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Can you identify the “solo agers” among your client base? They’re broadly defined as unmarried, divorced, or widowed adults with no close heirs. It’s a growing demographic and one that’s often overlooked when it comes to financial planning. Given the lack of traditional planning models for this group, there are several things to keep in mind when working with them.

Buy low in one market. Sell high in another.

It’s the basic philosophy of investing, driven by arbitrage. Many clients are taking advantage of arbitrage in some form, be it stocks, bonds, currency, real estate or another leveraged investment to build portfolio wealth.

But what about leveraging the price discrepancies between insurance products?

In a market dominated by meme stocks, crypto surges, and constant noise, it’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals. But repeatedly, consistent planning, diversification, and disciplined habits outperform impulse and hype.

The role of a financial professional isn’t just to set the course; it’s to help clients stay on it when the water gets rough or distractions emerge. This opportunity is key to reframing the conversation, shifting focus away from short-term speculation, and highlighting the quiet strength of long-term, intentional planning.

In times of market volatility, investors often find themselves riding an emotional roller coaster of uncertainty, fear, and frustration. Sometimes, irrational optimism can also creep in. For financial advisors, these moments are not just about numbers and asset allocations but people and relationships. That’s where a nuanced understanding of communication and conflict resolution becomes just as essential as market analysis, which can be unreliable over short time horizons.

Volatile markets test even the most disciplined investor. Stories are everywhere talking about the potential for a recession (or not), inflation (or not), and rate cuts (or not). Information overload and filtering become real concerns. Hype from news services and social media can lead clients to second-guess their strategy or fight the urge to panic-sell at the wrong time. Advisors serve as the emotional anchors in these moments, providing perspective, patience, and a long-term view.

“Tariff - that’s a beautiful word, isn’t it?” Lately, all we seem to talk about are tariffs, but the discussions rarely focus on orthography. For some, tariffs signify a new beginning, driven by the resurgence of American manufacturing due to re-shoring. For others, tariffs spell inflation, economic uncertainty, and strained diplomatic relations. For those in the first camp, let’s temper our enthusiasm, and for those in the second, let’s lower our defenses. Let’s examine this issue from an apolitical perspective to understand its implications for our economy, especially in the context of client portfolios.

Oftentimes, as clients retire, a window of opportunity opens. If they retire before beginning RMDs, or in some cases even prior to starting Social Security, they may find themselves in the lowest tax bracket they’ve been in since they became employed. This can be a great time to complete Roth conversions, which are the movement of pretax money into a post-tax Roth IRA. The obvious cost at the time is the taxes due on the converted amount, as the money is treated as ordinary income. However, several oft-forgotten costs to Roth conversions may make them less beneficial than previously estimated. Naturally, these are client-dependent and may not affect every individual, nor are they reasons to forgo the conversion, but they are worth investigating when determining if the conversion makes sense.

As our clients approach retirement, the conversation flips from asset accumulation to income distribution, and this change involves new complexities. One of the most important parts of a successful retirement plan is preparing a tax-efficient income withdrawal strategy. This strategy isn’t just about guaranteeing income; it’s about preserving wealth over the client’s lifetime by minimizing their income taxes. A good withdrawal plan can impact the longevity of retirement savings and the total taxes the client pays over their lifetime.

Loan split dollar remains one of those advanced market strategies that engenders two distinct reactions among financial professionals. One reaction sees nearly unlimited opportunity in the executive business market, while another relegates this concept to the esoteric and inapplicable. Though the latter reaction may be natural for those still stuck in an early 2000s mindset, today’s financial professionals would be remiss if they didn’t seize this impactful strategy and place it in their executive benefit toolkit.

The particulars of this technique (sometimes called collateral assignment split dollar) are beyond the constraints of this piece, but a synopsis of the “Why” behind loan split dollar will help to explain the rationale and provide a brief review of this executive benefit strategy.

On the first Sunday in January 2025, President Joe Biden brought some warmth to a very cold time of year by signing the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act into law. This legislation impacts more than 2.5 million Americans, which makes it important for financial advisors to understand. The short version of what happened is that this law repeals both the Windfall Elimination Provision from 1983 and the Government Pension Offset from 1977 (but with an adjustment in 1983).

Despite various headlines, geopolitical tensions, and other risks, the stock market posted a second year of strong returns, with the S&P 500 up 25%. As we look forward to 2025, it is important to understand what happened in 2024 that led us to this point.