Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

What You Need to Know Stocks rebounded after their worst week since April as investors turned their focus to the start of the technology earnings season. The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, and a gauge of the Magnificent Seven megacaps rallied 2.7%, led by gains in Tesla and Nvidia. The recent outperformance of U.S. small caps, though, is facing technical resistance and a lack of momentum, says Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson. Stocks rebounded after their worst week since April as investors looked beyond Joe Biden ending his reelection campaign to focus on the start of the tech earnings season. The megacap space rallied, with the Nasdaq 100 up almost 2%. Despite the recent slump that had some on Wall Street bracing for a summer correction, respondents to Bloomberg’s Markets Live Pulse survey expect earnings to reinvigorate the S&P 500. With results from Tesla Inc. and Alphabet Inc. on deck Tuesday, nearly two-thirds of the 463 respondents to the questionnaire expect corporate profits to boost US equities. Sky-high valuations and seasonal weakness have incited some pullback warnings, with traders also facing political uncertainties. Yet the market reaction to Biden’s decision to quit the race and endorse Kamala Harris has so far been fairly muted,...

U.S. President Joe Biden said he will not seek reelection, a historic reversal that came after weeks of pressure from Democrats for the 81-year-old to exit the race in hopes of improving their chances of preventing Donald Trump from returning to the White House. Biden announced his decision on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, to become the Democratic nominee. The move came less than four months before Election Day and just weeks ahead of the party’s nominating convention in Chicago. “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a statement he posted to X. “It’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden said in a subsequent post offering his “full support and endorsement” to Harris. The first president in more than half a century not to seek reelection, Biden had until now repeatedly rejected calls to drop his bid in favor of a younger candidate. Those appeals grew stronger following a disastrous debate performance in...

The number of RIAs has grown rapidly in the past several years, but none has become as vast as a sprawling wirehouse. Not yet. Marty Bicknell offers an authoritative prediction. “In five to 10 years, there will be a handful of truly large independent RIAs that can rival the size of the wirehouses,” Bicknell, CEO and president of Mariner Wealth Advisors, tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview. It’s a good bet that Mariner, fourth on Barron’s list of top RIAs, could be one of those. The Overland Park, Kansas-based firm, founded in 2006, has grown at a fast clip — it has 110 locations nationwide and now advises on a total of $230 billion in assets. Its 1,800 financial advisors include employees and independent contractors.  Inorganic growth has been a significant key to its success. To date, Mariner has made 55 acquisitions, the most recent of which, a combination of institutional consultants AndCo Consultants and Fourth Street Performance Partners, closed in April. The deal kicked off the firm’s Mariner Institutional brand and brought in $104 billion in assets under advisement. Other brands include Mariner Ultra, for ultra-high-net-worth clients, and Mariner Workplace, for business owners. Bicknell argues that it’s critical for advisors to offer a...

Financial education enhances your value proposition because it demonstrates that you are interested in helping clients understand and manage their finances, solve problems and work toward their goals.  Educating clients can set you apart from competitors by demonstrating that you care about their financial education and well-being. 6. Attracts new clients. Offering financial education through seminars, webinars, blogs or newsletters provides an opportunity to showcase your expertise and reputation as a thought leader in the industry.  Financial education is the best platform to attract new clients looking for reliable and knowledgeable financial professionals. Share financial education on social media and your website blog so they can find you when doing organic searches. 4 Tips to Implement Financial Education Now that we have established the benefits of using financial education to grow an advisory practice, we must consider how to implement it effectively.  1. Source content from multiple providers. Check with your clearing firm, website provider, broker-dealer or RIA, advisor marketing solution provider, or other content provider sources to find content that will likely resonate with your client base or those prospects you want to attract.  Consider writing content or hiring a ghostwriter if you’re seeking specific content for a distinct...