Tips For Spotting Financial Abuse With Your Clients

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Financial abuse occurs in 99% of all abusive relationships, making this one of the most important types of abuse to watch for. Advisors have a special ability – and therefore a special responsibility – to detect and combat financial abuse.

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While debates over masks and whether to reopen have dominated headlines, more than three-quarters of respondents support enacting state laws to require mask wearing in public at all times. And nearly 60 percent said they would support a nationwide order making it mandatory to shelter at home for two weeks.

Anxiety about long-term retirement savings is up according to a new survey from Schwab Retirement Plan Services, and so is participant engagement. On average, these 401 participants believe they need to save $1.9 million for retirement, an increase of 12% from the $1.7 million reported in last year’ s survey.

Stocks are off to a weak start on Wall Street as investors keep a close eye on talks in Congress over the next installment of badly needed relief for people whose livelihoods and businesses were impacted by coronavirus lockdowns. Shares were mixed in early European trading on Tuesday after a strong day of gains in Asia, while U.S. futures edged lower.

Negotiators on a huge coronavirus relief bill reported slight progress after talks resumed Monday afternoon in the Capitol, with issues like food for the poor and aid to schools struggling to reopen safely assuming a higher profile in the talks. Multiple obstacles remain, including an impasse so far on extending a $600-per-week pandemic jobless benefit.

A average of the more than 5 million loans that have been approved is $102,000. Not a lot of Fortune 500 companies that are going to make hay with that one. Trump donors receinved $273 million in loans, according to an Associated Press analysis of the SBA list. Sounds like a lot of money, right? Not really.

This week, the Biden campaign released its fourth and final plank in the former Vice President’s package of economic ideas: a plan for racial economic equity. But contained in the plan was a less-flashy proposal: asking the Federal Reserve to explicitly take race into account when it sets policy.

Beyond the headline numbers, state-level data continues to improve. Case growth in most of the worst affected states, including California, Arizona, Florida, and Texas, appears to have peaked, as people and governments there have started to reimpose social distancing and other restrictions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged former Georgia state legislator and former member of the Georgia Board of Regents Clarence Dean Alford with defrauding at least 100 investors in his now-bankrupt energy development company, Allied Energy Services.

Going into 2020, Americans were experiencing record high levels of personal financial satisfaction. Though the PFSi has experienced a record decline, its current value of 15.2 is still 55.5 points above its all-time low of -40.3 set in Q3 2011. Back then, Americans were still emerging from the lingering impact of the Great Recession.

Advisors say they sell equity positions to generate cash (44%) and allocate more heavily to dividend paying stocks (45%) to bridge the shortfall in retirement income brought about by low interest rates. Many also indicated they have invested client assets in riskier fixed income instruments in a search for yield.

With the focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, the coming hurricane and wildfire season is likely not on many Americans’ radars right now. However, with many people in a financially precarious position over the last couple of months, it’s more important than ever to be prepared for a natural disaster.

Global markets and U.S. stock futures declined Thursday after the Federal Reserve warned the coronavirus pandemic might threaten the modest economic recovery and kept interest rates near zero. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong retreated after spending part of the day in positive territory.

As the headlines have begun to point out the decline of the dollar in recent months, worries have started to rise. In fact, if you look at the chart for the most recent couple of months, you can see where these headlines are coming from.

Stocks are rising on Wall Street Wednesday ahead of a Federal Reserve announcement where investors expect the central bank to keep the accelerator floored on its aid for the economy. The S&P 500 was 0.8% higher in midday trading, while Treasury yields were holding steady and gold touched another record high.

Like most people, your clients probably have many financial goals: a comfortable retirement, long vacations, college for their children or grandchildren, the ability to leave something behind for the next generation, and so on. To achieve these various goals, you may have to follow different investment strategies.

Financial advisors who are not fully embracing digital marketing in 2020 are at risk of losing clients and unable to take advantage of the surge in investors looking for advice during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and massive market volatility, according to a new study.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Houston-based VALIC Financial Advisors Inc. in a pair of actions for failing to disclose to teachers and other investors practices that generated millions of dollars in fees and other financial benefits for VFA.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trustify Inc., an online marketplace purportedly designed to connect customers to a network of private investigators, and its founder and CEO Daniel Boice with fraudulently offering and selling over $18.5 million of securities to more than 90 corporate and individual investors.

