A unique alliance of five planning and brokerage nonprofits is pushing Congress to restore and expand tax deductions for financial advice for all Americans during the coronavirus crisis. The CFP Board, the FPA, FSI, NAPFA and the Investment Adviser Association have banded together to lobby Congress to speed this relief for investors seeking guidance from financial planners. Congress repealed the deduction in 2017 in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under very different economic circumstances. That...

Granted, no advisors could have foreseen a pandemic. But business continuity plans are ranking high on the SEC’s must-read list as the commission continues its remote compliance reviews of RIAs for the duration of the outbreak. That’s according to Lori Weston, a compliance consultant, who urged advisors to update their existing plans — especially concerning disaster preparedness — and then follow up with them, during a webcast hosted by TD Ameritrade. “Most firms have a business continuity...

As a pandemic stalks the globe and markets swing wildly, there’s one thing financial advisors need to do like never before: listen. That’s the counsel of George Kinder, the founder of the Kinder Institute for Life Planning, which has trained more than 3,000 financial planners worldwide since it launched in 2003. The institute trains its life planning advisors to facilitate an internal inquiry for clients, giving them time and space to answer questions many have never asked themselves. By...

By eliminating the compensation disclosures on advisor pages of its investor-facing website, the CFP Board killed a feature that previously has gotten it into hot water and helped make it the target of a lawsuit filed by two planners. Previously, in order to appear on the “Let’s Make a Plan,” find-an-advisor website, CFPs were compelled to select fee-only, commission or commission and fees to describe their compensation model. Now, no such designation appears on an advisor’s page. The move...

Elissa Buie, co-founder of planning firm Yeske Buie, knows it seems contradictory — her professed confidence in the future of both the markets and humanity itself, along with her crashing waves of emotion. “We. Are. Going. To be OK,” Buie insisted, emphasizing each word before turning teary. “If you hear me be emotional, it is because I am emotional.” At last count, 204 of Yeske Buie’s 300 clients responded to an email Buie sent out this week with “Checking in … and a hug” as the subject...