Page 10 - Investment Advisor - October 2021

EDITOR’S NOTE

By Janet Levaux

Meetings, Changes Abound

here’s been a lot of activity in the conference arena Governor Jeb Bush, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and
for advisors and financial services firms lately. While New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams.
TCarson Group is planning to host Excell 2021 in Las While hot topics like Bitcoin dominate many financial head-
Vegas in mid-October, Schwab recently said its annual Impact lines today, it’s the bread-and-butter issues such as taxes and
conference — set for Oct. 19-20 — will be held virtually due to retirement planning that remain central to advisors and clients
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. alike. In this month’s cover story, we zoom in on a number
The Morningstar Investment Conference took place both of these key financial planning topics, some of which will be
online and at Chicago’s McCormick Place from Sept. 22-24, and affected by legislation now making its way through Congress.
Orion Advisor Solutions staged its House Ways and Means
Ascent conference in Scottsdale, While hot topics like Bitcoin Committee Chairman Richard
Arizona, and virtually in August. Neal, for instance, is pushing to
Ascent drew a crowd of about dominate many financial make several changes to individ-
800 in-person attendees and headlines today, it’s the ual retirement accounts as part
roughly 200 online, including our of a much larger tax package.
Industry Insights contributor Tim bread-and-butter issues According to IRA and tax special-
Welsh, head of Nexus Strategy. such as taxes and retirement ist Ed Slott of Ed Slott & Co., Neal’s
Some of the key speakers were bill eliminates Roth conversions
Orion CEO Eric Clarke, as well planning that remain central for both IRAs and employer-spon-
as the firm’s new chief behavior sored plans for single taxpayers
officer — Daniel Crosby. Other to advisors and clients alike. (or taxpayers married filing sepa-
industry experts like Ric Edelman, rately) with taxable income over
Brian Hamburger and Joel Bruckenstein also shared their $400,000, married taxpayers filing jointly with taxable income
thoughts on the latest developments affecting advisors. And over $450,000, and heads of households with taxable income
Jose Andres, founder of the World Central Kitchen, provided over $425,000.
insights into how he built his inspiring non-profit, which pro- “This is similar to the old $100,000 income limitation for
vides meals to those in need following natural disasters. Roth conversions that existed before 2010, except now the
Edelman told the Ascent attendees: “Seventeen percent of income limits are increased to the $400,000/$450,000 lev-
American adults now own bitcoin, and most importantly, 63% els,” Slott explained in an email to Washington Bureau Chief
of American adults are ‘crypto curious.’” The founder of the Melanie Waddell. “Oddly though, this proposal would not be
Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals suggested effective for 10 years. The effective date says this would apply
that advisors make a 1% allocation to digital assets to improve in years after Dec. 31, 2031.”
portfolio performance for their clients. Stay tuned for more details on these and other proposed
The recent SALT conference in New York, which I attended tax changes, and please enjoy a safe and healthy start to the
in mid-September, drew several thousand people — both online fall season.
and in person. The popular event is led by Anthony Scaramucci,
founder of SkyBridge Capital, and focuses on alternative invest-
ments (including cryptocurrencies), as well as other financial
trends and geopolitics. Speakers this year included investing
VIPs like Ray Dalio and Steven Cohen, as well as former Florida GROUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

8 INVESTMENT ADVISOR OCTOBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com