Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that Treasury Department officials this week expressed concern about various "tax alpha" investment strategies, including Section 351 exchanges, "box-spread" ETFs, funds designed to generate ordinary losses, and ETFs that trade in and out of other ETFs to avoid dividend distributions. While Treasury hasn't yet taken action to restrict any of these strategies (though one official said that "all the tools are under consideration" in addressing them), the comments highlight that certain tax-aware products and strategies that don't explicitly have the government's blessing might not be available for the long haul.

Also in industry news this week:

• A report from Russell Investments puts the value of a financial advisor at 4.92% (a figure that exceeds many other estimates of this elusive figure), with an advisor's ability to keep clients invested during turbulent market periods identified as a particularly valuable service
• CFP Board has submitted a proposal for public comment that would explicitly allow its Disciplinary and Ethics Commission to consider the expungement of a criminal conviction as a mitigating factor when considering an individual's fitness for certification

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

• Fidelity's latest estimate of retirees' lifetime health costs jumped 7.5% this year to $185,500, though the fact that many of these expenses are often spread out over the course of a retirement could make them more manageable outlays to plan around
• Why dental expenses can be an underestimated part of a retiree's budget and how advisors can help clients evaluate potential solutions to mitigate them
• How advisors and their clients can balance the relative unlikelihood of experiencing an extended long-term care event with the potential costs if one does occur when it comes to saving for and/or insuring against this contingency

We also have a number of articles on client communication:

• How advisors can handle a client's 'hot' investment idea tactfully and in a way that demonstrates respect while keeping them on track to meet their investment goals
• While portfolio diversification is a core tenet of many advisors' investment strategies, clients might have a different understanding of what it actually means for their investments
• How creating a communications matrix can help advisors organize the different types of client communications they produce during the year and better meet particular clients' needs

We wrap up with three final articles, all about technology and modern society:

• While hybrid workplace arrangements appear to represent a 'sweet spot' between working in the office full time and fully remote work for many employees (with potential productivity boosts for their employers as well), experiences can vary significantly based on an individual's unique circumstances
• How the rise of algorithmic-based recommendations could be driving real-world cultural trends (and leading some individuals to spend significant time waiting in lines)
• Why "skill nostalgia" can develop when technological innovations lead to a reduction (or even elimination) of certain occupations, and how this isn't necessarily a modern concept

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

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In the time between review meetings, advisors are often busy doing work for clients (such as portfolio analysis or reviewing insurance needs). This cadence of work is crucial, but it’s also often invisible, especially when no action is needed. The antidote for many advisors is some sort of communication between meetings – from birthday cards to phone calls to email newsletters. Yet this may be met with a lukewarm-at-best reception from clients, leaving advisors to wonder… what sort of communication touchpoints (if any) actually make a difference to clients?

In this 195th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how to choose the method and frequency of client touchpoints. There is a balance to be struck: if an advisor under-communicates, then clients may not know if or how to contact an advisor between meetings. On the other hand, overcommunication can quickly drown an advisory team’s capacity as a client base grows.

The latest Kitces Research on Advisor Productivity suggests that successful advisors had frequent contact with their clients, but it was almost all standardized, such as newsletters and webinars, that allowed efforts to amplify on a one-to-many basis. This allows touchpoints to scale with the client base… and can provide an organic place for an advisor to both provide guidance and commentary to their client base. Similarly, sending brief messages that affirm that a component of a client’s plan was reviewed (even if no action is needed) can reassure the client that their plan is being monitored.

This approach has two benefits: first, it can illuminate the otherwise invisible work of the advisor. Second, it can free up the advisor’s time so that when the client does reach out, the advisory team can provide a thorough and timely response. The latter is particularly important as the capacity to automate all communication continues to grow – in other words, the advisor will need to carefully determine where it is important to have human, one-to-one availability. Advisors may be surprised by just how differentiating it is to have a blend of consistent communication that accumulates in fast, human-centered interaction.

On the other hand, these scheduled communications may receive relatively low engagement. Clients may not open emails or log into their portals as frequently as advisors would like, which can make advisors wonder if the effort to continually provide some level of communication is worthwhile. This is where discernment is crucial for what types of communication really make difference… yet it can be helpful to remind clients that the advisory team is actively monitoring the situation and is available.

