Casey Smith Quoted in Kiplinger Magazine
Casey Smith will be quoted in an upcoming Kiplinger Article. Casey and the author, Anne Smith talked for about an hour about how investors not using an advisor should approach the use of ETF’s. You can view the article HERE.
Wiser Wealth Maintains a BBB rating of A+
Wiser Wealth has been a member of the Metro Atlanta Better Business Beru (BBB) for several years. The BBB is an organization that tracks the “trust” of a company.
Kyle Waller Posted a New Article at Indexuniverse.com
Kyle Waller posed a new article for his Efficient Investor column at IndexUniverse.com. This article covers the changes a popular high yield bond index fund, HYG. Click HERE to view the article.
Casey Smith has Article Posted at ETF Market Pro
Casey Smith posted a new article for etfmarketpro.com today. This month he covered the two major choices in domestic large cap indexing; State Street’s Spyder (SPY) and Barclays iShares S&P 500 (IVV). Click HERE to view the article.
Kyle Waller Quoted in US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT
Kyle Waller our research analyst here at Wiser Wealth Management was recently quoted in an online article from US News and World Report. The reporter, Kirk Shinkle is focusing on some ETF’s that trade with some suprises. Kyle was able to assist in the article by showing Kirk some ETF’s that we know have tracking error. This article is a very good reason why individuals and professionals should know exactly what they are investing in. On a whole ETF’s are excellent investment vehicals, but as in any catagory, there are suprises. Click HERE to see the article.
5-29-09 Wiser Wealth has Lunch at the Swan Coach House
Today Wiser Wealth took its Widow clients to lunch at the Swan Coach House. These quarterly luncheons started when one of our clients was having a hard time adjusting to the loss of her husband. We decided to put together a lunch with her and another widow client who had slowly adjusted to the change. That lunch went so well that we now try to have quarterly luncheons with all our widow clients. This trip to the Swan Coach House was our second and seems to be a great hit. Our next lunch will be on Friday August 28th. If the client cannot drive, we will pick them up, otherwise, we meet and carpool from our office in downtown Marietta. This is just another example of how Wiser Wealth can add value beyond just money management.
Ladies Luncheon - Swan Coach House, May 2009
Wiser News Archive
5/11/2009 Casey Had his Article Posted at ETFMarketpro.com
Casey had his article about transitioning from Mutual Funds to Exchange Traded Funds posted at ETFMarketpro.com to view the article, click HERE.
5/5/2009 Kyle has International Bond ETF Article Posted at Index Universe
Kyle had an article in international ETFs post at Index Universe.com. Kyle’s monthly article for the index site focuses on International Bonds and why they should be in your portfolio. Click HERE to view the article.
4/29/2009 Casey Meets With Morningstar in Chicago
Casey a seven other advisors from around the country are meeting with Morningstar Thursday and Friday to discuss how they use Morningstar’s Office Edition Workstation. Wiser currently uses this web based software for portfolio billing, reporting, index research and for a new client web portal. The purpose of the group is to provide Morningstar feed back as how they can improve the software. Casey hopes that by making our biggest ”tool” better it will allow Wiser to grow more efficiently.
4/13/2009 Cam Wilbur Speaks to Georgia Power Retirees
Today Cam Wilbur of Wiser Wealth spoke to a group of retired Georgia Power employees about the behavior gap in personal investing. The behavior gap is the difference between the markets real rate of return and the negative deviation from this return by poor investment decisions made by many investors. The key to long term investing is starting early, invest using a proper allocation and never attempt to time the market. The term “Behavior Gap” was coined by the behaviorgap.com.
4/9/2009 Wiser Wealth to Provide ETF related Articles to ETFMarketPro.com
Wiser Wealth Management has entered into an agreement with ETFMarketPro.com to provide ETF related articles for their site. ETF Market Pro is targeted to individual investors seeking knowledge about ETFs and ETNs. Wiser Wealth is now providing ETF market commentary to Index Universe, Seeking Alpha, ETF Market Pro and the Wiser Blog.
4/6/2009 Kyle Waller Posts His Monthly Article for IndexUniverse
Kyle Waller has posted his monthly article for IndexUniverse.com. This month he researched why two emerging market index funds have tracked their assigned indexes so differently. The two indexes under the microscope or iShares and Vanguard. Click here to see the article.
3/25/2009 Cam Wilbur Visits UGA’s Terry College School of Business
Cam participated in an Executive Panel at The University of Georgia Terry College of Business on March 25th. The panel focused on business ethics and the “do’s and don’ts” of the business world and the recent economic events. Cam spoke specifically about Wiser’s mission of providing great service at a reasonable cost. He also touched on lessons learned from the recent financial crisis, and how the fallout will impact financial firms long into the future. Cam is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.
