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Forecasting a Storm of Questions about Zero-Fee Funds

It may not be two tropical storms about to collide, but the news of Charles Schwabs’ earnings report out in mid-July questioning whether zero fee models can be sustained nipping at the heels of a case potentially pending before the Supreme Court on fees could have a major impact. Batten down the hatches because the winds of change could be coming.

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Wheel of Misfortune: COVID Test Prices and Accuracy Are the Worst Guessing Game

How much does a COVID test cost? Unfortunately, like many healthcare-related questions, there’s no simple answer. There are, however, a few steps employees can take to ensure they’re minimizing their out-of-pocket expenses and getting accurate results.

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Lights, Camera, Action! How to Be the Best Film Director Zoom Has Ever Seen

Zoom, Webex, Teams, oh my! Online meeting platforms are seeing an uptick in use due to the sheer volume of people working remotely, but not everyone can make every meeting. Here are a few tips for supplementing your meetings and presentations for all to enjoy…and for creating digital content to connect safely with clients.

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Two Sides of the Same COVID Coin: Dipping into Retirement Savings and Early Retirement

Though early retirement and using retirement savings right now seem like ideas completely at odds with each other, the two courses of action are more similar than they seem; it’s that COVID has employees making tough retirement decisions across the board.

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Vis-À-Visa: How Visa Restrictions May Affect Workers, Businesses, and Economic Recovery

To H-1B or not to H-1B, that is the question. Hundreds of thousands of workers will be unable to enter the country thanks to the recent visa restrictions. What does that mean for workers and the economy, and how should investors react?

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Are Investment Subscriptions the New Netflix?

Is financial advising the new Netflix? While subscription models exist in the investment world, they’re not exactly common…but that may be changing.

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Advising Small Business Owners in a Pandemic: Succession Planning Should be Priority Number 1

Small business owners don't have retirement plans, could that be because they don't have succession plans?

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Mad Money: Help Your Clients Save to Save their Sanity

If your client’s work day is literally never ending now that they work from home, they may want to start a mad money account.

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Working Retirement: When Its Time to Call it Quits

Not everyone wants to retire. Whatever the motivation, many older investors may have been planning on a working retirement. Those older investors probably didn’t plan on a contagious pandemic that makes them feel unsafe returning to work.

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Business Insurance: Is it Time to Talk to the Insurance Guy Again?

Financial advisors may be masters at managing risk for their clients, but they should also know to risk manage their own business by having appropriate business insurance. While the mix of what makes up appropriate for one advisor necessarily differs from another, there is one clear and common thing among all advisors when it comes to insurance: no one could have seen 2020 coming.

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Safety First: How Student Loans Impacted Millennials’ Investment Future

Why are Millennials more reticent to enter the stock market than their predecessors? Student loans may offer some insight.

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Side Gig Superheroes

Almost half of those in the workforce have a part-time “side gig” to help pay the bills, save for retirement, or generate a little extra spending money. As the COVID-19 pandemic prompted massive layoffs and record unemployment numbers, here are a few ways gig workers can cope during this economic crisis.

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Investing in a Better Future: ESG and Black Lives Matter

It’s easy for brands to adopt the language of social reform and make commitments they have no intention of keeping. Here’s how to help your clients distinguish performative allyship from real commitments to racial justice before investing.

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Security Issues In the AC – After Corona

Financial advisors have a complex web of security issues to consider on a calm day. Has coronavirus made that more complicated? Maybe. Here are a few key issues to consider when reviewing your security plans while we continue to work from home at least part of the time.

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Numbers Worth Watching: Surveys, Statistics and Some Good News

The news comes fast and furious these days. Vaccines are launching. Jobs are coming or going. And in the middle of all of that, it can be hard to distill what is important or what’s worthy of your attention. There is good news in that mix.

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Wall Street and Main Street

Context is everything in Communications. The term “economy” is more confusing than ever. Here are a few ways to add clarity to your communications about it.

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Welcome Home, Grandma!

COVID-19 may have made your parent’s plans of living independently more complex. Here are four resources a Plan Sponsor can provide their employees to tackle the topic of moving a parent into their home.

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Pandora’s Box or Better than Ever? Tips for Benefits Presentations in a Pandemic

Many companies that have fiscal years not tried to the calendar year, like those who start their FY in July or schools who might start their FY in August, may be entering that open enrollment period now. Here are a few tips on how to increase your presentation game to help those employees stay focused and get the information they need.

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The Shecession Cometh: Women and Investing in a Pandemic

The rate of unemployment for women in the workforce is higher than that of men, closing in on 55% of the 20.5 million jobs lost in April, Employees who relied on income from family members who are now unemployed may feel lacking in confidence just as that is most needed. Here are a few ways to raise that confidence.

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How Will the CARES Act Change Your Workflow?

There are a great number of questions about how the CARES Act may change the work processes and workflow for plan sponsors. Here, we outline some ways that might happen so that plan sponsors can modify their work to meet their employees’ needs.

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What is Covered by the CARES Act and What Else Might be Coming?

Most of the attention on the CARES Act involves stimulus money given to businesses and individuals. The Act also eases important restrictions on withdrawals from employee retirement plans.

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Who Is Involved in implementing the CARES Act Retirement Provisions In Your Office?

The focus of this article is to consider who might need to be involved in implementing the new provisions of the CARES Act for your plan participants. As you’ll see, your workplace’s human resources, legal team, EAP, recordkeeping, information technology and facilities management teams will need to work together on this topic.

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New Clients: Best Practices Are Never Old

Surveys are showing that many of those seeking out financial advisors are new to working with an advisor or haven’t sought individual advice before. Given that most financial advisors are feeling a crush of work while trying to work from home, we thought it would be helpful to reiterate the top tips for working with new clients.

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What do you tell your clients who want to help?

For clients in the position to help their local economies long term, they may want more information from their financial advisors about how and where to direct their investments. For financial advisors, this can be a long conversation.

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Should You YouTube?

With anything hands-on miles away from the current reality and so much perceived chaos over financial matters, advisors may feel frustrated. How can they use YouTube to help calm confusion?

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Authors

Sean Riley
Financial Consultant
Beau Adams
Executive Vice President, BCG
Jeffrey Garlatti
Financial Advisor
John Correll
Client Relations Team Leader
Kevin Bonner
Regional Retirement Sales Director
Robert Terry
Retirement Plan Sales Manager

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