Even as new daily infections remain near record highs and US-China tensions ratchet higher, S&P 500 stocks have been marginally higher year to date—and barely below their all-time highs. Market participants haven’t seemed too concerned about stock valuations, which are as high as they’ve been since the technology bubble.

Stocks are ticking higher in early Monday trading on Wall Street, while gold rushes to a record at the start of a week packed with potentially market-moving events. This week’ s headline event may be a two-day meeting for the Federal Reserve on interest rates that begins Tuesday.

It’s essential for long-term investors to look beyond 2020, worry less about the value of the stock market next month and consider how investors will fare over the coming decade. The first half of 2020 saw one the worst quarters in U.S. stock market history followed by one of the best.

Understanding the major drivers of the government’s revenue is critical to an informed discussion and understanding of the impending tax increases, and why some think tax rates could go up to wartime levels.

Treasury yields were holding relatively steady, but they remain close to their lowest levels since April. But other risks are also bubbling up, headlined by Friday’s worsening relations between the United States and China. Extra benefits for those out-of-work Americans from the federal government are set to expire soon, causing further worries.

Judy Shelton, a critic of U.S. Federal Reserve’s expansionist monetary policies and low interest rates, is now one step closer to joining its board of directors. Shelton believes that increasing the supply of money faster than domestic economic growth will lead to inflation and credit bubbles akin to the 2008 financial meltdown.

We’re experiencing a period of upheaval in the world today, which has also had an impact on the economy and markets. Given the spike in volatility and uncertainty we’re seeing in the broader economy, it may be time to step back and carefully review your financial life.

The worsening COVID pandemic risks choking off the U.S. economy’s fragile recovery and turn what some investors hoped would be a sprint back to normal into a long hard slog. The U.S. has already spent $3 trillion propping up the economy since the pandemic struck in March. Still, new jobless claims have surpassed 1 million.

Stock indexes are mostly higher on Wall Street in choppy trading Wednesday afternoon as investors size up a mix of company earnings reports and another flare-up in tensions between Washington and Beijing. “It’ s a relatively muted day in terms of volatility,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Mountain View, Calif.-based technology start-up and its chief executive officer with defrauding investors by making false and misleading statements about the company’s finances and sources of revenue.

If you were to inherit a large sum of money, what would you do with it? The baby boomers often referred to as the richest generation in history are poised to transfer some $30 trillion in assets over the next few decades. They will be looking to advisors for advice on what to do with it.

The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday approved President Donald Trump’s choice of Judy Shelton for the Federal Reserve board on a party-line vote, overcoming widespread questions about her qualifications for the Fed.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that Michael Barry Carter, a financial advisor in the McLean, Va. office of a large financial institution, falsified internal documents in order to effect dozens of unauthorized wire transfers totaling millions of dollars.

In a shift, the Senate Banking Committee is likely to back President Donald Trump’s unconventional nomination of Judy Shelton for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors in a party-line vote Tuesday. The committee’s support would move Shelton’s nomination to the full Senate, which would have until the end of the year to confirm or reject it.

Big technology companies powered stocks higher on Wall Street Monday, adding to the market’s gains after a three-week winning streak. Amazon led the way higher in the S&P 500 with a 7.9% gain. Technology and communications stocks and big e-commerce retailers like Amazon have benefited this year from the pandemic.

We will see one of the biggest year-over-year quarterly declines in S&P 500 Index profits ever, and we will hear a lot about uncertainty facing corporate America as COVID-19 continues to impact many companies in the United States and globally. But it may not all be negative.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged David Hu, the co-founder and chief investment officer of International Investment Group, a former registered investment adviser, with fraud for his role in a $60 million Ponzi-like scheme.

Jedidiah Collins led a bit of a secret life during his time as an NFL player. So, even while appearing in 47 games in three seasons with the New Orleans Saints, he largely kept to himself that he was studying to become a certified financial planner.

More than one-third of financial advisors say they plan to retire within the next decade. That means 120,000 to 150,000 advisors leaving the business. It also means there will be a lot of succession planning issues throughout the industry, said Chip Roame, managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors.

Advisors must continue adapting to generating referrals, prospects and sales from online efforts. Proper preparation and shifts in business practices can even help generate more potential business than existed before the pandemic started.

