Radio shows hosted by financial professionals are so very last century. Welcome to podcasts—fundamentally a free-form radio show delivered on demand over the Internet. Over 39 million Americans listened to a podcast this month, an all-time high, according to a national survey from Edison Research. In the last few years, the number of podcasts available has also surged, with thousands being produced every year. Financial advisors have joined the fray, launching a variety of new and specialized podcasts of interest to everyone from finance professionals to retail investors.
The main challenge of podcasts today is discovery and curation. It’s not easy to learn about new podcasts that are of real value. There are as yet no search engines or other tools that identify the best podcasts to meet various needs. Navigating sites such as iTunes is cumbersome if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
We have sampled and evaluated hundreds to come up with the ten best financial podcasts of 2015 for advisors.
Podcasts make financial information more accessible. Sample some of these and see which ones speak to you. From the desktop, go straight to the website listed, or search for them on iTunes or the Android store. Your financial position may just be better off for it.
Even the best podcast content is of no value if the audio quality is poor. No one wants to listen to guests on a noisy cell phone with dogs barking in the background. The most successful podcasts combine great content with professional audio recording, appealing speakers, good editing and frequent posts. Humor always helps. In addition, we look for production values, such as relevant music, audio clips, and interesting transitions. Finally, we measure what we call “podcast savvy.” The savviest podcasts deliver integrated smartphone apps, web sites, ease of subscribing, download and sharing options, full texts of content and time stamps. Our grading system uses a 10-point scale to compare the podcasts on five dimensions and then delivers an average. Remember, these podcasts are the best of the best, and all are worth trying out. The scoring may suggest where to start the discovery.