bestselling book that was named the best investment book of 2017, The Behavioral Investor. He has looked at how psychology should inform the art and science of investment management.  Daniel has examined the sociological, neurological and psychological factors that influence our investment decisions, and he is here to offer some practical solutions for improving both returns and behavior.

On February 11, 2020, my guests published a paper titled, “The Next Bear Market” while U.S. stock prices were at all-time highs and climbing daily to new records.  At that time, the prospect of a bear market seemed distant.  But eight days later, the steepest stock market descent in history began, with the S&P 500 Index falling 34%  during a five-week period.  We will discuss their new commentary, “Market Euphoria – How long can it last?”

My guest today, Taylor Schulte, has achieved what virtually every advisor seeks but few attain. He has designed and implemented a successful digital marketing strategy that provides an ongoing source of qualified leads for his fast-growing advisory practice. He is here to share his knowledge of digital marketing tactics with our listeners.

Last month, Gabelli Funds launched the Love Our Planet & People ETF – symbol LOPP – to reflect its mandate to invest in companies committed to sustainable practices such as renewable energy and the reduction or recycling of long-lived wastes. LOPP will focus on areas where the team already has extensive experience researching and investing in companies involved in forward-looking sectors including renewable power generation (wind, solar, water), electric transmission and storage, electric mobility, waste reduction and recycling, water conservation and treatment, and human nutrition throughout the world.

Kat Van Slyke, the protagonist in my guest’s new novel, is a woman living a seemingly wonderful life. She runs a thriving apparel business that she built herself. She has a son who is a budding baseball star, and a role model in her father, who was once a star major league player. She lives in a fancy condominium, travels by private jet and has an expensive vacation home. But through a series of events, most of which were of her own making, her life quickly unravels. In that downward spiral, she learns many important lessons about business, family and life.

PPB Capital Partners is a platform to access alternative funds with investment minimums as low as $100,000 and no sales charges or platform fees. It was launched in July of 2008, meaning that it successfully navigated the 2008 financial crisis. PPB has successfully invested in over 250 funds and it is actively working with over 100 private wealth firms around the U.S., with nearly $2 billion in capital commitments. PPB delivers a process to operationally streamline the often complicated and onerous process of investing in the private markets.

RIA technology products are not known for their efficiency, low cost or delightful user experience. Altruist is a new, seamlessly integrated digital investing platform, which results in extraordinary ROI for financial advisors and enables them to spend far more time with clients.

It doesn’t take Black History Month to remind our listeners of the lack of diversity in the advisory profession. Of the countless conferences I’ve attended – when it was possible to attend such conferences – the overwhelming majority of attendees were like me: white, male and middle aged. We’ve seen a number of efforts to address this lack of diversity, particularly in the last year in light of the tragic events that have particularly affected people of color. Here to talk with me today is someone at the forefront of those efforts within the advisory profession.

Over the last two weeks, we have seen how a cadre of retail traders on Reddit can lay siege on a group of hedge funds that had shorted the stock of the retail company GameStop. We saw the price of GameStop rise from about $20 at the beginning of the year to a peak of $347.5 on January 27.  Yesterday, on February 4, it closed at $53.50. This is a brick-and-mortar company that sells video games and lost about $20 million last year.  Today we will explore deeper issues surrounding the GameStop saga.

The Financial Planning Association, FPA, is the principal membership organization for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™​ professionals and those who support the financial planning process. I am joined today by the two leaders of the FPA and a veteran observer of the financial planning profession. I am looking forward to a spirited discussion about the role that the FPA will play among financial planners, the challenges it faces and how my guests plan to overcome those challenges.

Following the rioting at the Capitol building on January 6, Twitter permanently deleted President Trump’s Twitter account. Twitter accused Trump of repeated and severe violations of its Civic Integrity policy. While applauded by many, that move was controversial on the basis that it inhibited free speech. My guest today, Barry Ritholtz, defended Twitter’s action on the basis that Twitter is analogous to the host of a dinner party, and as the host it can throw out guests it does not like. Barry and I had an email exchange about that analogy, and we agreed to continue our discussion in this podcast.

Americans used to fund their retirement through corporate pension plans. But over the last 50 years, the burden of saving has fallen on the employees, and providing a framework for retirement savings has become the responsibility of American businesses. One of the first questions asked by a prospective employee is what type of 401(k) or other plans a company offers. Providing a well-designed plan at a reasonable expense is especially challenging for small companies. My guest today, Chad Parks, provides solutions to that problem.

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a new industry report, the Visible Experts Study, from the Hinge Research Institute reveals. It shows what it took for 220 thought leaders to gain recognition for their expertise, how thought leaders and their firms benefit from the recognition, and how techniques to build visibility has changed over the years. 

We live in an era where traditional valuation metrics are under greater scrutiny, and investors are looking for an updated toolset to make better decisions. My guest today, Tom Cole, will explain how investors can better answer their valuation concerns by utilizing modern tools instead of outdated ratios. He will tell us why the shares of Apple (AAPL) are no longer attractively valued and the ex-US markets are ripe for value investors.

The future of financial advice is evolving. The real value of an advisor not only requires the ability to build a plan and portfolio, but to guide clients through the process, unearth their values and emotions, and change their behavior for the better. A realm of the relationship is called the human side of money.  Here today to talk about that human side and how advisors can leverage the science of behavioral finance is Brendan Frazier.