When financial advisors visit our office to get a feel for what we offer, a common question we get from them is “what’s the catch”? That question stems from their perception that our platform, which is inexpensive relative to most, offers so many value-add services for such little cost. The truth is, there is no …
1st Quarter 2021 Capital Market Assumptions1 Every year we make it a priority to review the JPMorgan Capital Market Assumptions and use it as a reference point in helping us formulate asset allocation decisions. Capital Market Assumptions (CMA) are meant to be used for long-term guidance for asset class returns, and the shorter you make …
You can access the notebook used to generate the analysis presented below here: https://gist.github.com/aarongilman/5054fc12ccde79076e45501ab82c0690 If you prefer to view this post as a Jupyter Notebook, you can view it that way at the end of the post. The S&P 500 has recovered all of the losses from the COVID crash earlier in the year. Does …
Continue reading “Exploring the 2020 Stock Market Recovery in the United States”
Financial Professionals can count on changing firms at least once, if not multiple times during their career. Outside of corporate mergers and acquisitions, FP’s often reach a tipping point that triggers the search for a new broker-dealer and/or RIA partner; frustrations with their current firm have piled up and they can’t take it any longer. …
Continue reading “When Changing Firms, What Questions Should You Be Asking?”
Intro We’ve done a lot of hiring over the past year. And with hiring comes interviews…lots of them. And with lots of interviews comes lots of practice, so much that I now have a lengthy bank of questions to pull from as needed when I’m talking to candidates. More recently, I started asking a specific, …
Tampa, FL, October 14, 2020 – Independent Financial Partners (IFP) in Tampa, FL is honored to announce our certification from the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence, LLC (CEFEX). This certification is only granted by CEFEX to firms that demonstrate adherence to fiduciary best practices. It is a hallmark accomplishment for IFP as it signifies conformity to …
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Having now spent over 20 years within financial services, it has become evident that we love our industry buzzwords! They are thrown around so much that they are often used incorrectly and have come to describe generalities in conversation. The #1 offender is scale. There are several interpretations of it but by definition, having scale …
Given where we are in both the economy and stock market this year, I think it would be helpful to revisit some of the same data points and charts we looked at last quarter and see how things have changed. Record levels of money market assets held by investors and institutions When we last examined …
Continue reading “Uncertainty, the Economy and Markets: Q3 2020”
2020 has been an interesting year for investors so far and it is showing no signs of letting up any time soon. The most popular and widely followed stock market indices are typically market-capitalization weighted (read more about it here https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalizationweightedindex.asp) and at times can be rather misleading when used as a proxy for performance …
Continue reading “A Decomposition of the Market Composition”
At IFP, we’re always forward thinking and looking at better ways to work more efficiently. Here are some of our favorite platforms that we use and recommend. DocuSign eSignatureSign important documents anytime, anywhere. Enhances the experience for your clients without the hassle of all the paperwork. Powered through DocuSign, eSignature technology is safe and secure. …
Continue reading “Our Top 6 Technology Platforms for Working Remotely More Efficiently”