Listen to your clients. | David De Lossy/Digital Vision/Thinkstock
Advisors may be underestimating their clients' concerns over their bottom line, according to a Jefferson National study conducted by Harris Poll. The survey of both RIAs and individual investors found that both groups are concerned with volatility, protecting assets and saving for retirement, but individual investors are struggling with rising healthcare costs and higher taxes. Ultra-high-net worth investors named taxes as the top issue that will adversely impact their portfolio in the next year. Laurence Greenberg, the president of Jefferson National, said these concerns provide an opportunity for advisors to align their firm more closely with what their clients need. "If an advisor does not put their clients' best interests first, clients will find someone who does," Greenberg said.
Millennial Advisors Find a Silver Lining in Volatility
Millennial advisors are taking a page from "Monty Python's Life of Brian" and trying to look on the bright side of life. Nearly three-quarters of young advisors expect market volatility to slow down by the end of the year; that compares to 43 percent of all other advisors, according to Eaton Vance's second quarter Advisor Top-of-Mind Index survey (ATOMIX). Four in 10 young advisors believe volatility is simply part of the investment process, and nearly a third believe it provides an opportunity to generate income for clients. Further, forty percent of millennial advisors say they have gained new clients as a result of increased market volatility, Eaton Vance found.
Boston Asset Manager Gets 9 Years in Jail
No mercy. | Darren Klimek/Digital Vision/Thinkstock
Daniel Thibeault, a former asset manager who was accused of fleecing colleagues, associates, college roommates and even his mother out of $15 million, has been sentenced to nine years in jail, the Boston Globe is reporting. Thibeault, 41, is the former founder of Graduate Leverage LLC, which provided loans and financial advice to low-risk graduate students, and ex-co-portfolio manager of GL Beyond Income, a mutual fund that claimed to invest in low-risk loans to professionals like doctors, dentists, veterinarians and attorneys. Instead, Thibeault used the GL Beyond Income Fund to issue several dozen fake loans to people who hadn't applied for one and were unaware of the fraud. He used the money to pay for operating expenses at Graduate Leverage and personal expenses. "It's a long sentence, nine years in federal prison, but this was bad," US District Judge Leo T. Sorokin said during the sentencing. "You were a financial advisor. This is a serious offense, with a lot of money, that went on for a long time."