Behold the power of the lowest home loan rates ever, a milestone hit this week in a descent that hasn’t let up since the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S.. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dipped to 2.98%, with settlement costs– fees and points– of 0.7, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CFP Board announced today it will add a remote proctoring option for the upcoming CFP exam to take place September 22-29, 2020. Eligible candidates will include those who need to travel more than 50 miles to a Prometric testing center. Candidates who have a health concern will also be eligible.

Orion Advisor Solutions made headlines last month with the blockbuster acquisition of Brinker Capital, a turnkey asset management platform (TAMP). The deal brings Orion’s combined TAMP assets under management to $40 billion. That deal is a sign of things to come, one analyst said.

Markets continued to rise in June, as efforts to reopen state economies across the country continued throughout the month. Investors reacted to the continued reopening with optimism, driving the S&P 500 up 1.99 percent in June following a 4.76 percent increase in May.

One of the most challenging aspects of financial planning is helping people prepare for medical expenses. Every year the Federal Reserve conducts a study of the economic well-being of American households. As part of the study, they ask how respondents would cope with an unexpected $400 expense.

Investors see a vaccine as the best way for the economy and human life to get back to normal, and researchers said late Tuesday that one developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna revved up people’s immune systems in early testing, as hoped.

According to a study published by UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the U.S. economy into a “depression” and projects that the country’s GDP won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until early 2023.

Wall Street rebounded on Tuesday, and the S&P 500 more than made up all its losses from the day before, after stocks pinballed through another day of erratic trading. After the market closed, shares of Moderna jumped in after-hours trading after its COVID-19 vaccine showed early success.

In court documents, regulators say Mark Baxter, also known as Mark Morrow, began running Craigslist notices early in 2018 promising to train respondents and/or invest in winning stocks for them. The all-caps posts were made in at least 49 states, two countries, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, regulators said.

The trajectory of the economic recovery remains uncertain, but based on the depth of the contraction and a multi-staged recovery, LPL Financial Research strategists’ 2020 base-case forecast calls for a 3 to 5 percent contraction in gross domestic product.

Sometimes at odds, America’s two largest generations now have something to agree on: The coronavirus pandemic has smacked many of them at a pivotal time in their lives. For different reasons, both millennials and boomers have much to worry about with the present economy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged California-based Abra and a related firm in the Philippines for offering and selling security-based swaps to retail investors without registration and for failing to transact those swaps on a registered national exchange.

Low interest rates for the past 12 years sent the Commercial Real Estate industry on a whirlwind decade of double-digit growth. In March, the U.S. went into an economic tailspin due to the coronavirus pandemic that swept the entire world into bear markets. The Federal Reserve Bank made two emergency rate cuts in response.

Some countries like Denmark, Japan and Sweden have already seen negative interest rates and some believe that it is only a matter of time before the U.S. sees this trend as well. You might also think that negative interest rates don’t really affect banks but they can.

It followed up on a mixed performance for stocks in Europe and Asia. Treasury yields were dipping a bit, while the price of gold peeked higher in another sign of caution continuing to hang over markets. Markets have been swinging this week as worsening coronavirus infection counts across the U.S. Sun Belt and other global hotspots.

When it comes to saving for the future, Health Savings Accounts are one of the best things going right now. Not only do they deliver an unparalleled tax benefit for participants, but changes brought by the CARES Act have made them a lot more flexible. However, like most government programs, there are plenty of rules to keep straight.

U.S. consumers reduced their borrowing for a third straight month in May as the millions of jobs lost because of the coronavirus pandemic made households less eager to take on new debt. The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that consumer borrowing declined by $18.3 billion in May, a drop of 5.3%.

This merger positions the firm as a leading provider of advisory services to its targeted niche of retirement advisors. The combined company will retain the Brookstone name, executives said, and will reflect the best that each firm has to offer, including exclusive and expansive state-of-the-art technologies.

Surprisingly, both the economic recovery and financial markets did very well in June. As we enter July, the question of many minds is whether the medical situation will improve—and whether the good economic and market news will continue.

A recent Census Bureau survey found that a quarter of families in rental housing were worried they might not be able to pay the next month’s rent. By contrast, the Beige Book just talked about landlords worried their tenants would miss a rent payment.