Ultimately, the key point is that an advisor has many avenues through which they could communicate with clients, but it may be more effective to do a few things consistently than many things infrequently. A cornerstone of communication, combined with great, accessible service, is the key to delivering exceptional advice that scales with the firm!

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July 4, 2026 saw the official launch of Sec. 530 "Trump Accounts" (TAs), a new type of 'starter' retirement account designed to be opened and funded on behalf of minor children so they can start accumulating tax-deferred retirement savings at an early age. Under the rules for TAs, parents and other individuals, employers, and government and charitable organizations can make contributions to a child's TA up until the year before their 18th birthday, after which the account effectively converts into a traditional IRA – giving the account's owner an incentive not to touch the account for many years, since distributions prior to age 59 ½ will be subject to a 10% penalty tax.

But although TAs may be similar to standard IRAs in many aspects (and effectively become IRAs after the pre-age-18 "growth period" ends), the process of opening and funding TAs is very different. Because unlike IRAs, which can be opened at any major broker-dealer or custodian and have no limits on the number of different IRAs that any individual can have open at one time, TAs can only be opened in a single location (a website and app administered by the retail broker-dealer Robinhood), and while other institutions will eventually be able to offer TAs of their own, they will only be available for 'rollover' purposes (i.e., to transfer into once the initial account is opened at Robinhood's site).

The process of opening a TA starts by filing IRS Form 4547, a form that can be filled out (generally by a parent or legal guardian) either on the government's official Trump Account app, online via the IRS's website, or as an actual tax form to be filed along with the account opener's tax return. Next, after the IRS approves the Form 4547, the account opener must 'activate' the account on the Robinhood-administered website, www.trumpaccount.com. Finally, when the account is open, the parent can contribute and invest funds on the child's behalf (with the only current investment option being an S&P 500 index ETF, although broader U.S. equity funds will purportedly be available in the future).

After the TA has been opened, funded, and invested, the account can be kept at Robinhood or, likely starting sometime in 2027, transferred to a different custodian. However, once the account beneficiary reaches age 18, the TA will be automatically rolled over to a traditional IRA, at which point the responsibility for choosing investments, tracking the account basis (since there will likely be a mix of 'pre-tax' and 'after-tax' funds in the account), and designating a beneficiary shifts to the now-18-year-old account owner. In other words, at age 18, the TA beneficiary will 'get' not just control over the account and its funds, but also a new set of responsibilities for maintaining it as they cross into adulthood.

The key point is that although TAs may look in some ways like the IRAs that many people are familiar with, the real mechanics of opening, funding, and maintaining a TA (not to mention the eventual 'handoff' to the beneficiary at age 18) are much different than what many parents have likely encountered. For financial advisors, it's worthwhile to understand how these mechanics work and where parents are likely to get tripped up along the way – because while not every parent will want to open a TA for their children (since other options like 529 plans or UTMA accounts might be a better fit for their goals), the ones who do will appreciate their advisor being able to walk them through the process and get them started smoothly on saving for the next generation!

And if you want to go deeper on this topic, hear directly from the author on the Financial Advisor Technician podcast. 

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My guest on today's podcast is Ryan Townsley. Ryan is the owner of Town Capital, an RIA based in Bel Air, Maryland, that oversees approximately $200 million in assets under management for 155 client households.

What's unique about Ryan, though, is how he has grown his firm to $2 million of revenue largely as a solo (only recently making a new hire to provide planning support), in part by leveraging an AI-integrated tech stack and outsourcing tasks that he doesn't necessarily need to do himself.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Ryan moved past IT and compliance bottlenecks by using outsourced providers (which offers a secondary benefit of greater peace of mind that these functions are performed correctly by experts), why Ryan decided to make a hire to take on planning-related tasks in his firm (which he found to be a harder bottleneck to solve), and how Ryan has achieved greater efficiency by engaging in mass communication with his clients (for example, by conducting webinars during market declines so he can relay his perspective and action plan without having to repeat it individually for each client).

