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"Financial Planner's Corner" is a periodic series sharing advanced financial planning techniques, foundational planning principles, practice management tips, and more. In Focus (Highlights from particularly compelling content.) First, Preston Cherry covers ($): • Common misconceptions about the advisor's role in addressing financial psychology • Behavioral finance's impact on firm growth rates • The advice clients want from advisors Key stat: "Schwab suggests that over half of the firms in their study use behavioral finance aspects in their client interactions, and those firms that use BeFi earned 3.3 times more assets from existing clients. Sanduski mentions that delivering a superb client experience helps the 'feel factor' of the client–adviser relationship. For firms that say growth is not their concern, firm shrinkage by client attrition is. Building a connection with your client that bridges unique human elements with quantitative financial strategies produces outcomes that clients can feel most." Next, Jen Goldman on: • How the "I.D.E.O.S." framework can streamline your operations • The underlying principles behind the framework • How to implement I.D.E.O.S. with your team Key idea: "IDEOS™ is about working smarter, deliberately, and following a plan of continuous improvement. This simple mantra increases capacity to serve more clients and staff, keep operational costs from climbing, improve the client experience, flexibly scale your business without sacrificing profit margins, and create a sustainable integration of work and life. … This mantra helps everyone devise solutions to streamline business, staff, and client experience. When you think or document a repeatable process, ask yourself the following for each task in the process….. How Can I Integrate, Delegate, Eliminate, Outsource or Staff this task to improve it?" Finally, ICYMI, Jaqueline Hummel shares: • Tradeoffs between hiring an Employee vs. an Independent Contractor • How to make your first hire and meet your compliance obligations • Registering requirements for Investment Adviser Representatives Key takeaway: "According to the IRS website and the Fair Labor Standards Act, the difference between an employee and an independent contractor boils down to the following factors: 1. Behavioral control. Employees work specific hours and use the company's tools and resources (e.g., laptops and software) to perform their duties. 2. Financial control. Employees are paid an hourly wage or salary. The employer withholds tax contributions and determines the frequency of payment. 3. Relationship. Employees are likely to dedicate their working hours to the company and receive certain benefits (e.g., pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.). Contractors may work for other clients and perform specific tasks as agreed to by contract." Grab Bag (An assortment of content from around the industry.) Michael Kitces On Time Management & Building Your Model Week [Libby Greiwe, The Efficient Advisor] "I will track the amount of what I essentially call 'Flex Time,' which is unscheduled time on my calendar. That might be to catch up on miscellaneous task work, maybe that's grabbing a meeting with someone, [or] maybe that's just because I need to decompress a little bit. And I'm pretty rigorous about scheduling everything, in part because there are a lot of competing demands on my calendar. I just have to schedule things or things start clashing. I have found that I need a certain amount of scheduled flex time, scheduled white space on my calendar every week or it just starts feeling a little too overwhelming, a little too 'drown-ey.' I just literally can't find the mental breathing space I need for my brain to do the 'creative-y' things that it's going to do." Should I Act Now Before TCJA Sunsets? [Jeffrey Levine & Ed Slott, The Great Retirement Debate] "The slam dunk of situations today would be for a married couple with significant wealth using something called a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust. A SLAT. The big problem with gifting assets during life is you really have to gift them. You have to give them away. But people want to use their assets. They don't necessarily want to give them away. The Spousal Lifetime Access Trust, or SLAT as it's known, is sort of the best example we have in the estate and gift tax planning world of having your cake and eating it, too: you're giving money away, but still able to use it yourself. Now, you have to have a spouse. And you have to trust your spouse. But that's a potential option here. One that people can think of today ahead of the 2026 scheduled changes." Outsourcing: A Competitive Edge For Financial Advisors? [Danny Noonan, Morningstar] "Outsourcing = Time Freedom Outsourcing can be great for unlocking financial advisors’ time. Fidelity’s study shows that advisors who outsource investments create about nine hours per week of extra time. Effectively, outsourcing the investment function to a third party has the potential to free up about an entire workweek every month. And it seems to be delivering results. Fidelity’s study shows that freeing up time to focus on your highest priorities creates strong business outcomes. Advisors who are outsourcing are seeing more asset growth, higher revenue, and signing up more new clients." Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways we can help you:
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