Reuters/Desmond Boylan
"Red Flag" Advice That Should Send You Running (Wisebread)
Emily Guy Birken of WiseBread is the daughter of a financial planner. Over the years she learned some important lessons from listening to her father and she says investors should watch out for four key red flags when they speak with advisors.
1. "You can assume an X% return on your investment… The advisor you want to work with will give you several projections for your investment, based on different potential rates of return." 2. "Don't worry about the cost of this product! You pay nothing." 3. "I can customize a stock portfolio for you. First, it is based upon the assumption that picking stocks is something your average financial planner is capable of doing. …he other major issue with this advice is the customization aspect of it." 4. "There is no risk!" or "You really need to act now."
How To Insulate Your Portfolios From Interest Rate Risk (LPL Financial)
In a rising interest rate environment investors are naturally worried about the risk to their portfolio. The yield on the 10-year surged from 1.6% on May 2 to 3% last week, and the pace of rise in the interest rates can affect other asset classes too.
"There is no way to completely insulate a portfolio from rising rates using traditional investments. Even holding only cash will eventually lose ground to inflation as rates rise (and current money market yields are well below the pace of inflation)," writes Jeff Kleintop of LPL Financial. While it doesn't make sense to completely get rid of all bond exposure he recommends 1. Stocks over bonds. 2. High-yield bonds 3. Low-yield stocks.
The Commodities Supercycle Is Over, But The Asset Class Isn't Dead (The AllianceBernstein Blog)
While many on the Street argue that the commodities supercycle is over, Jon Ruff and Seth Masters at Alliance Bernstein argue that there are still some good commodity-related investments out there. Iron ore for instance is still an attractive investment because "direct exposure to iron ore prices is taken through futures contracts."
Crude Oil represents an opportunity too. "So with spot Brent crude oil prices currently averaging about $110/bbl, we expect prices to fall toward the $95/bbl marginal cost over the next couple of years. This $95/bbl level also happens to be the 2016 futures price for Brent crude. And we think this creates an interesting opportunity to benefit from potential price shocks with relatively little downside." What's more commodities perform well when inflation spikes, which is a time when "stocks and bonds face headwinds."
Advisors Want To Expand Their Websites To Include Sections On Living Well (The Wall Street Journal)
Some advisors, like Michael Fischer of Arizona-based Sequoia Financial Advisors think it is important for an advisor's website to offer clients information on more than just financial health. Fischer for instance plans to have a dining section with a list of local restaurants that are reviewed by him and his wife. He is also trying to work with a travel agent to include travel destinations. The idea is that it would bring clients back to their site.
Some Tech Experts Think Advisors Should Upgrade To The New iPhone (Investment News)
Apple just unveiled the iPhone 5 and Investment News polled some technology experts who think advisors should upgrade to the new phone. JP Nicols, CEO of Clientific said its speed, better battery life, and "fingerprint sensor to protect advisors' sensitive data" are good reasons to upgrade. "I also expect that feature to improve payment technologies with better user identification and authentication. The faster processing and better camera could also facilitate more spontaneous video chats with clients."