We also talk about how Ryan has achieved an efficiency boost by leveraging the Zocks AI automation system alongside Claude and Wealthbox to help him prepare for client meetings quickly, draft effective follow-up emails, and create checklists based on common tasks for his clients, how Ryan uses the workflow platform Hubly to create repeatable processes so that nothing falls through the cracks (and why it's important to create and describe processes in a way that future employees can pick up quickly), and how Ryan combines tax data access tool TaxStatus with tax planning software Holistiplan to efficiently gather client tax data and prepare tax planning recommendations.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Ryan shares how he approaches creating retirement income plans for his analytically minded clients (including the value of creating a 'slush fund' that they can tap for one-time expenses), how Ryan has found that becoming an enrolled agent and earning the Tax Planning Certified Professional designation has been a powerful combination by giving him more advanced tax-planning knowledge and the ability to provide tax advice, and how Ryan has managed an influx of referrals to his firm in part by maintaining a waitlist (allowing him to continue to provide a high level of service to current clients while allowing for continued growth for his firm).

So, whether you're interested in learning about outsourcing certain tasks to free up time for more high-impact activities, building a tech stack that creates further efficiencies, or providing significant value by upping your game when it comes to tax planning, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ryan Townsley.

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For most of their history, advisory firms were incredibly illiquid small businesses, and founders had to spend years or even a full decade training a successor in the hopes of having someone, anyone, to pay for the value of the equity that had been built. But over the past 15 years, a combination of low interest rates and an expansion of private markets and their access to capital has led to an explosion of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) amongst advisory firms, turning practices into remarkably liquid businesses, transacting at ever-higher multiples as a plethora of buyers bid up the prices for sellers. Yet as the media has increasingly reported on sometimes-eye-popping multiples, the reality is that because of how deals are actually negotiated and terms are written, the "headline" multiple is often not actually a fair reflection of what sellers are receiving in the end!

In this guest post, Rich Chen, founder of Brightstar Law Group, explores how real-world M&A deals are negotiated for advisory firms, and what, exactly, can lead to material divergences between the valuation multiple externally reported in a deal, and what the seller actually gets for the business, with the aim of helping sellers better prepare how to negotiate with buyers.

The starting point is to recognize that when a buyer offers a seller a multiple of revenue or profits (EBITDA), the buyer and seller still have to agree on how to actually calculate revenue or profits. And as it turns out, determining exactly what the revenue base or EBITDA base will be – against which the multiple is then applied – is not as straightforward as simply looking at the firm's profit-and-loss statement for the trailing-12-month period.

When it comes to determining a revenue base, trailing-12-month revenue may be a common starting point, but buyers generally only want to pay for revenue they will receive after the purchase is closed – i.e., recurring revenue that will perpetuate in the future. As a result, any one-time receipts are often discounted or removed entirely from the valuation process. Similarly, any other revenue streams that come "off the top" of the advisory firm – revenue-sharing arrangements to referral sources, fees paid to a sub-advisor, etc. – are also commonly  removed, as buyers want to pay for net revenue, not the gross that they won't get to keep anyway. And to the extent that revenue is set, buyers will often apply a haircut to the revenue calculation for any clients who don't actually consent to the acquirer's advisory agreement (often with a 1-percent-not-retained-equals-2-percent-reduction-in-value penalty).

For firms that are valued as a multiple of EBITDA, the adjustments can be even more complex. If the advisory firm doesn't pay its own founder a "fair market rate", acquirers will typically impute a salary into the business to pay the founder and reduce earnings accordingly… which can materially curtail the valuation of the firm as a whole. (And ironically, in this context, acquirers often want to impute a very high salary for the founder, as they more than make it back in a reduced purchase price when the higher salary reduces earnings being multiplied.) On the plus side, any personal expenses routed through the business are often adjusted out (increasing EBITDA and the business valuation). The most controversial adjustments are expenses that are nominally "one-time" in the business, but that buyers may claim represent a recurring need for reinvestment – from paying for technology consultants, to office transitions, to non-cash compensation for key employees (that the acquirer fears will turn into cash compensation obligations in the future).