Although all election years feel different, 2020 no doubt may be one of the most unique election years ever. We have a pandemic, a deep recession, extremely heightened partisanship, a mail-in ballot controversy, an unpredictable president, and the oldest presidential candidate ever.

Whatever you call it, it’ s been a few months since the COVID-19 pandemic taught us what staying home for an extended period of time actually looks and feels like. “Like everything in life, every challenge and every hardship is a lesson to be learned,” says Eric Simonson, certified financial planner and owner of Abundo Wealth.
Jamie Hopkins, Director of Retirement Research at the Carson Group discusses housing wealth and how advisors can utilize that asset to help their clients plan for retirement.

Join Jamie Hopkins, Director of Carson Coaching, as he returns with new installments of his exclusive, video series, Rewirement Tips. In this week’s tip, Hopkins discusses how multiple-employer plans could grow in the years ahead.

Given the headlines, the key to figuring out what is likely to happen over the rest of the year is to focus on the most important trends, which for us means the coronavirus pandemic, the economic response to it, and the financial markets.

When our fathers and grandfathers retired, many were promised a defined pension by their employers. Depending on factors such as number of years worked and average three-year-high pay, they would receive a monthly pension check for their entire retired life. Often, they could leave half to their spouses upon death.

Though businesses have been hard hit by COVID-19 and the ensuing global recession, business owners still need financial services and advice just as much as – if not more than – they did before the crisis. This diverse group can bring a variety of engaging work for financial advisors, but also requires specialized financial skills.

Fed officials say more than 200 banks have signed up to participate since the Main Street Lending program began two weeks ago, but that’s a small slice of the nation’s roughly 5,000 lenders. None have made any loans yet.

This year has seen tectonic shifts in the world of retirement accounts. Some changes- like the new limitations on inherited IRAs- have received a lot of coverage. On June 23, the IRS announced that anyone who took a required minimum distribution in 2020 can roll those distributions back into their IRA provided the rollover occurs before Aug. 31.

So you want to be a financial advisor? There are positions available in an industry that needs young people to reach the next generation. Regardless of how you approach your search, be patient with yourself and the process; unfortunately, there is no secret sauce to finding your next opportunity.

Since 1928, the stock market has accurately predicted the winner of the election 87% of the time and every single year since 1984. It is quite simple. When the S&P 500 Index has been higher the three months before the election, the incumbent party usually won, while when stocks were lower, the incumbent party usually lost.

Wall Street capped its best quarter since 1998 Tuesday with more gains, a fitting end to a stunning three months for investors as the market screamed back toward its record heights after a torrid plunge. The quarter’s gains were ignited by promises of massive amounts of aid from the Federal Reserve and Capitol Hill.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission acted properly in developing Regulation Best Interest and that the rule was not arbitrary and capricious. The court’s decision on Friday means that Reg BI, which establishes a new advice standard for brokers, can take effect as planned on Tuesday.

Over three-quarters of the 33 million households in the U.S. with between $100,000 and $1 million in investable assets say they use a human advisor to manage their money (this included financial advisors—as well as representatives from 401-K providers and banks). This is a key finding of a research study released by Cerulli Associates.

The U.S. economy shrank at a 5.0% rate in the first quarter with a much worse decline expected in the current three-month economic period, which will show what happened when the pandemic began spread across the U.S.

The Federal Reserve said Thursday that banks are “sufficiently capitalized” and have passed their stress tests. The Fed also said it is putting a stop to share buybacks by banks, but it will allow banks to continue paying limited dividends. The Fed wants to know how banks would handle a jump in unemployment or a drop in economic output.

Frederick Stow, a Franklin resident and former investments vice president at Raymond James& Associates, has been charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft by the U.S. Department of Justice after it alleged that Stow stole $933,500 from two elderly clients. The charges were announced in a June news release by U.S. Attorney for the…

The Volcker Rule was part of the overhaul of banking regulation approved in the Dodd-Frank Act passed by Congress in 2010 in an effort to curtail excesses that had led to the 2008 financial crisis. However, President Donald Trump had campaigned in 2016 on rolling back what he saw as over-regulation of the banks.

The International Monetary Fund expects the global economy to shrink 5%, much worse than the less than 1% contraction in the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. Ken Rogoff, professor of economics at Harvard and former chief economist at the IMF, said a 5% global contraction is “like a meteor hitting the earth.”

