The Scenario Laws enacted by those ladies and gentlemen we send to Congress are seldom a panacea for all. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act certainly fits that mold, as will be evident when we summarize the winners and losers under the Act. But first, here’s a quick editorial note—as with all of our articles, the…

Why do many small businesses fail after a transition to new leadership? Because the business owner did not plan the transition! Sadly, these business failures can often be traced to wholly preventable causes. So how should a savvy advisor with business owner clients or prospects respond to these avoidable causes of business failure? Use this…

The Scenario Your client received a Restricted Stock Award (RSA). So naturally, they have questions that may range from the basics to maximizing the after-tax value. This article reveals how RSAs work, their pros and cons, and tax issues. How RSAs Work Restricted Stock Awards (RSAs) are a form of equity-based nonqualified deferred compensation granted…

The Scenario Your client was granted incentive stock options (ISOs) by their employer. If your client is like many, the next question could be, “what are my next steps?” The next steps would generally include a brief review of what ISOs are and how they work. We’ll address those steps and then identify how to…

Does EQ really matter? And what IS EQ? Is it simply about having good “people skills”? Or is it more than that? And is it worth working on and perfecting these skills? Our firm recently concluded our first Forum, collaborating with 16 advisors from various firms across the industry to help them further develop and…

Greene Consulting recently hosted a forum with some of the best market level leaders we know in the wealth management industry to discuss some of the key opportunities and challenges facing financial services firms.  These leaders who come from a variety of firms from small to large, have a unique perspective with true, “street-level knowledge”…

Whether you are an advisor, coach a team of advisors or lead a division, the purpose of this brief article is to encourage you to pause for a minute and honestly reflect on your approach and your firm’s approach to the Client Discovery Conversation and, more specifically, think about how you would answer the following…

Given the breadth of contacts we have in our work in the financial services industry, we are afforded the opportunity to encounter some of the best bankers, advisors, market leaders and executive leaders in the industry. Recently, we thought it worthwhile to connect some of the best in these roles with each other, believing that…

One of the things we do quite often in our quest to help our industry raise the bar on the value provided to its clients is participate in pre-call planning sessions. A majority of these sessions are focused on planning for an upcoming Relationship Review Meeting with a high-value client. All too often, we hear…

Planning software firms like eMoney and MoneyGuidePro are exponentially growing in terms of the number of firms and advisors utilizing their planning software (with currently well over 100,000 advisors in the U.S. equipped with eMoney or MoneyGuidePro, not to mention the numerous other planning platforms). Yet, the vast majority of firms incorporating these capabilities are…