The end result of these adjustments is that the final dollars a seller receives on their adjusted EBITDA or revenue base could be substantially lower than what a headline number implies; a firm that thought it was getting 4X revenue that really gets 4X adjusted revenue might only get 3.1X its original revenue, and a firm that anticipated getting 10X EBITDA may only receive 8X after adjustments are done.

The key point is to recognize that buyers don't simply buy an advisory firm blindly; with experienced buyers in particular, it is a meticulous exercise of scrutinizing the financial details of the firm, to ensure what they're paying for will really drive a favorable outcome for their business as the acquirer. So beware putting too much weight into media headlines that showcase seemingly high multiples… as often the reality is that those multiples were calculated after adjustments specific to the business, and are not necessarily representative of the going rate for unadjusted top-line revenue or profits!

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Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that Charles Schwab's annual RIA benchmarking study found that firms continued to post strong overall growth in AUM (17%) and revenue (13.2%), alongside a continued 97% client retention rate. That said, results varied across firms (particularly when it comes to organic growth net of market appreciation and acquisitions), with RIAs that have a written marketing plan, ideal client persona, and client value proposition gaining 87% more new clients in 2025 and bringing in 127% more new client assets than other firms. Which suggests that considering the range of factors that separated higher-growth RIAs, as well as how (and whether) they might fit within their own practice, could help firms continue their client and AUM growth through future bull and bear markets.

Also in industry news this week:

• RIA M&A activity continued its brisk pace during the first half of 2026, though a survey suggests that there could be a widening gap in the valuation expectations of buyers and sellers
• A survey suggests that there could be an opening for financial advisors who offer tax planning services related to real estate transactions to build mutually beneficial relationships with real estate professionals (and perhaps receive more referrals in the process)

From there, we have several articles on evaluating the new Trump Accounts:

• How the ultimate dollar value of an individual's Trump Account could vary widely depending on the pattern of contributions made during their early years and withdrawals made in adulthood
• How the tax treatment of Trump Accounts compares to that of other tax-advantaged accounts
• Why some clients interested in building savings for their children might prefer investing in taxable custodial accounts rather than Trump Accounts

We also have a number of articles on generating referrals:

• How helping clients understand who their advisor serves best and how to actually introduce a friend or family member can be particularly effective ways to generate more client referrals
• Five ways advisors can build a scalable client referral 'flywheel', from providing clients with jargon-free language to describe who the advisor works with to creating a process that offers value to both clients and the individuals they refer
• A step-by-step approach for how advisors can build a systematic COI referral partnership program

We wrap up with three final articles, all about intergenerational relationships:

• How individuals can thrive when their care responsibilities are gone and become members of the "open sandwich" generation
• While having an adult child move back in with their parents can provide financial benefits, managing the privacy and other implications of this arrangement becomes paramount
• Why the differing lifespans and 'healthspans' of family members across generations suggest that individuals might consider prioritizing certain activities and goals rather than putting them off for the future

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

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Maintaining proper documentation is unlikely to be at the top of many advisors’ favorite activities. Nonetheless, accurate and thorough documentation not only can keep an advisor and their firm out of trouble with relevant regulators but also can help an advisor fulfill fiduciary responsibilities to their clients while providing evidence of their actions and recommendations in the case of a future client complaint. Which suggests that creating and maintaining relevant documents is not just a regulatory requirement but also could be a business imperative as well.

Broadly, documentation that is important to a financial advisory firm can be thought of in three tiers: documents that are required by the regulatory requirements of the practice (Tier 1), documents that describe actions taken and client communications (Tier 2), and documents that explain an advisor’s rationale for recommendations or actions (Tier 3).

Tier 1 documents that are required by regulators are likely to be those the advisor is most familiar with and can include a signed client agreement, Form ADV Part 2 delivery acknowledgment, conflict of interest disclosures, privacy notices, and other files as required by various governing bodies. The goal of this tier is to prove that the documentation required for legal and regulatory purposes was, in fact, delivered to the client, and these documents are often filed on a company intranet or in their CRM.

