September 2023 • www . fa-mag . com

KNOWLEDGE FOR THE SOPHISTICATED ADVISOR

Married … With Finances

How do you tell what a couple ’ s financial dynamic is ?

The Artificial Intelligence Gold Rush

There ’ s lots of investment opportunity here . Also a lot of hype .

The SEC ’ s Cybersecurity Mission

Regulators will likely want you to spend a lot more money for cyber protection .

T WOULD APPEAR THAT THE LAST LEGACIES OF PANDEMIC LIFE are fading in the rearview mirror as Americans return from summer vacations characterized as revenge travel . One might like to think we ’ d be in a better place today than we were in 2019 , but that remains to be seen .

It ’ s worth remembering that the so-called Spanish flu of 1919 was followed by the Roaring Twenties , high-living times that ended disastrously . But many of the parallels between that time and today don ’ t really hold . America ’ s population was much younger in 1923 , as were the people in the rest of the world . There was a debt crisis in Europe back then , but America was largely immunized from it . Today , America , and much of the world , has a debt problem but our economy has bounced back from Covid much faster than most .

There was also a global power vacuum in the 1920s following World War I , and both Russia and China were in the early stages of revolution and evolution . Now both nations are facing severe internal challenges , largely as a result of their own actions .

America today has more jobs available than workers . Our economy remains the envy of the world , but our problems shouldn ’ t be downplayed . A recent Bloomberg story observed that only 16 % of Californians can afford a house in their state . A succession of bailouts , from the airlines after 9 / 11 to half the nation during Covid , has caused a culture of avoiding responsibility . A recent survey found that 62 % of student loan recipients say they won ’ t repay these debts .

Even the value of a college education , once universally accepted , is now being questioned . For every 100 females attending college today , there are something like 75 males .

Advisors like David Bahnsen and Carolyn McClanahan and Ross Gerber , interviewed in Tracey Longo ’ s cover story on page 40 , are entering the national conversation in their communities and beyond .

Cancel culture be damned . Some advisors are aggressively using social media to take on hot-button issues , including politics and activist investing .

Students are no longer flocking to professions like medicine and nursing , both of which face chronic shortages in the decade ahead . Advances in bioscience , perhaps accelerated by artificial intelligence and machine learning , may make up for the scarcity of professionals , but that ’ s not a sure thing yet .

Many of these problems , ranging from those in housing to healthcare , are global in nature . Advisors can help clients work through them — up to a point , since they typically work only with a few hundred clients . It ’ s easier to help affluent individuals insulate themselves from the world ’ s troubles . But no one is an island .

That helps explain why advisors like David Bahnsen and Carolyn McClanahan and Ross Gerber , interviewed in Tracey Longo ’ s cover story on page 40 , are entering the national conversation in their communities and beyond . Unlike many advisors , they are using social media to address national issues many advisors consider taboo . For them , it ’ s too important to keep quiet .

Evan Simonoff

Email me at esimonoff @ fa-mag . com with your opinion .

6 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2023 WWW . FA-MAG . COM