Linda Nazareth-Economics & Trends Expert

Linda Nazareth - Economics and Trends Expert - www.kmprod.com/speakers/speaker-linda-nazareth

LINDA NAZARETH

Should Financial Advisors Feel Threatened by Robots?

The world we live in is morphing into a new one as we speak—that’s a scary prospect for many, but after a presentation by economist and trends expert Linda Nazareth, you will feel like you have a handle on the future. The Senior Fellow for Economics and Population Change at policy think-tank The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Linda is an expert in demographic and economic trends. Her talks focus on what will happen—and what you need to think about to be on the right side of change. Below, Linda writes on whether or not we need to be worried about the robots:

What do you think of we someone mentions jobs being replaced by technology? Maybe you flash on the automated checkout counters at your local grocery store, or you picture an assembly line powered by robots. What you probably do not figure on is one of those robots choosing stocks for you – but maybe you should. ‘Robo Advisors’ are now a thing, and more and more they will have a say in your portfolio.

Okay, it is not likely to be quite that cut-and-dried – financial advisors will not be asked to pick up their briefcases and march out of the office so that a fleet of robots can take their seats. And to be really accurate, Robo Advisors are not really robots who pick stocks. Instead, they refer to automated services that ask users a series of questions (‘what is your investment horizon?’, ‘what is your risk tolerance?’), then use an algorithm to come up with a plan that users can tweak as they would like. That done, they provide automated portfolio management services. Fees for use tend to be lower than going through an actual human advisor, which is of course a draw to many.

The best known name in the Robo Advisor game is probably Betterment, a digital investment startup out of New York that in March raised $100 million in venture financing, taking its total valuation to $700 million and making it more than a niche player. Even more significant is that the established names in finance – T. Rowe Price, Charles Schwab, Vanguard – have been making significant moves to broaden their use of computer-managed investment portfolios.

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Molly Fletcher – Business Leadership & Negotiating Expert

Molly Fletcher - Speaker - Business Expert - http://www.kmprod.com/speakers/speaker-molly-fletcherMOLLY FLETCHER
Speaker & Former Sports Agent

 

MOLLY FLETCHER helps inspire and equip game changers to dream, live and grow fearlessly. A keynote speaker and author, Molly draws on her decades of experiences working with elite athletes and coaches as a sports agent, and applies them to the business world.

Here, Molly talks about 3  Leadership Lessons from Parenting:

Time passes so quickly that I can barely believe my three daughters are almost teenagers. Seems like they were just in diapers, I was telling my friend Hal Runkel, president of The ScreamFree Institute and a national expert on helping families create great relationships. I love to pick his brain to be the best mom I can be as my children grow more independent.

Hal’s wisdom helps people become better leaders, not just better parents. Hal repeated three simple words to me: love, learn and launch. That’s your role as a parent, he explained.  It stuck and serves a great reminder for building great relationships on corporate teams, not just families.

Lesson 1: Love.
A great leader (and parent) is excited about each team member, their skills and personality, and how they will fit into your mission and team chemistry. This connection remains no matter what the person does. Yes, you may have to have hard conversations along the way—the deep respect that grows from a leader’s care makes those difficult moments easier to navigate.

Here’s a specific example of love and leadership: recruiting and hiring. This is your first step to bringing a new person into your team, and he or she can sense your passion and authenticity (or insincerity). There is no substitute for this gut emotion.

In recruiting and hiring, we only have one chance to make a first impression, which can make or break success. As the keynote speaker at a recent national conference on talent acquisition and the candidate experience, I learned that nearly half of all candidates (47.7 percent) had no previous relationship with a company before applying, meaning that the candidate experience is the first exposure they have to a company’s brand and highlighting the need to for employers to get it right.

Company values are crucial to shaping an employer brand; 41.4 percent of candidates stated that the most important marketing material influencing their decision to apply was the company’s values.

If you are unsure of this person’s qualifications or fit, that can be hard to hide. Great leaders find some level of emotional connection to those who work for them. This can be through a shared passion for the work, for the team, for goals. In this context, “love” is a deep connection that is essential for long-term success.

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Pattie Lovett-Reid gets three Ds (Blog)

PATTIE LOVETT-REID
Why ex-banker Pattie Lovett-Reid gets three Ds


Former bank executive Pattie Lovett-Reid is the host of The Pattie Lovett-Reid Show on CTV News Channel. On the Toronto Star’s series on the financial habits of notable Canadians, Pattie  told the Toronto Star’s Emily Mathieu about the stress of being “house poor,” her inability to justify her love of luxury purses, and her three firm rules for getting out of debt.

What was the best piece of financial advice you ever received?
My father told me not to flunk retirement. I needed to put some money away from the day I started to work because there would come a time when I would no longer be able to work. He also said don’t let life become a series of take-aways. Stay in the game, don’t become complacent, continue to upgrade your skills and believe in yourself — even if no one else does. Don’t become unbelievably average.

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