Next, Tier 2 documents catalogue interactions with a client and can include meeting notes, email communications, and copies of analyses delivered to the client. In this tier, a few of the important things to capture are what happened, when it happened, and who was involved. These details create a verifiable timeline of the client relationship that neither the advisor nor the client may be able to reconstruct with full accuracy from memory alone (which can be helpful evidence if a client [incorrectly] claims down the line that an advisor did or did not make a particular recommendation).

Finally, Tier 3 documents include the rationale for why an advisor recommended a specific action. While it is helpful to understand what recommendations were made (Tier 2 documents), describing the rationale behind them in writing can both provide the advisor with insight into their thinking if the recommendation is revisited down the line and also provide helpful background insights if another advisor or team member begins working with the client.

While financial advisory firms will likely already have Tier 1 documents established (though they might need to be updated from time to time), implementing a process across the firm for creating Tier 2 and Tier 3 documents can ensure these are produced consistently. For instance, building in time before client meetings (to record the thinking behind their recommendations) and after (to document decisions that were made and the reasons behind them) can ensure these tasks don’t slip through the cracks. Also, while some advisors might enjoy the writing process, firms might encourage those who are less adept at this task to take advantage of dictation tools (e.g., Windows Talk-to-Text and Pulse360) to organize their thoughts and avoid procrastinating this task.

Ultimately, the key point is that the benefit of maintaining proper documentation isn’t just a matter of staying in line with relevant regulations but also an opportunity to better serve clients and promote business continuity by maintaining accurate records of client communications and recommendations, as well as the reasons behind them!

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My guest on today's podcast is Christine DeMao. Christine is the Chief Operating Officer of Gibson Capital, an RIA based in Wexford, Pennsylvania, that oversees approximately $3 billion in assets under management for 200 client households.

What's unique about Christine, though, is how her firm since its early days has taken an intentional approach to succession planning, including by creating a "Path to Partnership" document that clearly outlines what the firm is looking for in new partners.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Christine's firm has had four rounds of partnership offerings (which have included not only executives and senior advisors, but also operations professionals as well), how Christine's "Path to Partnership" document lists the prerequisites for becoming a partner (including embracing a client-first philosophy, having strong character, being effective in one's functional job, and adding to enterprise value) as well as other positive factors (such as making intellectual or culture contributions to the firm), and how Christine's firm introduces this document to new hires early in their tenure to set expectations (and to help color performance management conversations).

We also talk about how Christine and her partners keep an open dialogue going to identify team members who might make good partners one day, how Christine's firm cultivated next-generation leaders by bringing them into management conversations on a regular basis before offering them a partnership opportunity, and how Christine created a "role grid" to map out responsibilities across the firm (which helps avoid pitfalls that can come with a distributed leadership structure).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Christine shares how Gibson Capital's culture has changed for the better following its post-pandemic transition to a hybrid environment, how Christine has found significant value from participating in groups with other operations professionals in the wealth management community, and how a near-death experience led Christine to pursue better work-life balance (and model a healthier approach for staff at her firm).

So, whether you're interested in learning about creating a clear path to partnership for next-gen employees, building the firm infrastructure to serve high-net-worth clients, or adding enterprise value to a firm from the operational side of the business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Christine DeMao.

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As markets bounce back from spring turmoil to new record highs this summer, and growth of financial advisory firms continues unhindered by the purported threat of AI, the industry has shifted an ever-greater focus onto the challenges of scaling firms as they grow, and coming up with ways to tackle the emerging shortage of experienced advisor talent. The good news is that most advisory firms still retain sky-high client retention, which provides a steady runway for firms to adapt and expand capacity. The bad news is that it's still challenging to attract and retain quality talent.

Our growth at Kitces.com has faced similar capacity challenges in recent years, amplified by our ongoing commitment not to use AI in the development of educational content… which means we have no choice but to continue to build our on-team talent, coupled with our network of industry experts, who can deliver human-expert-crafted content that is up to our Quality, Nerdy, and Relevant standards at Kitces.

Yet also similar to many advisory firms, we have found that our recent growth has increasingly been constrained by legacy technology decisions we made years ago that no longer served the current needs of the business. And so in 2025, we kicked off a two-year cycle in which we have been systematically rebuilding nearly all the core technology components of our business.

