• Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    Vetting a Client’s Projection

    February 25, 2026

    A Process As valuation professionals, we sometimes serve dual roles. In this article, the author shares a step-by-step listing of his vetting process. This checklist is meant as his guide but is also used to help clients start the projection process. The guide is for anyone using a projection as a guide to a valuation analysis. Business valuators are typically provided with a client’s budget or financial projection which can help when preparing the eventual valuation. In most situations, these are optimistic and are usually intended to convince a lender or investor to make a positive decision, so it needs…

  • QuickPress

    Taking a Late-Career Leap

    August 14, 2019

    The expertise of older professionals is needed now more than ever. In its 2018 study, The Global Talent Crunch, Korn Ferry forecasts a worldwide shortage of 10.7 million workers by 2030 in the financial and business services sector alone. What’s more, technology is evolving at such a rapid clip, along with corporate development, that young leaders with less experience often focus on day-to-day operations—but not the big picture. To read the full article in Financial Management, click: Taking a Late-Career Leap.

  • QuickPress

    New to Planning? How to Add Value at Your Firm

    October 31, 2018

    One of my favorite mantras for support advisors is this, “Details are your responsibility.” In the financial planning field, great plans live and die in the finer points. But, most practices just don’t have the time and resources to check complex calculations. That’s where you come in. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: New to Planning? How to Add Value at Your Firm.

  • QuickPress

    Is Diversity the Key to the Succession Plan Challenge?

    August 15, 2018

    Some wealth management firms are finding that solutions to two of the industry’s big stumbling blocks—succession planning and diversity—may be intertwined.  Indeed, a link between the two emerged when firms began to diversify their advisor staffs, according to executives. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: Is Diversity the Key to the Succession Plan Challenge?

  • QuickPress

    How Advisors Can Beat the Fee Compression Race

    July 11, 2018

    Triggered by the growing demand for greater value, the financial services industry is creating new categories of products and services that never existed, expanding access in ways that were never expected, providing greater transparency and simplicity—and driving down costs to unprecedented lows. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: How Advisors Can Beat the Fee Compression Race.

  • QuickPress

    Kitces: Three Strategies for Managing Big Capital Gains

    June 20, 2018

    Many long-term investors have amassed substantial capital gains since the market bottomed out in March 2009.  While great-looking on paper, such gains have real tax implications for engaging in even routine investment adjustments. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: Kitces: Three Strategies for Managing Big Capital Gains.

  • QuickPress

    RIAs Bullish on Asset Growth

    February 21, 2018

    After strong gains in revenue, client growth and AUM over the last six months of 2017, RIAs say they’re feeling confident about the economic outlook and plan to capitalize on recent growth, according to a survey from TD Ameritrade Institutional.  Nearly nine out of 10 RIAs surveyed netted new client assets in the past six months and almost half expect AUM to grow at an even faster rate in 2018.  They also reported double-digit growth in both revenue (15%) and new clients (16%) over the same period. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: RIAs Bullish on Asset Growth.

  • QuickPress

    SEC Should Define “Advisor,” Says CFA Institute

    January 24, 2018

    With the fiduciary rule in question, a prominent industry association is calling on the SEC to issue guidance on the use of the term “advisor” when offering advice to retail investors.  The CFA Institute has drafted a letter asking the SEC to take steps–ahead of the full regulatory initiative it is contemplating–to clarify the way financial pros describe themselves and their services. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: SEC Should Define “Advisor,” Says CFA Institute.

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    To Woo Advisors, Betterment Takes to Hybrid Approach

    December 13, 2017

    Priding itself on being a technology company first, Betterment has learned it needs a deeper human touch to sustain its advisor platform.  RIAs are often impressed by the slick interface of Betterment for Advisors, its contemporary user experience and the way it helps speed onboarding and back office tasks.  But, the young firm can’t scale on technology alone. To read the full article in FinancialPlanning, click: To Woo Advisors, Betterment Takes to Hybrid Approach.

  • QuickPress

    Succession Planning is Not About You. It’s About Your Clients.

    September 21, 2016

    Start Your Succession Plan Decades in Advance Engaging in a decades-long succession-planning process can ensure that clients are taken care of and a practice continues to thrive after its founder retires.  Recruiting young advisers can bring new ideas to your practice and help keep it going.  Mike Lockwood, representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., explains. To read the full article in Wealth & Management, click: Succession Planning is Not About You.  It’s About Your Clients.

  • Case Law - QuickRead Featured

    Case Law Update

    December 4, 2013

    A summary of recent federal and state court cases involving final partner administrative adjustments, mergers, and matrimonial law This month we highlight four cases.  The first is Rovakat, a federal appellate court decision where a claimed redemption was deemed a sale of stock. The In re MFW Shareholder Litigation case involves a motion for summary judgment where a majority of the minority shareholders approved a merger transaction; this was deemed a “cleansing device” that led to the dismissal of plaintiff’s leading claim, which involved an allegation of breach of fiduciary duty.   In Matter of Central N.Y. Oil & Gas, the…

  • Case Law - QuickRead Top Story

    Federal Cases: ESOP Fidiciuary Responsibility, Valuation Misstatement Penalties, More

    May 1, 2013

    Plus: Bishop v. Commissioner Rules on When and Whether a Bad Debt Loss Can Be a Claimed Deduction In Schwab v. Commissioner, a case turns on when a variable universal life insurance policy is a taxable event.  In Boone Operations Co., LLC v. Commissioner, find out when contributing fill dirt to the city of Tucson is or isn’t a charitable or taxable event.

  • Case Law - QuickRead Featured

    Federal Case Law: Fifth Circuit and Tax Court Rule on Penalties, Charitable Deductions

    November 14, 2012

    Fifth Circuit Disallows 40% Valuation Misjudgment Penalty, OKs 20% Negligence Penalty The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit disallows a 40% valuation misjudgment penalty in Bemont Invs., LLC v. United States, but affirms a Texas Court’s 20% negligence penalty.  Judge Goeke at the Tax Court draws distinctions on when charitable deductions are allowable in Dunlap v. Commissioner.