InvestmentSense

IMCA recently announced its new conference and education strategy. Nearly every financial media, product, or service provider has attempted to grow revenues through organizing conferences. So why would IMCA give out its secret sauce?

It’s a good question. One of the keys to a successful strategic position is that it is difficult to replicate. Not only am I happy to share the strategy with our competitors, but I’m happy to share how IMCA defines and develops strategy. Many of IMCA’s stakeholders are instrumental in designing or refining organizational strategy for their teams, practices, small or large businesses, so maybe this blog post will prove informative and helpful.

What is Strategy Several years ago, IMCA engaged the talents of Berkeley strategy professor Paul Tiffany, who, in his epic tome, Business Plans for Dummies, defines strategy using the ancient Greek term, “strategos,” which combines the Greek term for army (stratos) and leading (agein). Literally, “the art of...

By David Koulish, CPWA^®, CFP^® Chair, Editorial Advisory Board

For 2016, is focusing on market segments rather than topical proficiencies. Our goal is to challenge our readers with timely, thought-provoking articles, and we hope you enjoy this change—please let us know what you think.

We begin 2016 with the spotlight on the ultra-high-net-worth client, and we are excited to have Cam Marston lead the issue with his article, “The Ultra-High-Net-Worth Investor by the Generations.” Don’t let our...

By Ryan Hoffman IMCA Communications IMCA’s 2016 Investment Consultants Conference in New York, February 1‒2, offered attendees plenty of actionable insight into markets, politics, the geopolitical climate—and much more. Here are five must-read articles written about the conference you won’t want to miss. 1. Killing the DOL rule. There’s one surefire way the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule doesn’t see the light of day, said Washington pundit Andy Friedman. An inevitable “slew of court...

The other day my mother, the rainmaker on our team and a 30-year industry veteran, asked me to show her how to “pitch” impact investing. For a few days I couldn’t quite figure out why I was so annoyed by her simple request, and then it dawned on me: When I think about investing with impact, it’s akin to how I feel about the plastic grocery bag debate.

We all know plastic grocery bags are bad on so many levels. Even though something is proven to be bad for our society, however, doesn’t mean...

As we celebrate our 30-year anniversary and close the books on another successful year, it’s important to reflect on where IMCA came from and the path that led us where we are today. IMCA’s founders built your organization in 1985 on three key pillars that are as important today as they have ever been: membership and community, educational rigor, and ethics and standards.

Most associations and small businesses don’t survive their first few years, so the fact that we’re celebrating our 30-year...

We often hear that behavioral finance is nothing more than a collection of stories about investors swayed by cognitive errors and misleading emotions; that it lacks the unified structure of standard finance. Yet today's standard finance no longer is unified, because wide cracks have opened between its theory and the evidence. In a book I am writing, , to be published by Oxford University Press, I present behavioral finance as a unified structure that incorporates parts of standard finance,...