If you have not lined up tools and talking points for discussing Roth IRA conversions with your clients, some other advisor could seize the opportunity. That's the warning given by Ben Norquist of president of Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions LLC, at today's session of the Financial Advisor Webinar Series.

Norquist, whose company helps many of the nation’s leading financial organizations with retirement plan training, compliance, and business development, explained how advisors can best assist clients and prospects in converting their traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs once the income ceiling on the conversions is lifted in 2010. Attendees at this webinar learned about:

• Three key factors to focus on to make it easier for clients to decide if conversion makes sense for them
• A web-based tool for illustrating different conversion scenarios
• Why partial conversions make sense in many situations
• Why conversion makes the most sense for ultra-high net worth individuals 
• How to differentiate your analysis from salesmanship

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Best Practices In Outsourcing Portfolio Reporting
In next week's webinar, the last one of 2009, Mike Lobosco of Advent Software will speak about outsourcing portfolio reporting responsibilities to save you time to focus on your clients.

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One year ago, the global financial crisis brought panic to investors and businesses, as stock prices were cut in half and bank lending dried up. Now, the crisis has calmed and the market has bounced back, but concerns remain. Unemployment is at its highest in decades, the commercial and residential real estate markets remain strained, and global trade is stagnant.

Is this the new normal? Are we at the beginning of a new bull market? Or are we about to face another wave of bad news? These questions were addressed at this week's session of the Financial Advisor Webinar Series. Don Phillips, managing director of Morningstar, and Fran Kinniry, principal of Vanguard, reflected on the past year and discussed their expectations for the future. They identified areas of concern and highlighted sectors primed for strong performance.

Phillips is president of Fund Research at Morningstar, while Kinniry is a senior member of Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group. Both Phillips and Kinniry presented at the Financial Advisor Webinar Series during the height of the credit crisis. Their sessions were two of the highest rated of the past year.

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The number of Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) continues to expand, with more than 600 trading on U.S. exchanges and 500 more in SEC registration. In today's webinar, Richard Ferri, CFA, of Portfolio Solutions LLC, an investment management firm based in Troy, MI., explained all things ETPs. He discussed what's new in ETPs and ETFs, how actively managed ETPs differ from index-based products, and how certain products can leave you short. This session was widely acclaimed by attendees and covered both beginning and advanced material.
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Regulatory Reform: Will You Be A Fiduciary?
Regulatory reform is coming for financial advisors. SEC Chair Mary Shapiro has said the agency anticipates "harmonizing investment advisor and broker dealer obligations." And in a June 17, 2009 white paper, the Obama Administration proposed requiring a fiduciary standard of care for brokers, a move initially applauded by the Financial Planning Coalition, but which risks "watering down" the fiduciary standard.
What can you expect in coming years? Will your regulatory compliance costs go up? Will being a fiduciary mean less than before? How will fee-only RIA's be able to differentiate themselves from fiduciary brokers who also accept commissions? If you are a broker, will you even be able to accept commissions? How will this affect your fiduciary responsibility?
Blaine Aikin, president and CEO of fi360, which provides training, tools, and resources to promote fiduciary responsibility and improve the decision making processes of investment fiduciaries, will answer these questions and more.

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In today's session of the Financial Advisor Webinar Series, Rob Stein, managing partner and senior portfolio manager of Astor Asset Management, showed advisors how to interpret employment trends and other macroeconomic indicators to manage ETF portfolios actively. Stein, a well-renowned economist and author of The Bull Inside The Bear (Wiley, 2009), explained his fundamental approach to investing and how it can be used to spot another downturn before it begins.

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Serving Middle Income Clients
Financial planning is not only for the super wealthy. Middle income clients need your help more than ever. And creating a plan for serving them can help your business survive and even thrive in this recession.
In this webinar, Kevin Condon, Ph.D., will explain why you should serve middle income clients and changes that you'll need to make to better serve this segment of clients. Condon is executive vice president of Advisor Services for MyFinancialAdvice Inc and a Certified Financial Planner licensee since 1987. He is a recognized leader in the financial advisory industry and was named one of Worth Magazine's 250 best financial advisors five times. Established in 2001, MyFinancialAdvice.com uses the Internet to make financial advice affordable and convenient to more people.

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Actively Managing An ETF Portfolio
At a crucial time for financial markets, Rob Stein, managing partner and senior portfolio manager of Astor Asset Management, will show you how to interpret employment trends and other macroeconomic indicators to manage ETF portfolios actively.

Stein, who began his career as an economist at the Federal Reserve, will explain his unique fundamental approach to investing and show you how to profit from economic cycles.

He'll explain the role of inflation in the economy, the potential for a double-dip recession, and how you can spot another downturn before it begins.

Author of The Bull Inside The Bear (Wiley, 2009), Stein in 1994 founded Astor Financial Inc, which specializes in ETF investing. In 2008, he started ETFPort.com, a portal for the exchange traded fund community.

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Download Rob Stein's 2009 Outlook Report
Download Quarterly Economic Review 

With revenue slashed by the financial crisis, it's more important than ever for advisors to use technology to scale their businesses and operate more efficiently. In today's session of the Financial Advisor Webinar Series, advisors learned how to evaluate and implement practice management systems from one of the industry's leading experts, Dan Skiles, executive vice president of Shareholders Service Group.

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Actively Managing An ETF Portfolio In All Market Cycles
One major benefit of investing in ETFs is that you can participate in a sector's upside without the company-specific risk of individual stocks. While "a rising tide lifts all boats," if you get stuck investing near a market peak, your portfolio will undoubtably suffer.

