...For Advisors

Episode 49: Heather Rhoades on Estate Planning

"I really love kind of the collaborative approach in general...I find that really the clients are best served when the entire team of advisors are on the same page, have shared information in advance...And many times I find that the RIA is actually the quarterback for the client because he or she ends up interacting and speaking with the client the most out of any advisor and really knows the client the best, the family situation, the client's goals and worries." 

Heather Rhoades is Chairman of Cummings & Lockwood's Private Clients Group and is Partner in Charge of the West Hartford office.  She practices in the areas of estate planning, estate settlement, trust administration and charitable planning.  

Episode 48: Bill Loehning on Lessons Learned From Wirehouses

"I think that the strongest firms that we know and the firms that are excellent at what they do, they keep a great structure out there of firms that are like-minded. So, it's sharing best practices, not being afraid to do that, and seeing how everybody can grow together. That's something that we do on the asset management side quite often."

In this episode we are joined by Bill Loehning of Thornburg Investment Management who shares his experiences working with both wirehouses and independent advisors and things he has learned that may be helpful to registered investment advisors.

William (Bill) Loehning is head of institutional advisor channel, focusing on registered investment advisors, family offices, and bank trust for Thornburg Investment Management. He has extensive experience working with all parts of the advisor community.

Prior to joining Thornburg, Bill was a senior advisor consultant with Putnam Investments, focused on the Northeast. Before that, Bill served as a regional marketing director for The Hartford, covering the wirehouses in New England and as a regional representative for John Hancock for the independent channel in the Chicago area.

Episode 47: Jeff Levine on CPAs and Financial Planning

"I coined the phrase "financial therapy" and it took off like gangbusters, the fact that it's a therapeutic sort of consultation to discuss their assets, their liabilities, their income, their expenses, their goals and objectives. And it's not specifically directed to individual solutions because the idea is it's consultative, to have a conversation about these things and figure out what might be appropriate for their point in life...it really transitioned our practice from basic accounting work to an annual financial service for the individuals."

For nearly 40 years, Jeff Levine has been more than an accountant to his clients.  Jeff and his partner built a robust firm that provides much more than just tax return preparation.  In this episode, you will learn how Jeff became a 'financial therapist" and how this unique approach of tax preparation with financial planning and outsourced investment management helped grow his firm and its revenues.

Jeff Levine serves as “Chairman of the Board” of Alkon & Levine and oversees the firm’s strategic planning.  His conscientious and proactive approach to tax preparation and financial planning allows him to handle any issues that arise in a calm, organized, and creative way.  A self-described “financial therapist”, Jeff works hard to ensure all Alkon & Levine clients receive rigorous attention to their financial needs as part of their annual service package.

Episode 46: Chris Winn on the Current Compliance Landscape

"The SEC did a really good job laying the framework to say, "Look, get out there and market yourself. The rules are now uniform, it's simple. All advertising communication must be truthful, it must be accurate, and it can't omit any material facts." And the medium that it goes out on is not the issue."

Chris Winn is founder of AdvisorAssist and has over 23 years of investment management industry experience with a focus on regulatory compliance, business transitions and operations and technology matters. Prior to founding AdvisorAssist in 2006, Chris was a co-founder and managing principal of MainStay Consulting Group, a strategy and compliance consulting firm serving investment advisors. 

 

 

Episode 45: Carl Noble and Sauro Locatelli on Exposure and Sector Rotation

“I think historical experience shows that different parts of the market, different sectors, behave differently depending on where you are. Are you early in an economic cycle? Are you kind of in the middle of one, or are you later in one? And again, historical record shows that different sectors will be either outperforming or underperforming in large part, dependent on that primarily.” 

Carl Noble, Senior Vice President of Investments and Sauro Locatelli, Director of Quantitative Research, of Congress Wealth Management join us today to discuss their recently authored peer-reviewed white paper for the Journal of Financial Planning on how sector rotation and asset allocation, in sync with the economic business cycle, can bear fruit for risk-averse investors and how these methods have been employed in managing Congress' own portfolios for nearly twenty years.  

Carl was named Senior Vice President of Investments when he joined Congress Wealth Management in May 2021. He is involved in all of aspects of the team’s investment efforts, ranging from broad macro-economic topics to individual security selection issues, across different asset classes and markets. Carl helped develop the firm’s Tactical Asset Allocation investment strategy from its inception in 2002 and remains actively involved in its ongoing execution

Sauro is Director of Quantitative Research at Congress Wealth Management and is primarily responsible for the management and development of our in-house quantitative research models, which support the firm’s investment process. Sauro joined Congress Wealth Management in 2021 when Congress acquired Pinnacle Advisory Group.  Sauro originally joined Pinnacle in January 2011 after completing an internship with the firm over the previous summer. Sauro is a CFA^® charter holder, a certified Financial Risk Manager^TM and has earned his Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) Certificate.

Episode 44: Louis Diamond on Breakaways

“advisors who go independent, they do it for many other reasons than just the economics. Math has to make sense. Your family has to be comfortable with it. You have to have the confidence that it's the right move. But other factors, like having ultimate flexibility and control, and building a business, those factors have to be weighted pretty heavily…”

Making the decision to breakaway from a wirehouse or larger firm can be a daunting one. There are many things to consider when making a move to independence.  In this episode, Louis Diamond offers some insights into that decision making process.