The chief global strategist for J.P. Morgan Asset Management said we are not finished with the COVID-19 pandemic yet, and the economic situation will remain “uncomfortable” until we are.

An LPL Financial analysts has five reasons for continued cautious tactical outlook toward developed international equities, most of which are composed of European stocks.

In its March quarterly forecast, the UCLA Anderson Forecast revised its outlook for the U.S. economy downward because of the expected impact of COVID-19, which was then still being referred to as an epidemic. Its new forecast predicts that the economy will not rebound until 2023.
Jay Clayton, chairman of the SEC.

To those who have observed Jay Clayton’ s tenure, it’ s been patently obvious that he doesn’t enjoy being chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. After three years at the helm of the SEC, Clayton had made it known to colleagues, friends and the Trump administration that he wanted to go home to N.Y.

Immuta, the automated data governance company, today announced that it has secured $40 million in funding to extend its leadership position in the growing market for automated data governance and privacy solutions. The Series C round was led by new investor Intel Capital, with participation from new investor Ten Eleven Ventures and several existing investors.

The impact of coronavirus shutdowns on homebuyer demand has been short and muted, but the economic recovery will disproportionately benefit those who were already economically advantaged, according to a new analysis from Redfin.

The last several months have been unprecedented, heartbreaking, innovative – choose your adjective. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve experienced a vast range of emotions over the past quarter, with no reprieve yet in sight. Are we better today than we were last month? In some ways, yes.

For the last three months, U.S. central bankers have submerged themselves in the vaults of the Eccles Building and printed Federal Reserve Notes like bootleggers’ cheap hooch during Prohibition. The Fed has been aggressively expanding its unprecedented eternal quantitative easing putsch.

The SEC announced that it filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against two Pennsylvania-based brothers and three entities they control to stop an offering alleged fraud and the misappropriation of investor proceeds.

The Covid Response Tracking Study, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), found that morale was at the lowest point it has ever been since tracking emotional health trends began in 1972. For the first time in 48 years, more people said they were unhappy than very happy.

An Alzheimer’s Association report found 48 percent of care contributors must cut back on their own expenses including basic necessities like food, transportation and medical care to afford dementia-related care, while others must draw from their own savings or retirement funds.

Markets worldwide have been showing more apprehension following a tremendous rally for U.S. stocks that began in late March and reached nearly 45% at one point. Surprisingly strong reports on U.S. retail sales and employment have built hopes recently that the economy can pull out of its recession relatively quickly.

International insurance company AmTrust Financial Services Inc. and its former CFO Ronald E. Pipoly Jr. with failing to disclose material facts about how the company estimated its insurance losses and reserves.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed Wednesday that the federal government’s role in strengthening the U.S. market in the face of a recession is vital in preventing a worsening of economic inequality. And he reiterated his belief that Congress must avoid withdrawing its own rescue efforts too quickly.

We’ve been conditioned to think leadership is only attained by a position of power, or that it’s a skill you must be born with. The truth is, leadership skills can be honed and developed. Real leadership starts with a commitment to creating positive change for you and others.

One key tip to re-evaluate a retirement plan and perhaps retool it to withstand the effects of COVID-19: Take precise inventory of expenses. For accurate retirement income planning you must have good data to understand where the money goes each month — everything it takes to live, plus discretionary expenses.

Stocks surged Tuesday on better-than-expected retail sales numbers and hopes for more stimulus as the Federal Reserve pledged to continue supporting a U.S. economy showing signs of inching back from the coronavirus-related lockdowns.

With so much economic healing ahead of us and a still-uncertain path for COVID-19, the key question for investors is whether stocks are pricing in an overly optimistic scenario for the recovery in economic activity and corporate profits.

Establishing an emergency fund was overwhelmingly the most frequently cited step to prepare for a potential sharp economic downturn, included in 84 percent of CPA financial planners’ top three. Paying off high interest debt (53 percent) and reflecting on lifestyle and priorities (49 percent) came next.

Wall Street rallied back from a sharp, early slump on Monday to notch modest gains after the Federal Reserve unveiled its latest push to prop up the economy. Worries are rising that additional waves of coronavirus infections could derail the swift economic recovery that Wall Street just a week ago had seemed so sure was on the way.