Financial literacy matters.
The GameStop fiasco brought that to the fore. The rise and fall of the stock in recent months reminded me of the battles that erupted around the advent of “Mad Money.” I bore witness to the explosion of Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” on to the investing scene. The show straddled the line between game and clinic, and while most attention was paid to the games and the booyahs, there were lessons in most episodes, as Jim strived to educate.
On one hand, more people participating in wealth management is a positive for the markets. But blindly following Reddit characters or second-hand reports of “Buy! Buy! Buy!” opens the dark side of investing.
Therefore, we should give credit to people that cheer for those leaders who strive to create a financially literate community — and that’s what we’ve done in this issue.
In our cover story, Mark Schoeff Jr. and Nicole Casperson report on adviser reaction to the GameStop mania. And then we hear from a number of practitioners on why they are doing the work they’re doing to provide necessary access to finance. Thank you to Kate Healy, Luis Rosa, Dan Otter, Cindy Couyoumjian, and Cristina Livadary.
The advisors on the move include two brothers leading a family practice in Connecticut, and a husband-and-wife tandem working with business owners in the West Coast.
Business owners and their heirs may be making assumptions instead of having conversations, creating challenges for succession planning, according to new research.
The Kansas-based mega-RIA is giving clients access to dedicated care coaches as new surveys show caregiving duties are straining Americans' finances.
Aspen's affiliated RIAs now manage $15 billion after the New York-based platform added Kalamazoo-based CWS Financial Advisors.
The Chicago-based mega-RIA's latest additions, spanning six office locations and over 40 team members, pushes its W-2 platform assets to roughly $35 billion.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