Last year, we started with a total from-the-ground-up rebuild of our Members Section, which now features a new CE catalog, new CE quiz system, enhanced reporting on the status of your CE programs and whether they've been submitted to the accrediting organizations, and an improved My Account interface to manage all of your various CE numbers. With our new framework built, we're now also working on a number of additional enhancements, including:

• a new "Research Scorecard" report that will allow advisors who participate in our research surveys to see how their firms compare to other (anonymized) advisor peer groups
• updates to our Live Events page to make it easier to see all of our scheduled live Kitces offerings in one place.

We're also excited to introduce two new programs getting underway in the second half of 2026: Level Up, and the Financial Advisor Technician podcast!

Our new Level Up program is specifically designed to help solve the industry's talent (or what we believe is actually a training) shortage: Every other week all year long, we'll conduct a live case-study reviews of real-world client scenarios, giving new advisors a chance to "get their rep(etition)s in" on more complex clients, with an opportunity to compare notes and role-play scenarios with peers, all guided by a Kitces instructor who will debrief the case study to highlight key planning opportunities, and how those recommendations could be framed and communicated most effectively to the client. This month, we'll be starting a three-month pilot program for Level Up, which is already sold out, but you can sign up now for the waitlist as we prepare for a broader rollout in 2027!

Our other new launch is the Financial Advisor Technician podcast (or "F-A-T" for short), which will be our first podcast eligible for CFP (and other) CE credit! Hosted by our own financial planning nerd Adam Van Deusen, each week a new episode of F-A-T will interview the author of our Wednesday articles (on various advanced planning topics), exploring the important information and key insights, and how advisors can take action with their clients. And because our Wednesday articles are already CE-eligible (readers must successfully complete the requisite accompanying CE quiz), listeners to the F-A-T podcast will also be able to earn the same CE credit by logging into the Members Section to take the quiz! Stay tuned for the first F-A-T episode to drop on Wednesday, July 22!

In the meantime, we continue to grow our full breadth of CE, practice management, and advisor development programs now, including our series of nine on-demand Training Courses, quarterly virtual events including our two half-day, virtual Practice Management Summits (one on Marketing and the other on Financial Planning Value) and our two full-day CE Intensives (one on Tax and the other on Ethics to fulfill your CFP Ethics and IAR Ethics requirements), our bi-weekly webinars, growing Directors of Financial Planning (DFP) community and its monthly peer group meetings, and the full breadth of our daily articles and two (soon-to-be three) podcasts! And we remain an active provider for all of your (multi-designation/multi-license) CE needs, including CFP, CPA, all the designations from IWI, College for Financial Planning, the American College, and state-based IAR CE obligations.

Likewise, our own Team of Nerds continues to expand. We recently hired several new team members, including Director of Member Success Kristin Dammacco, Director of People Operations Libby Sparks, and Senior Technical Editor Natalie Trevisan, and are actively hiring now for a new Executive Assistant to work directly with yours truly, Michael Kitces! If you know someone who would be a fit for our open Executive Assistant role, or are wondering how you can get more involved with the Kitces team, you can also sign up for our separate Career Opportunities mailing list (via our Career Opportunities page) to be notified when new positions open up! And for those who don't want to join the team full-time but would simply like to "Nerd out" with us for a bit and share what they do or know with their fellow advicers, remember to check out our "How To Contribute" page to see how you can engage with the Kitces platform as a guest writer, presenter, or podcast guest!

Throughout it all, we remain focused on advancing our core mission – to "Make Financial Advicers Better, And More Successful" – through our four strategic pillars of supporting ‘Nnovation of AdvisorTech tools, delivering insightful Education, conducting original advicer Research, and facilitating the Development of financial advicer skills across the spectrum of experience and firm sizes (and yes… our organizational strategy does spell N-E-R-D). We look forward to continuing the journey with you in 2026 and beyond!