Louis Diamond is president of Diamond Consultants and responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firm, with an eye towards future growth. After graduating magna cum laude with a BBA degree in finance and international business from George Washington University, Louis began his career at Ernst & Young, and later at Morgan Stanley and UBS. Louis is an author and contributor to the financial services media on industry news and trends, including "The Wall Street Journal," "Financial Planning" magazine, "Barron's, "The Washington Post," wealthmanagement.com, "FundFire," "RIABiz," "ThinkAdvisor," "Citywire," and "On Wall Street." Louis is also co-host of the podcast "Mindy Diamond on Independence."

Episode 43: Scott Dell‘Orfano on M&A

"I really feel like firms that can be crisp on what makes them different and what their value proposition is to clients makes a big difference. Firms that run efficiently and have efficiently run practices, so not over-leveraged, not over-technologized, not overstaffed. carry a higher multiple, and I think at the end of the day, the practitioners of the firms looking to sell, need to be able to articulate what is it they want do and what is it they're good at, and what are some of the things that they want offload to the potential buyer."

Mergers and acquisitions are a hot topic in the trade press these days. What then are the causes and formative factors behind the increased M&A activity being seen in the RIA industry landscape in recent months?  Listen in to find out more.

Scott Dell'Orfano is Chief Strategic Officer at Congress Wealth Management. Mr. Dell'Orfano, who's based in Jupiter, Florida, joined Congress Wealth Management from Boston Private Wealth, where he served as president and chief operating officer, who was responsible for corporate strategy and acquisitions. Prior to Boston Private Wealth, Mr. Dell'Orfano, was a member of the firm's executive management team and served on the Boston Private Bank and Trust company's policy group. Before joining Boston Private Wealth in 2014, Mr. Dell'Orfano was Executive Vice President of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services Group.

Episode 38: Carl Noble and Sauro Locatelli on ESG Investing

“I think that one of the big differences as you alluded to is kind of the way that some of these [environmental impact investment theories] were almost abstract ideas. People were talking about climate change back in the 1960s and '70s and pointing many years into the future and saying it's going to be a big problem. Well, here we are in 2021, and we are seeing an increasingly number of severe climate events that are actually impacting people's lives.”

Here it is, the lowdown on ESG investing, and how it can help your clients reach their financial goals and feel good about it too! Carl Noble and Sauro Locatelli tag team ESG ETFs and give you the inside skinny on how these evolving instruments can let you do well by doing good! Don’t miss a minute of this in depth interview . . .

Carl Noble, chief investment officer for Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia, Maryland. Carl joined Pinnacle in 2001 after graduating with honors with a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Maryland. As senior investment analyst, he was responsible for a variety of different research and analytic efforts, ranging from broad macroeconomic topics to individual security selection issues. He helped develop Pinnacle's tactical asset allocation investment strategy from its inception in 2002. Carl was appointed chief investment officer in 2020.

Sauro Locatelli joined Pinnacle full-time in January 2011 after competing an internship with the firm over the previous summer. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in finance from Bocconi University in Italy. As Pinnacle's director of quantitative research, Sauro is primarily responsible for the management and development of Pinnacle's in-house quantitative research models, which supports the firm's investment process. In addition, Sauro is an integral part of Pinnacle's investment team, which is responsible for the firm's asset allocation and security selection decisions. Sauro is a CFA charter holder and a certified financial risk manager and holds a sustainability and climate risk certificate as well.

Episode 42: CWM Investment Team on All Time Highs

“we wanted to take a very close look at the data historically going all the way back to 1928 on the S&P 500 just to really get a better sense of exactly how the market behaves after hitting an all-time high . . . either trying to dispel or confirm whether or not investors should be fearful when that's happening. And I think the results, as we looked at this were pretty interesting and maybe even will be surprising for some people.”

Despite advisor’s best efforts to the contrary, many amateur investors insist on trying some variation of “timing the market” philosophy to guide their investment activity. The myth is that if you’re investing while the market is continually racking up all time high returns, surely there’s a cliff just ahead, now’s not the time to build or add to the portfolio. Congress Wealth Management’s investment team shows you how the game really works, using data extending way back to 1928 to show just what really happens during those tempting occasions when record-breaking returns can be had. Join us for an enlightening half hour that will help you set client’s straight on how this type of timing error can create some challenges.

Episode 41: Kate Cote on Helping Military Families

“. . . their benefits really put them in a position where they can retire early, but definitely planning has to be done around that because usually the pension isn't enough to fund their lifestyle when they retire. So, you know, you have to build up assets that can be accessible without penalty or create other passive streams of income so that they can do it . . . They have the pension, which is huge. It can be quite significant amount of money. And then the other thing that helps make it possible to retire early is the healthcare benefits that they receive. Military can continue with Tricare and government employees can continue to pay the employee amount for the health insurance that they have, which is quite a bit less than what you would have to pay out on the open market or even for a supplement plan when you go on Medicare at age 65.”

Helping military and federal government families is a special niche, one that requires some specialized knowledge and a level of empathy that not too many advisors can showcase. Their needs are specific and specialized, and the advisor’s skill set must follow suit to serve them well. Kate Cote has developed a practice around these skills and knowledge, and her clients are as loyal as can be as a result. Don’t miss this fact-filled episode on niche practice development as its finest.

Kate Cote, specializes in helping active and retired military families transition to the private sector and federal government employees navigate towards retirement. Kate is the owner of Red Clover Financial Planning, an independent financial advisory firm that offers its clients a personalized holistic approach to financial health and personal happiness that is accessible no matter where life takes them. Kate has over 20 years of experience in the financial service industry and is a certified financial planner. She is committed to delivering financial plans that serve as a comprehensive action-oriented roadmap. As a military spouse and after years of experience helping government employees, Kate is well-versed in the benefits and challenges employees in these areas face and desires to help them maximize their opportunities to live their best lives now.