Welcome to “The Summit,” the official First Ascent blog.
If you’re looking for ways to build your practice, investment insights, or advice on how to communicate more effectively with clients and potential clients, then you’ve come to the right place.
Did you ever feel really alone? I mean like you see the world one way and EVERYONE else sees it a different way. It looks to me like everyone in the wealth management industry has fallen head over heels in love with bigness. It seems like a new list celebrating the biggest firms is published … Read More
The financial advisory business has a lot of rules about how we are supposed to treat clients. We have the basic fiduciary standard under the Investment Advisers Act. We have the DOL’s fiduciary standard. We have Reg BI. We have know-your-customer rules. The list goes on. Recently, the SEC has proposed a rule to govern … Read More
Risk and return. They are fellow travelers, but they couldn’t be more different. Return is easy to measure. It’s a number. It happened. We can all agree on it. Measuring risk is hard. It’s a concept. It has no precise definition. It looks different to different people on different days in different situations. Our brains … Read More
Lately, I’ve read quite a few articles about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to boost the performance of investment portfolios. The pony ridden by AI is off to a bad start in that race. A June 2nd article in Yahoo Finance points out that the AI Powered Equity ETF (AIEQ) has a 1-year return … Read More
When markets decline, client anxiety increases. The correlation between the two never varies. Last year was a good example. Stocks down. Bonds down. Client anxiety was very high. The cause of this anxiety is mainly attributable to one thing. We hate uncertainty. Our brains crave certainty. In fact, our brains are essentially prediction machines that … Read More
I turn 72 tomorrow. Many of my contemporaries have already retired and many more are plotting their “exit strategies.” Not me. I love this stuff. Sometimes I wonder if there’s something wrong with me. Shouldn’t I be yearning for the easy life where I can do whatever I want whenever I want? No way. My … Read More
There’s no such thing as Easy Street. A small group of us launched First Ascent a little over seven years ago with the goal of creating the best TAMP for RIAs who want a team of experts to manage portfolios for their clients. We had no track record, clients, or outside financial backing. Who’s crazy … Read More
Successful long-term investors have one thing in common. Patience. Good things take time. Close relationships. Building trust. Growing a family. Learning a craft. The Green River you see in the photo took 300 million years to carve its way through the Canyonlands outside Moab, Utah. It’s breathtaking. Well worth the wait. Between 1982 and 2022 … Read More
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