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Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that a recent survey finds that women who work with a financial advisor are approximately 60% more likely to report that they feel confident in managing their finances compared to those who don't, suggesting a valuable role for advisors working with this group that is controlling an increasing amount of wealth. Amongst the key areas where women surveyed are seeking professional help, retirement planning, investment planning, and estate planning topped the list, with the report identifying putting cash to work in the market as a potential lever for advisors to add value, as 63% of respondents with at least $500,000 in investible assets reported having more than $100,000 uninvested.

Also in industry news this week:

• The IRS unveiled a new automatic process to provide penalty relief for taxpayers with a history of filing and paying on time
• A survey of broker-dealer advisors finds that effective firm-wide rollouts of AI-powered tools are associated with more time to spend with clients as well as greater advisor satisfaction and loyalty

From there, we have several articles on asset location:

• While strategic asset location could add approximately 0.3% of portfolio value annually, the value of this approach depends on several factors unique to each client
• While some investors might hold foreign stocks in taxable accounts to be able to access the foreign tax credit, sizable dividends or capital gains distributions could still make tax-advantaged accounts an attractive location for these investments
• How an investor's time horizon plays an important role in determining whether holding stocks in a taxable or tax-advantaged account might be the most tax-efficient choice

We also have a number of articles on estate planning:

• Why advisors and their clients might (re)consider certain trust strategies in a post-OBBBA world
• How irrevocable trusts can create challenges during divorce proceedings, and how advisors can help clients in this situation ensure they receive a fair financial outcome
• How a recent court case shows why following a retirement plan's specific instructions for making beneficiary changes is necessary to avoid inadvertently leaving assets to an unintended recipient

We wrap up with three final articles, all about self-confidence:

• Ways financial advisors can overcome self-doubt, from finding a peer group (who might be going through similar issues) to building skills that are valuable for their specific clients
• How creating a financial planning "playbook" can help newer advisors organize the insights and wisdom they encounter during their early years on the job (and ultimately help them create their own unique style)
• Why making an impact in the lives of friends, family, and clients could provide a greater sense of meaning than achieving 'fame' amongst a broader (but more anonymous) audience

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

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Financial advisors often struggle with a frustrating reality: clients routinely delay important planning decisions even when the benefits seem obvious. Estate planning is a particularly common example, as many clients acknowledge the need to update documents, establish trusts, or clarify legacy intentions… yet fail to take action. This raises an uncomfortable question for advisors: if logic and technical explanations are not enough to motivate clients (or prospective clients), is it appropriate to use more emotionally charged conversations – including discussions that invoke fear of adverse outcomes – to create the urgency needed to move clients forward?

In this 194th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss the effectiveness of a storytelling approach and its ability to transform an abstract planning concept into a tangible emotional concern.  For example, is it more effective to explain the mechanics and use of a QTIP trust, or to explain the worst-case scenario of an estate plan without one? Supporters would argue that the technique helps clients recognize risks they may genuinely care about but had never considered, while critics may question whether such conversations cross the line into fear-based selling by intentionally provoking anxiety to drive action.

Underlying the discussion is the broader challenge of creating urgency. Human beings are naturally prone to inertia, especially when dealing with complex financial decisions whose consequences may not materialize for years or even decades. Financial planning conversations often focus on logical explanations, technical benefits, and detailed analysis. Yet advisors frequently observe that clients who understand a recommendation – and its importance – still fail to implement it. The tension, then, is whether advisors ought to simply accept client inaction as a reflection of preferences, or whether part of their role is to help clients overcome behavioral obstacles that prevent them from acting on goals. In those circumstances, emotional engagement can be a powerful catalyst for action, but it raises important questions about the methods advisors choose to employ. Is emotive storytelling manipulative, or simply persuasive if it is in the best interest of the client?

Ultimately, the key point is that selling and advising are not entirely separate activities. The challenge is not whether to encourage action, but how to do so in a manner that aligns with the advisor’s professional values and the client’s best interests. While fear and urgency may sometimes produce results, many advisors may find greater comfort in approaches rooted in client values, aspirations, and desired outcomes rather than potential catastrophes. The broader lesson is that helping clients make meaningful progress often requires more than technical expertise alone; it requires the ability to connect planning recommendations to what clients care about most, inspiring action while preserving trust, authenticity, and respect for the client’s autonomy.

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