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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​These articles are provided by FPA's Institutional Members, and are a benefit of your FPA membership.

Use the FPA search bar in the upper left hand corner to locate a topic of interest. To provide a white paper for this library, contact Buffy Fletcher, of FPA Corporate Relations. 


​2016 Taxable Outlook​The taxable bond market, interest rates, and supply and demand dynamics – Senior Fixed Income. Analyst, David Krouth, shares his insight on these topics and discusses how City National Rochdale is taking advantage of the potential opportunities in the market.​

30 Tips from 30 Years

​​30 Ti​ps ​​from 30 Years is a compilation of the views drawn from the greater world and held by the Cambridge Board & Executive Team. Eric's insi​​​ghts on what he knows today served as the inspiration for this piece- we hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed pulling it together.

​​5 Critically Importnat Points for Portfolio Coordination​The latest research on tax-efficient withdrawal strategies summarized in five critically important points for successful portfolio coordination.​
A New Approach to ​Retirement Income: Next-Gen vs. Traditional VAsJefferson National partnered with award-winning Professor Wade Pfau to study the risks, benefits and income potential of low-cost Flat-Fee Investment-Only VAs (IOVAs) and Guaranteed VAs. The conclusion: Flat-Fee IOVAs are more likely to generate income and build wealth—while guaranteed VAs are more likely to deplete wealth.JeffNat logo with Reg.jpg
Acquisition & Succession: Shift Your Focus from Retirement to GrowthThis paper offers advice on mergers, acquisition and succession planning strategies, including examples from FP Transitions. Their formidable experience implementing thousands of valuations and succession plans for independent financial advisors provides a framework you can leverage to define a future path for your firm. ​

​An Introduction to Successful Financial Blogging

​Your advisor website is the most powerful marketing tool you have - bring it to life by starting a financial blog! In this ebook, we answer the most common questions about financial blogging: why it’s important, how to get started, and what to blog about.​

​Business Continuity and Succession Planning

​Business Continuity and Succession Planning, a white paper by Jim Guy, Cambridge's First Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, takes a deep look into continuity and why Cambridge has implemented a firm-wide initiative to help every Cambridge advisor have, at minimum, a personalized, written continuity plan in place that can be backed and funded by Cambridge.​

Business Growth: Strategies for Pricing Your Advisory ServicesTake a fresh look at pricing your advisory business​. ​Download our free guide to learn how small changes to your fee structure can have a big impact on your bottom line, protect you against market downturns and withdrawals, and entice clients to consolidate more assets with your firm.​​
Can RIA Help Participants With RolloversThis article asks, answers and analyzes the important question: “Can registered investment advisers help participants with individual retirement account (IRA) rollovers where the registered investment adviser (RIA) serves as a fiduciary to the plan?”
The answer is “yes” . . . if the RIA—or “adviser”—takes appropriate precautions.​
​​City National Rochdale Quarterly Update: Economic and Investment Management Perspectives​​Quarterly Update focuses on City National Rochdale’s latest economic and investment management perspectives. As the recent volatility indicates, many investors are nervous. They are concerned about geopolitical developments, monetary policy, uneven corporate earnings, an aging economic recovery and bull market, an unusual – to put it mildly – election year, and a nagging feeling that the U.S. economy just isn’t firing on all cylinders.​
​Economic Perspectives: Implications of Brexit More Modest than Expected​Economic Perspectives highlights City National Rochdale’s current views about changes in the economy. Despite fears that the Brexit vote would prompt a bout of extreme global risk aversion, the hit to global investor sentiment has been relatively minimal.​
​Focus on Behavioral Finance​Why do we make decisions that aren't always in our own best interest? This group of articles from IMCA's Investments & Wealth Monitor takes a fascinating look at behavioral finance and behavioral portfolio managment.
  • Behavioral Finance: Overcoming the Cost of Being Human
  • Investment Decisions: Stop Acting So Rational and Just Be Normal
  • Behavioral Portfolio Management
​Focus on Goals-Based Investing
Part I
​These articles from IMCA's Investments & Wealth Monitor take a look at why goals-based investing helps investors achieve better outcomes, how advisors can differentiate their practice and deliver an enhanced client experience through a goals-based approach, and how advisors can apply emotive conversations about goals to the practical process of building the best investment strategy for a client.
  • Does Goals-Based Investing Help Achieve Better Investor Outcomes
  • Managing Client Relationships in a Goals-Based Framework
  • A Behavioral Perspective on Goals-Based Investing"
Focus on Goals-Based Investing
Part I​I
​These articles from IMCA's Investments & Wealth Monitor take a look at why job, home, and social security are equally important to retirement planning as an investment portfolio, goals-based financial planning, and setting realistic goals for sustainable retirement outcomes.
  • All in One Basket: Why Job, Home, and Social Security are as Important to Retirement Planning as an Investment Portfolio
  • Impact Investing and Goals-Based Financial Planning
  • Realistic Goal-Setting: A Tailored Approach Toward Sustainable Retirement Outcomes

​Going Independent Guide

Learn fundamental steps to "go independent". Going independent can be a challenge. The Going Independent Guide features important information and key considerations that should be explored prior to becoming an independent advisor.​

​Including Retirement Plans in Your Business Model

​​As a financial professional, delivering new value-added offerings is an integral part of attracting and retaining clients. Today, a large portion of investable assets are going into retirement plans. Adding this model to your offerings will allow funds to be engaged now, and can increase your assets under management​.