In our next webinar, you'll learn how you can identify and profit from economic cycles. Robert Stein, who is managing partner of Astor Financial LLC and this week's presenter, specializes in economics-based investing. He uses economic indicators, namely unemployment, GDP, and money flows into and out of the stock market to identify changing economic cycles. In this session, he'll share his research and discuss the potential for double-dip recession. He'll also help you identify appropriate ETFs that would be poised to benefit.

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See all previous webinars

Do you take taxes into account when developing your clients’ investment portfolios? How often do you look to tax-loss harvest? How do you communicate to your clients the issue of tax management? If you're not focusing on investment tax management, you're costing your clients money. However, adding this service will help you better serve your clients, stand out among the competition, and gain referrals.

At today's session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series, Dean Mioli, senior investment analyst for SEI Advisor Network, explained the importance of tax management in today’s market and prepared attendees for dealing with a wave of tax increases in the coming years.

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In today's session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series, Advisor Products CEO Andrew Gluck taught advisors the basics of “tweeting” and how to use this new communication medium to build relationships with clients and prospects. Learn how to leverage the fastest growing social network to benefit your advisory practice.
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Read Andrew Gluck's column about Twitter in Financial Advisor Magazine

Investment Tax Management: Turn Clients’ Biggest Expense Into An Opportunity
Do you take taxes into account when developing your clients’ investment portfolios? How often do you look to tax loss harvest? How do you communicate to your clients the issue of tax management? On Friday, May 15, Dean Mioli, senior investment analyst for SEI Advisor Network, will explain the importance of tax management in today’s market and prepare advisors for a wave of tax increases in the coming years. He’ll demonstrate ways that advisors can outperform their peers though use of tax-managed investing.
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Other resources:
SEI Commentary On Tax Management
“The OPM Factor”

As the equity market collapse unhinged asset allocations from financial plans, it's time to rebalance and put client portfolios back in line. Should you be advising clients to put more assets into stocks? What about commodities and REITS? In today’s session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series, Craig Israelsen, Ph.D, one of the foremost academics on indexes and passive investing and an associate professor of personal and family finance at Bringham Young University, made the case for his “7Twelve” asset allocation method.

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Google AdWords For Advisors
Investors wrecked by the bear market are firing their brokers and looking for independent, objective advisors. A Google AdWords campaign helps you connect with prospects looking for a new advisor.
If you are not familiar with Google AdWords, you’re doing competitors a favor.
In this session, Howie Jacobson, PhD, author of Google AdWords For Dummies, shows you how to get started in building a successful AdWords campaign.

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Presentation slides (.PDF)

 See Replay Of All Financial Crisis Webinars And Schedule Of Upcoming Sessions

Seventy-six percent of advisors say they are not confident that they possess the skills to fully vet alternative investments. 54% percent say they do not have a “standard” list of documentation that they collect from alternative investment managers before investing, and  63% say they have no formally documented due diligence process, according to a suevey this week by Advisor Products.

With that bleak data as a backdrop, along with the guilty plea entered yesterday by the infamous Bernard Madoff, Jason Sharfman of Corgentum Consulting LLC., which specializes in due diligence of alternative investments, told attendees at this week's Financial Crisis Webinar that lax RIAs could face the risk of liability and are vulnerable to lawsuits by clients unless they tighten alternative investment due diligence.

The webinar also featured a discussion about Schwab Institutional's effort to move all alternative investments off its custodial platform. Anthony Carl of Sterling Trust Company and Tom Anderson, CEO of Pensco Trust Company, also participated in the discussion. Carl and Anderson, who represent two custodians to which Schwab Institutional is referring advisors as they move off the Schwab custody platform, spoke about how using a trusted custodian can help mitigate the risks of alternative investments.

Download Sharfman's presentation slides     Download Anderson’s presentation slides

For thoughtful coverage of the Schwab Alternative Investment custody issue, read Andrew Gluck’s blog post.

To be notified of future webinars and special events, please subscribe to our RSS feed.

Has your firm developed a successful due diligence process? Do you have any recommendations that you would like to share? If so, please comment.

On March 20, Jerry Lezynski of SEI Advisor Network presents SEI's 2009 Survival Guide For Financial Advisors. Advisors should attend this session for new ideas about how to grow business during this difficult time. Register now.  Download presentation slides.

The bad news on the economy is unrelenting. Companies—entire industries—are collapsing and millions of jobs are disappearing. Clients want answers, while you feel responsible for their investment losses and doubtful about your ability to help them. These are difficult days, if not overwhelming. In this presentation, Sharon Hoover, executive leadership coach, shows you how to manage the demands being made on you in these tough times.
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March 13: Due Diligence On Alternative Investments: Never Be "Madoffed" And Show Clients Transparency
Performing due diligence on investments is more important than ever, as is being able to prove to clients and prospects that you run an honest advisory business. In this presentation, Jason Sharfman, author of the recently published book "Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence: Understanding the Risks," will tell you how to perform investment and operational due diligence and how to create policies and procedures that ensure transparency when investors are performing due diligence on your firm.

Before founding Corgentum, Scharfman oversaw due diligence for a $6 billion alternative investment allocation group called Graystone Research at Morgan Stanley. He was also a senior member of a team that oversaw all of Morgan Stanley’s hedge fund operational due diligence efforts allocating $13 billion to a firm-wide platform of over 300 hedge fund managers across multiple investment strategies.

Download Sharfman's presentation slides