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XY Planning Network members regularly serve as subject matter experts for major media outlets. (We invite our journalist friends to submit requests using our media portal.) We've compiled this roundup of recent articles featuring some of our superstar advisors.
TikTok and Advisors: Is a Savvy Algorithm Worth Privacy Concerns?
Financial Planning, featuring XYPN member Ian Bloom
Should financial advisors make TikTok part of their digital marketing strategy?
The video sharing app has enormous potential for advisors hoping to connect with next-generation investors, digital marketing experts say. Not only that, TikTok’s algorithm makes it easier for an interested audience to find advisors’ content than other social networks, digital marketing experts say.
“The biggest advantage of TikTok right now is organic growth is still very possible,” says Anna Kloth, founder of The Pineapple Hustle, an online course in digital marketing for entrepreneurs. “In the ways that Facebook used to be 15 years ago and Instagram was five years ago, you can get a huge number of views and visibility and be discovered for free.”
But TikTok also presents unique challenges for financial advisors. For one, how to create engaging videos while also remaining compliant with securities regulations? There are also questions swirling about the data the app collects. Wells Fargo has gone as far as telling employees to remove the app from work phones.
Game Plans For Diversifying The Advisory Profession
Financial Advisor Magazine, featuring XYPN member Miguel Gomez
The long-running discussion about the need for the wealth management industry—and the financial services industry at large—to diversify its ranks has taken on a greater sense of urgency during the past month in the wake of the protests for racial justice and equality following the deaths of George Floyd and other African Americans resulting from police actions.
Regarding financial planning, it has been well-documented that the profession predominately comprises older white males (the average age among financial advisors is somewhere in the early 50s, depending on the source).
Diversity within the financial advisor space can take various forms, and Financial Advisor recently sought the opinions of three people who work with or within the profession on how it can diversify itself not just internally, but also in terms of the type of clients it serves.
What Could Upswing in Coronavirus Cases Mean for Advisor Workspaces? Virtually Anything
Financial Planning, featuring XYPN member Sahil Vakil
How is the recent surge in coronavirus cases nationwide impacting advisors’ plans for their future workspaces?
“It’s going to flip everything on its head,” says XY Planning Network advisor and MYRA Wealth founder Sahil Vakil. “It will be, ‘Work remotely and meet in-person when needed.’ ”
What that looks like is dependent upon firms as well as any restrictions imposed by local governments to stem the rising tide of coronavirus cases, which have hit records in a number of Southern and Western states.
For his part, Vakil suggests the future could be 90% virtual, 10% in person.
The ratio is similar to that of most RIAs interviewed for this story, when it comes to virtualization versus in-person work. But each one is taking a slightly different approach, with some adding space, others cutting it.
Even with 80% to 90% of its advisors working remotely, Creative Planning will still break ground on the third building in its new Overland Park, Kansas, headquarters next month. Edelman Financial Engines cautiously proceeded with re-opening some retail branches and corporate offices last week, with extensive protective measures. And in an exception that proves the rule, one smaller firm already has all of its advisors and staff back in its office. Others are embracing new levels of virtualization.
InvestmentNews's 40 Under 40 Class of 2020
InvestmentNews, featuring XYPN members Courtney Ranstrom, Justin Castelli, Jake Northrup, and Cristina Livadary
Asked to identify her passions, Courtney Ranstrom, 38, quickly picks three: “babies, finance and fairness.” Those loves — along with a passion for mental and physical wellness — are woven into her Portland, Oregon, lifestyle and her work at the RIA firm she founded with her brother, Morgan, who is based in Minneapolis.
Growing up in Fargo, North Dakota, as the daughter of a financial planner who never pushed his career on her, Ranstrom visited Oregon as a teenager and loved it. After graduating early from nearby Concordia College, Willamette University beckoned. An MBA was followed by work as an internal auditor until 2009, when she joined her father’s firm to head operations remotely and work as a para-planner. In 2016, with her father deciding to wind down, she formed Trailhead Planners, which does tax preparation in addition to financial planning and investment management.
Continue reading Courtney's story
Annuities Offer Retirees Peace of Mind in Choppy Markets. But They Come at a Cost
MONEY, featuring XYPN member Kaleb Paddock
When the markets take a stomach-tightening dive, many investors head for the perceived safety of annuities.
These insurance products offer the promise of guaranteed income, an attractive proposition for many retirees in a volatile market. Variable annuity sales rose 16% in the first quarter over the same period last year. Within that category, sales of registered indexed annuities grew by 44% over the first quarter of 2019.
“Whenever there is a significant drop in the market, annuity sales rise,” says Ben Lies, a financial planner in Vancouver, Wash. “People are scared. They want something that feels safe.”
Today’s record-low interest rates complicated that retreat to safety for one kind of annuity, however. Sales of fixed income annuities, which lock in lifetime returns based on today’s interest rates, were 22% lower in the first quarter of 2020 than in the first quarter of 2019.
Despite Pandemic, Some CFPs are ‘Awash’ in CE credits. Here’s Why.
Financial Planning, featuring XYPN member Mark Wilson
To get CE credits, advisor Mark Wilson typically attends several conferences per year and relies on education offerings from his local FPA chapter.
In the age of coronavirus, such in-person events are off the table. Yet finding CE credits has rarely been a problem, Wilson says in an email.
“After COVID, there have been twice as many webinars available,” says Wilson, who is the president and founder of MILE Wealth Management in Irvine, California.
He’s not alone.
There are over 8,400 CE programs available, but only 82 have been canceled due to the virus, mostly to avoid in-person gatherings, according to John Loper, managing director of professional practice for the CFP Board.
4 Money Lessons Boomers Can Learn from Gen Z
Policygenius, featuring XYPN member Chris Russell
There’s no denying that baby boomers have more life experiences than Gen Z. But this doesn’t mean boomers have nothing to learn from the younger generation. By understanding the money decisions of Gen Z, baby boomers may be able to improve their financial wellbeing.
Here are four money lessons boomers can learn from Gen Z.
1. Diversify your income
77% of Gen Z earns money through the gig economy or part-time work. Some of them even have a full-time job and earn money on the side. Diversifying income helps you to meet financial goals faster and protects you in the event of a job loss.
“Just like Gen Z, boomers should create multiple streams of income. It’s important that they understand the importance of side hustles in retirement. They can easily make a quick buck doing things they enjoy,” said Chris Russell, certified financial planner at Tempus Pecunia.
XY Planning Network's media request program is available to all XYPN advisors as a member benefit. Interested in joining our community of expert advisors? Read more about XYPN's marketing support and watch our introductory video, Disrupting Financial Planning: The XYPN Movement.
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Quoted: Member Media Roundup - February 2018
Quoted: Member Media Roundup - November 2017
