Joseph A. Chornyak, CFP ^® attended the third-annual Barron's Winner's Circle Top Independent Advisors Summit, hosted by Barron's magazine to promote best practices in the industry and the value of advice to the investing public.  The invitation-only conference was held at The Ritz-Carlton, March 23-25 in Orlando, FL.

Sixty-eight of the Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors in the U.S., as ranked and published in Barron's August 30, 2010 issue, were in attendance.  This annual ranking is the basis for the Top Independent Advisor's Summit and the advisors are chosen based on the volume of assets overseen and the quality of the advisors' practices.  The top 100 Independent Advisors are comprised of Registered Independent Advisors and those from Independent Broker Dealers.

This exclusive conference is designed to promote best practices and generate new ideas across the industry.  Attendees conducted workshops led by the Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors that explored current issues from business development ideas, managing high-net-worth accounts, and families to portfolio management and retirement planning. 

"The importance of the work these independent advisors do and their influence will only increase as the nation's Baby Boomers plan for retirement and all Americans struggle to protect and grow their portfolios and their businesses through difficult economic times, said Ed Finn, Editor and President of Barron's.  "This Summit brings together the industry's leaders from across the country and provides a forum where they can address the key concerns of their clients and develop solutions to their financial planning needs."

The book, Your Money Ratios, Charles J. Farrell, JD, LLM, outlines eight financial ratios - capital to income, savings, debt, investment, disability insurance, life insurance, long-term care insurance, and health insurance. What particularly resonates about this book is how Farrell uses his own customized assumptions to help introduce financial planning while simultaneously simplifying complex calculations and presenting material to readers in an easy-to-understand format. 

For example, Farrell explains the fundamental relationship between income, debt, and savings rates using three ratios that he believes impact investors' perceptions of financial preparedness: savings-to-income, debt-to-income, and savings rate-to-income. The basic objective of these calculations is to help individuals understand how they should progress from the early stages of their career, when they are likely to have higher debt and low savings, to their retirement, when they should have high savings and low debt. Such a progression can also bring to light any savings shortfalls that exist, as well as any misconceptions investors may have about their financial security.

I found this article by a Lord Abbott market strategist, Milton Ezrati, encouraging.  

Joe 

True, the pace of job-market growth is much too gradual for many, but still there can be no mistake that business has at last started rehiring. Not only have payrolls increased but also other indicators foretell further full-time hiring. What is more, the unfolding jobs recovery, despite people's understandable impatience, seems pretty much on track with past cycles. Prospects for any continued improvement, then, should give Washington cover to cease its largely singular focus on jobs and deal with longer-term issues.

Recent signs are fairly consistently positive. Initial claims for unemployment insurance, for example, have dropped more than 15% from year-ago levels. The numbers of workers involved in large layoffs have dropped almost 8% during this time. The ADP payroll administrator reports that by its calculations, private payrolls have added some 600,000 positions so far this year-a vast improvement from the 353,000 created during the prior six months. The Labor Department's official payroll calculations have lagged this brightening picture, but even these figures have recorded an overall payroll expansion of near 478,000 to date. Meanwhile, the numbers of workers stuck in part-time jobs when they would prefer full-time employment have ebbed by more than 5% during the last 12 months. Pointing to future full-time hiring, overtime has risen almost 18%, and temporary employment has climbed by 2.2%.

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