Myth Busting 101
It's a DIY world, where everyone thinks they can cook a meal, renovate a house, fix a car or spin out high-quality crafts simply by watching a few YouTube videos. But clients should be disabused of the notion that they can do financial planning by themselves, argues Sheryl Nance-Nash in her LearnVest column on Forbes.com, 6 Financial Planning Misconceptions — Debunked. Among the myths many would-be-clients have? Financial planning is a set-it-and-forget-it event, it's only investment management, and only helps the wealthy.
All Eyes on Wall Street
Just because financial services firms are seemingly always under investigation doesn't mean they're more corrupt than, say, the small businessman running a cash business, says Megan McArdle for Bloomberg View. While the Justice Department's latest probe of Wall Street is more likely to bring down traders and their bosses than CEOs, it's also indicative of an industry that's more scrutinized than most.
More on Liftoff
Josh Brown, of Ritholtz Wealth Management, agreed to a Q&A with blogger Abnormal Returns to talk about the new Liftoff service launched last week. Among the topics they discussed is Google entering the financial technology space, the pros and cons of hand-holding and what makes Liftoff different from the rest of the robo-advisors out there.
Showdown
In the western plains city of Hamilton, Montana, (pop. 15,000) a hometown broker was praised for helping state securities regulators catch "a bad actor," an advisor from New York City that was allegedly cheating Montana-based clients out of more than $260,000. The NYC broker was ordered to pay a fine and banned from selling securities in Montana.