SA For FAs

This podcast (5:37) suggests three takeaways from Vanguard's new 121-page “How America Saves” report: That those 65 and older have saved just $58,000; that the gap between the wealthiest and everyone else is wide; and that, though only a few are raiding their retirement accounts, they’re doing so at advanced ages. Advisors take note: People are trying to maintain a standard of living that seemed normal to them growing up, but which is unavailable currently, given their incomes and expenses.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Nelson of Servo Wealth Management argues that retirement investors are too risk-averse. In this podcast interview (16:20), the highly opinionated advisor argues that retirement investors assume they cannot afford the risk that they might lose money in the stock market, when in reality what they cannot afford are the low returns of an overly conservative strategy.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back-of-the-envelope calculations – as discussed in yesterday’s podcast – may be good conversation starters, but it is often worthwhile to get advice and service that dot every I and cross every T. This podcast (5:12) suggests that people employ consultants because they want to get very important things right, or make sure they don’t botch those very important things. So too for consulting with financial advisors on retirement, which is usually the biggest-ticket item, financially speaking, in one’s entire life.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retirement savers generally want to know what large “number” they need to fund their retirement. But people live their whole lives based on a monthly income, and it is on the basis of that small number that we can try to arrive at the bigger one. We present an oversimplified method of generating a portfolio goal from one’s income needs. This podcast (5:09) suggests that this back-of-the-envelope calculation is really just a starting place for a much more sophisticated discussion to which financial advisors can add tremendous value.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s Talk ETFs is Seeking Alpha’s newest podcast. Each week, a different guest and host Jonathan Liss will take an in-depth look at a particular aspect of the rapidly evolving Exchange-Traded Fund space with a focus on how investors can best utilize ETFs to reach their investing goals. In addition, Let’s Talk ETFs will catch you up on all the most important ETF news including new fund launches and closures, top performers, and other notable ETF investing news from the previous weekLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A New York Times essay published Tuesday about one man’s unexpected and untimely brush with near death illustrates and strengthens the dangers of overly aggressive asset allocations. But since, statistically, most people can expect to live long lives, we can’t invest too conservatively either. This podcast (4:32) argues that life’s humbling ambiguity requires that we simultaneously hedge our risks while facilitating long-term portfolio growth.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I tell my kids to aspire to an asset allocation equal-weighted among stocks, real estate and cash. This podcast (5:36) argues that you don't attain wealth without ownership of risk-based assets such as real estate and stocks. But you don't preserve that wealth from the blows that time and chance deliver without a large dose of liquidity.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stocks’ higher expected returns, the fact that markets recover and stocks’ tax advantages are some of the reasons offered by proponents of a 100 percent stock portfolio, especially for those with long time horizons. This podcast (5:06) argues that while such a portfolio may be advantageous theoretically, financial advisors must remain rooted firmly in the realm of empirical experience, which is at odds with an overly aggressive investment approach.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Financial advisors are all too familiar with the phone calls of angry and upset clients on days when markets take a big hit or portfolio statements show big losses. This podcast (4:49) argues that just as there is food with little or no nutritive value, so too is there information with no real insight. Advisors should preempt those calls by assuring clients they will offer them meat and potatoes, not potato chips. One way to do that would be to customize statements so as to highlight what is truly important.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The reason so many fail to reach goals we all share is not because of a lack of information so much as a lack of motivation. Enter financial advisors. They can take information like this, personalize it and motivate the client. This podcast (4:21) argues that financial advisors work in the realm of actualizing human potential that would otherwise remain undeveloped.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To beat an index fund, a sufficiently wealthy person could copy its components exactly, and harvest short-term losses against his tax bill. But this podcast (4:36) argues that for those with more ordinary portfolio sizes, it’s better not to try to beat the index fund. Fund fees have come way down over the years, and it is now possible to create a custom-tailored portfolio at a very low cost.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Canada Pension Plan (don’t yawn yet) has put many a hedge fund, and even the sizzling S&P 500 index fund, to shame. This podcast (5:43) argues that if management remains as astute, and even more importantly, as diversified, then the CPP could continue to do very well. However, while earning high returns helps secure the Canadian retirement system, the fund’s management should focus on “beating” U.S. Social Security, not the S&P 500. The goal should be solvency, not hedge-fund-like performance.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Low-vol stocks’ 18-20% returns this year have trounced the S&P 500’s 6% returns, and have persistently outperformed the S&P 500 since 1990. In contrast to a momentum approach, low-vol stocks’ best relative returns occur during downturns and their worst relative returns during upswings. This podcast (5:09) argues that the type of person who buys a stock because it’s exciting is likely to sell it because it is disappointing, and hence funds alpha for those whose passions are not inflamed by market volatility, i.e., low-vol investors.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The retirement crisis, at its core, is an all-too-human succumbing to our desire for satisfaction in the present at the expense of our futures. This podcast (5:21) proposes a simple exercise that financial advisors – a profession whose value is frequently publicly questioned – have the unique ability to conduct, thereby providing tremendous value for their clients.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Central bankers worried about inadequate inflation is new, even though it’s now over a decade old. It’s new because we’ve not yet seen how this will end. This podcast (4:49) argues that it would seem likely that stocks and real estate will continue to climb until some unexpected shift finally occurs. So it is desirable to maintain ample cash reserves, because who knows when the shift will occur.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine living in the desert, but without the possibility of AC; you’d need to get to a habitable area as quickly as possible. Retirement investing is akin to a journey in the desert, pre-1950. This brief podcast (4:33) argues that the delusions and imaginings of our media-saturated world blind us to the economic reality, as reported by the Fed, of American’s lack of retirement preparedness. We need to stay focused on our ultimate destination.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pound’s dismally low level suggests that the UK is in financial crisis. Realize though that Brexit hasn’t occurred; it’s uncertainty over Brexit that is killing the British economy.This podcast (4:49) argues that Brexit is actually not inherently bad for the British economy; the big mistake was rather the failure to simultaneously create a low-tax, high-growth business haven along Europe’s border. Investors should expect a long-term devaluation of British assets.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like pilots, financial advisors must examine their clients’ glidepaths in pre-retirement to ensure their clients are safe for “landing.” But pilots must also assess their physical and emotional preparedness for flight, not merely technical readiness. This podcast (4:42) argues that physical and mental health make a decisive difference in the aging process. It would thus not be out of place for financial advisors to note this.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The momentum strategy has a lot of support both in academia and among traders as a generator of excess return, but will investors apply the methodology correctly over a multi-decade career? This podcast (5:19) argues that momentum investing feels like a get-rich-quick scheme based on seemingly simple trend-following when, ironically, a get-rich-slow scheme is available to all.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tells the story of Joyce Lowenstein, who at age 93, earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University. She said of her art history curriculum: “It took me all over the world.” And the University System of Georgia allows residents 62 and older to take courses at little or no cost. This podcast (4:13) argues that retirees who want or need to use their nest egg for ordinary living expenses can have an experience, akin to world travel, at no or low cost.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices