The Best of 2014
2014 was the year of the robo-advisor and retirement security, according to Lauren Foster on the CFA Institute's Enterprising Investor blog. Foster said that looking forward to 2015, two broad themes emerge: demographics and technology. For demographics, look at women, millennials and the aging of financial advisors; while in technology, social media, robo-advisors and cybersecurity will be big topics.
Forget about all those lofty New Year's Resolutions that never get completed (most of them never even get started). John Anderson, managing director of practice management solutions for the SEI Advisor Network, writes instead of his anti-resolutions on the Practically Speaking blog. Among his list of six: "I resolve not to interact with clients, prospects and COIs using social media" and "I resolve to badger clients for referrals instead of engaging in a conversation on how I have helped them with problems."
A Bond Lesson From a San Francisco Landmark
In a recent video blog post, Matt Tucker, head of iShares’ fixed income strategy, uses San Francisco’s Bay Bridge to show how bond yields work. The way the bridge is structured looks a lot like the yield curve: The shorter the maturity, the lower level of yield; the longer the maturity, the higher the yield. “So when thinking about investing in fixed income, think about in terms of the yield curve and what you get paid versus what you risk,” Tucker says. “Very short-dated securities will pay you a lower level of yield, but you’re taking on less risk to do so. Investing in longer-dated securities pays you a higher yield, but you’re also taking on more risk.”
