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Where vs. In Which?
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- October 18, 2023
No CommentsA well-known financial professional seemed to be hedging her bets in a recent piece she sent to us for review. Right off the bat, three sentences rubbed me the wrong way (but apparently not her Marcom team): It’s a win-win situation where the firm can provide higher-quality services, and the clients achieve better financial outcomes.
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That or Which?
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- September 29, 2023
A well-known financial advisor recently asked us to update the manuscript for a book she published a few years ago. In the opening acknowledgements, three sentences using the word “which” didn’t seem right to me: “There are still a myriad of products which simply must be purchased through traditional selling methods.” “We can only sell
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Do You Struggle With ‘For Example’ When Writing or Presenting?
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- June 12, 2023
Smart people often have difficulty explaining things simply. They may have a deep understanding of the subject matter and find it difficult to distill that knowledge into layman’s terms. They may be so familiar with the problem that they assume others understand it as well, and fail to realize that they need to explain it
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What March Madness Teaches Us About Investing Bias
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- March 16, 2023
Hard to believe, but the annual NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament is upon us. The national championship of college basketball (aka “March Madness”) is the ultimate three-week long reality show. Where else can little known universities (aka small cap growth stocks) such as St. Peters, Loyola of Chicago, Murray State, Weber State and Florida
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What If We Forgot to Have the Recession?
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- January 12, 2023
Ain’t nobody got time for that! Experts have been warning us about a recession for over a year, but maybe we’re too busy to notice. As Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins of viral YouTube fame would say: “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” The unemployment rate of about 3.7% was at or near a 50-year low.
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2023 Could Suck. Don’t Let It
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- December 29, 2022
Not to dampen the Holiday spirit, but 2023 is not shaping up to be a banner year. We’re heading into a recession. Inflation and wages are still too high. The Fed will continue raising rates near-term. That means continued headwinds for the stock market, the housing market and for borrowers. Meanwhile, we have a divided
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The Power of Sports
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- October 6, 2022
Let’s face it; these are not the best of times. The economy and financial markets are in turmoil. Natural disasters are coming at us more frequently and more ferociously than before. The country is more divided then ever. Covid refuses to give up. The Russia Ukraine crisis grinds on and we may be on the
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Overcoming ‘Smartest Kid in the Class Syndrome’ When Writing or Speaking
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- September 12, 2022
One of the best things about my work is that I get to work with some of the smartest, hardest working and most insightful thought leaders in the financial advisory world. One of the worst things about my work is that I work with some of the smartest, most insightful leaders in the financial advisory
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Gen Z Poised to Reverse the Financial Literacy Slide
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- August 16, 2022
By Blaise Mazurkiewicz, guest columnist According to our firm’s annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey three out of five (63%) respondents believed that financial literacy and awareness has not improved over the past two years. Even more troubling, the data found financial advisors were more pessimistic about the younger generation’s financial future than any other generation.
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Writing in a Rut? Slow Down to Go Faster
- by: Hank Berkowitz
- August 3, 2022
Last month’s post about faster, clearer writing, generated a fair amount of feedback. Several readers asked how to get started when you’re staring at a blank screen or simply dreading the process of “putting pen to paper”? We get this question often during the Dog Days of summer because everyone’s on vacation, thinking about vacation