Gaining Perspective

Last month, Gabelli Funds launched the Love Our Planet & People ETF – symbol LOPP – to reflect its mandate to invest in companies committed to sustainable practices such as renewable energy and the reduction or recycling of long-lived wastes. LOPP will focus on areas where the team already has extensive experience researching and investing in companies involved in forward-looking sectors including renewable power generation (wind, solar, water), electric transmission and storage, electric mobility, waste reduction and recycling, water conservation and treatment, and human nutrition throughout the world.

Kat Van Slyke, the protagonist in my guest’s new novel, is a woman living a seemingly wonderful life. She runs a thriving apparel business that she built herself. She has a son who is a budding baseball star, and a role model in her father, who was once a star major league player. She lives in a fancy condominium, travels by private jet and has an expensive vacation home. But through a series of events, most of which were of her own making, her life quickly unravels. In that downward spiral, she learns many important lessons about business, family and life.

PPB Capital Partners is a platform to access alternative funds with investment minimums as low as $100,000 and no sales charges or platform fees. It was launched in July of 2008, meaning that it successfully navigated the 2008 financial crisis. PPB has successfully invested in over 250 funds and it is actively working with over 100 private wealth firms around the U.S., with nearly $2 billion in capital commitments. PPB delivers a process to operationally streamline the often complicated and onerous process of investing in the private markets.

RIA technology products are not known for their efficiency, low cost or delightful user experience. Altruist is a new, seamlessly integrated digital investing platform, which results in extraordinary ROI for financial advisors and enables them to spend far more time with clients.

It doesn’t take Black History Month to remind our listeners of the lack of diversity in the advisory profession. Of the countless conferences I’ve attended – when it was possible to attend such conferences – the overwhelming majority of attendees were like me: white, male and middle aged. We’ve seen a number of efforts to address this lack of diversity, particularly in the last year in light of the tragic events that have particularly affected people of color. Here to talk with me today is someone at the forefront of those efforts within the advisory profession.

Over the last two weeks, we have seen how a cadre of retail traders on Reddit can lay siege on a group of hedge funds that had shorted the stock of the retail company GameStop. We saw the price of GameStop rise from about $20 at the beginning of the year to a peak of $347.5 on January 27.  Yesterday, on February 4, it closed at $53.50. This is a brick-and-mortar company that sells video games and lost about $20 million last year.  Today we will explore deeper issues surrounding the GameStop saga.

The Financial Planning Association, FPA, is the principal membership organization for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™​ professionals and those who support the financial planning process. I am joined today by the two leaders of the FPA and a veteran observer of the financial planning profession. I am looking forward to a spirited discussion about the role that the FPA will play among financial planners, the challenges it faces and how my guests plan to overcome those challenges.

Following the rioting at the Capitol building on January 6, Twitter permanently deleted President Trump’s Twitter account. Twitter accused Trump of repeated and severe violations of its Civic Integrity policy. While applauded by many, that move was controversial on the basis that it inhibited free speech. My guest today, Barry Ritholtz, defended Twitter’s action on the basis that Twitter is analogous to the host of a dinner party, and as the host it can throw out guests it does not like. Barry and I had an email exchange about that analogy, and we agreed to continue our discussion in this podcast.

Americans used to fund their retirement through corporate pension plans. But over the last 50 years, the burden of saving has fallen on the employees, and providing a framework for retirement savings has become the responsibility of American businesses. One of the first questions asked by a prospective employee is what type of 401(k) or other plans a company offers. Providing a well-designed plan at a reasonable expense is especially challenging for small companies. My guest today, Chad Parks, provides solutions to that problem.

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a new industry report, the Visible Experts Study, from the Hinge Research Institute reveals. It shows what it took for 220 thought leaders to gain recognition for their expertise, how thought leaders and their firms benefit from the recognition, and how techniques to build visibility has changed over the years.