Does it really matter?

There’s no question that American presidents can move markets with their remarks — and especially when the leader of the free world has a penchant for tweeting. In the early morning hours of October 2, President Donald Trump tweeted that he had tested positive for COVID-19, and the Dow Industrial Market Futures tumbled nearly 400 points.

There is also little doubt that America is at an unpredictable, divisive time in its political history — one exacerbated by the uncertainty of an ongoing pandemic. The national uneasiness is reflected by wild gyrations in the stock markets, and volatility rules.

Some financial advisors consider the big unknowns

While the pandemic-induced investor panic of March 2020 has largely subsided given a rebound in stock markets, some financial advisors maintain that clients’ anxieties are now focused on something else: political uncertainty. Others, however, point to sustained COVID-related economic fallout as the primary worry.

Artificial intelligence has been around for several decades, but its element of deep learning – using algorithms to model high-brow abstractions from a constant stream of connected data inputs – is already having an impact in the insurance and financial legacy industry.

There are plenty of sources nowadays for collecting massive amounts of personal data including smartphones, fitness trackers, smart watches, tech clothing, eyewear, medical devices and even footwear. For example, a wearable device that is connected to an actuarial database could calculate a consumer’s personal risk score based on daily activities as well as the

Do retail investors move markets? Did an influx of funds from retail investors drive the recent stock market rebound?

While the debate continues over how big a role private investment played in the recovery, San Francisco-based lender Stilt, Inc., has added its own analysis indicating a direct correlation between investments through the Robinhood app and the spring 2020 rebound of the S&P 500.

Broker dealers pivot quickly to protection-based solutions

Total annuity sales were $48.6 billion in the second quarter, down 24% from second quarter 2019, according to final results from the Secure Retirement Institute® (SRI®) U.S. Individual Annuity Sales Survey.

“The global pandemic presented unique challenges to annuity distribution in the second quarter. Aside from the economic impact, social distancing

Meet three advocates for special needs financial planning.  They work as financial advisors, but they live as special needs family advocates. They are the wealth advisors at Burlington, Massachusetts-based Affinia Financial Group – John Nadworny CFP®, CTFA, Cynthia (Cindy) Haddad, CFP®, and Alexandria Nadworny (CFP®, CTFA). Recently interviewed by Advisors Magazine, the multi-generational team expressed that providing a full life for an individual with special needs is paramount. A financial plan – the money part – only goes so far.

Entrepreneurs in industries around the world are being challenged to adapt to new realities, and financial advisors are no exception. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global economic meltdown that continues to disrupt recent patterns of financial markets and long-standing business operations.

According to a recent Goldman Sachs survey of 1,500+ small business owners, only 51 percent expected their companies would be able to continue operating for more than three months.

The financial industry has been going through a Renaissance since the technology revolution, just as the world has.

The problem is we are confusing gathering and processing information with wisdom.

Easy access to information provided by the internet has advanced our society; there is no doubt. The internet can quickly answer the "what to do" and "how to do it" questions. The dark side of this easy access is it encourages us to oversimplify- assuming we know everything and everyone by what we find on the internet.