Market Perspectives: One is a Lonely NumberMarket Perspectives, written by our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Garrett D’Alessandro, highlights City National Rochdale’s view of current issues affecting the financial markets. Among the four advanced economies and major central banks globally, the central bank of the United States (the Federal Reserve System) is likely to be the only one trying to raise rates in the coming quarters.
On the Radar: FAQs on the Markets and Economy​On the Radar is a biweekly publication providing quick and concise answers to the topical investment and economic questions up Post-Brexit? What is the significance of the flattening of the yield curve? How is Q2 earnings season shaping up and did it impact our view of S&P 500 EPS growth? How much of a concern is the slump in productivity growth? Read answers to these questions in City National Rochdale’s latest On the Radar.​
​​Retirement Planning:​
Focus on Investment Management
​These articles from IMCA's Investments & Wealth Monitor focus on investment management in retirement planning and include a look at how to lower client taxes with bracket management, an analysis of the closed-end market, and stock protection funds as the inverse of exchange funds.
  • Bracketology: Lowering client Taxes with Bracket Management
  • Closed-End Funds: An Analysis of the Closed-End Market
  • ​Stock Protection Funds: The Inverse of Exchange Funds
​​Retirement Planning:
Focus on Planning for Longevity
These articles from IMCA's Investments & Wealth Monitor focus on the challenges of longevity and how families can prepare, maximizing wealth over increasing life expectancies with social security, and long-term care and asset protection.
  • Challenges of Longevity: A Wake-UP Call for Families
  • Social Security Timing and Trade-Offs: Maximizing Total Wealth over Increasing Life Expectancies
  • Long-Term Care and Asset Protection
​Retire Right: The Critical
Importance of Tax-Efficient
Withdrawal Strategies to
Portfolio Longevity​
​Tax-efficient withdrawal strategies are critically important to a client's portfolio longevity in retirement Learn more about the latest research on withdrawal sequencing. 
RIA Systems and ​​​Operational Best Practices​Recent advances in technology have made fast and sustainable growth a more manageable possibility for registered investment advisers (RIAs). Once affordable only to advisory firms with very large operating budgets, robust and fully integrated systems for managing client relationships and investments are now accessible to even the smallest advisers. Facing a vast selection of available systems of highly variable quality, many new advisers find themselves overwhelmed by the industry’s breadth of choices. Based on thoughtful surveys, thorough research, and in-person visits to the offices of successful advisers, RIA in a Box offers the
following guide as an introduction to the implementation of modern systems to support best practices in RIA operations management.

​SEO for Financial Advisors

​​This guide is designed to help give financial advisors a roadmap to better SEO success, gaining you more local attention and, eventually customers. SEO is vital to generating traffic to your advisor website in order to convert prospects into clients online.

​​Social Security is Still Complicated: You Can Still Get More for Your Clients​With the changes to Social Security brought on by the Balanced Budget Act of 2015, Social Security is more complicated than ever and your clients need and expect advice from you. Learn more about the changes to Social Security and how these changes have impacted the claiming advice you give clients. 

​Succession Planning Challenges Facing Today's Independent Advisor

​​As a trusted advisor, you deliver comprehensive financial planning advice to your clients, but have you focused on your retirement goals or developed a plan to transition the ownership of your business? This piece focuses on some of the biggest challenges and opportunities advisors will face in the next 10 to 20 years.​

​​The 20-Point System TemplateAdopt a rainmaking mind-set to boost revenue​Download our free template outlining the 20-point system that can help you stay focused on revenue-generating activities. Learn practical strategies and techniques you can start implementing today to increase referrals, optimize strategic alliances, network more effectively, market to clients and prospects, and hold yourself accountable for your own success!
The Next Wave of Financial Planning: How to Compete in an Endlessly Changing Advice MarketplaceAdvisors of the future will serve a far more technologically literate  and diverse clientele, which will necessitate changes in their business models, technology platforms, and communication strategies. We survey the landscape, explore the implications and offer insights from some of the country’s leading innovators focused on the changing investor and advisor markets.​
​​William Meyer's Testimony: United States Senate Special Committee on Aging​​Social Security Solutions, Inc.'s CEO was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging about the extent to which Americans understand Social Security rules affecting their retirement benefits and the information the SSA provides application about claiming benefits. Mr Meyer's full testimony  is included in this paper. 
Workflows: The Key Ingredient to a Sustainable and Sellable Advisor BusinessTechnology is facilitating the transition of the financial advice industry from a sales-oriented model to a professional service business through customer relationship management systems and workflows. In this white paper, we explore the growing trend among advisors to automate essential workflow processes within their CRMs. We will also discuss how the most successful firms are transforming their practices into sustainable enterprises.​
​​Your Business Your WayFive choices for running your business your way​Download our free side-by-side comparison of the five affiliation models that deliver what your business needs at every stage of its evolution. You'll learn that however you serve your clients, Commonwealth delivers the infrastructure that has you covered.​

Your RIA or the Broker-Dealer's Corporate RIA?

One of the biggest changes that has been underway in the past five years, and seems likely to continue to accelerate, is the major increase in regulation on RIA(fee) business. Explore the benefits and drawbacks of operating under your own RIA.​