3/24/2009 Casey Interviewed by CNN Radio
Casey was interviewed by CNN Radio today. The topic was the credit crisis and how the banks reaction to personal debt is affecting individual credit scores. The largest lending institutions have lowered the lines of credit for many Americans, causing credit scores to be lowered and lines of credit to be unavailable when needed the most. Casey also added that American Express has left all of its line of credit members out in the cold by canceling the whole program. Casey made the point that right now cash is king. It is times such as these that many Americans need to use their three to six months of income saved in reserve. The only problem is most do not have such an account available.
3/27/2009 Casey Has Article Posted at Financial Advisor Match
Casey had his article on ETF’s Vs. ETN’s accepted and posted on the Financial Advisor Match.com website. You can view the article here. Financial Advisor Match is a free service to consumers looking for a financial advisor in there area.
3/17/2009 Casey Joins the Berry College Planned Giving Council
Casey Smith today met Will Enloe at Berry College to be accepted as a member of the Planned Giving Council. The Berry College Planned Giving Council, in partnership with Berry’s Advancement Office, is an appointed members’ network of alumni and friends whose goal is to enhance the identity of and membership in the Berry Heritage Society. The Heritage Society members’ are those alumni or friends of Berry who have decided to leave Berry College a gift through their trust, insurance and or will. Planned Giving Council members are drawn from a variety of professional and civic backgrounds including, but not limited to attorney’s, accountants, financial planners and trust officers. Casey joins 9 other members of the council.
3/13/09 Casey Speaks to Mt Paran High School Students
Today Casey participated in the Mt. Paran Christian High School’s career day. Casey talked about the difference between commission brokers and fee only independent financial advisor’s. He also covered why ETF’s are changing the world of investing. Casey stressed that a good academic career is important, but hard work is what separates the average from the best. He also stressed the importance of learning more about what the students are interested in as a career so that once they choose a path, they will be way ahead of their peers
3/9/09 Wiser Wealth Featured in the Marietta Daily Journal
The following article was in the Marietta Daily Journal today about Wiser Wealth and our recent talks about Exchange Traded Funds.
Published 3/9/2009
By Marcus E. Howard
mhoward@mdjonline.com
MARIETTA – Wiser Wealth Management is a small investment advisory firm that is making a big splash beyond Marietta Square, where it is located at 127 Church St., Suite 360.
The fee-only firm specializes in investment management, estate planning, business retirement plans and tax planning and preparation. It has just six employees, including a research analyst, CPA, lawyer and office manager.
However, Wiser is gaining attention for its expertise in Exchange Traded Funds , which are an investment tool.
In February, the firm’s president, Casey Smith, spoke in Singapore at a major conference about ETFs. ETFs are relatively new in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Australia, where many of the attendees came from. Smith has also spoken at major conferences this year in the U.S.
“A lot of the Marietta advisers I meet are still commissioned-based and they talk about wanting to go to ETFs. What happens is when we sit down at a table and network amongst each other, it always gravitates back toward us and what we’re doing,” Smith said.
Smith, a 31-year-old Cobb native, said Wiser is easily one of the top firms in the country when it comes to ETFs.
“I think we’re about four to five years ahead of all of the other firms, partially because of our size. If you’re a smaller firm it’s easy to change the engine and direction in which you’re going.”
In 1993, the first ETF was introduced. ETFs were originally designed to be a tool to invest in the stock market, without having to choose a particular stock.
Smith said his company became involved with them in 2004 because the taxes associated with trading stocks were degrading the returns of its clients.
An ETF is a basket of stocks or bonds similar to a mutual fund, except unlike a mutual fund, an ETF must track or replicate the performance and holdings of a market index, such as the S&P 500.
Since ETFs are a basket of set stocks or bonds, they trade on the stock market like a stock, and charge a fraction of the cost relative to mutual funds, said Wiser.
“Instead of trying to beat it, which most people can’t do,” Smith said, “we just go out and buy the entire S&P 500 as a small portion of a portfolio.”
Presently, there are several hundred ETFs available to investors through the stock market, covering nearly every asset class from emerging market bonds to small cap stocks.
Among the main differences between an ETF and mutual fund, Smith said, is that an ETF reports its holdings daily as opposed to quarterly; you can buy during market hours instead of after closing; there are no fund managers with ETFs; and they have better tax efficiency than mutual funds.
“There’s no fund manager, you’re buying the entire basket of securities, there’s very low turnover, tax efficiency, there’s more liquidity and it’s very transparent,” Smith said of ETFs.
ETFs have gained considerable interest from financial advisors and institutional investors, said Kyle Waller, a research analyst with Wiser who has written extensively about ETFs.
He said on most trading days, popular ETFs will be in the top 10 stocks traded on the stock market by volume.
Wiser’s typical client is about 67-years-old, just entering retirement and has asked the firm to manage his or her pensions and 401K rollovers.
On average, the cost for Wiser’s clients to be invested in ETF portfolios is 0.25 percent plus management fees.
But, Smith said he realizes that some people are a bit leery of investing their money in the current financial market.
The best advice for investors, he said, is to stay invested in the market at a comfortable risk-tolerance, which can be achieved through portfolio diversification and keeping investment costs low.
To learn more about Wiser Wealth Management, visit www.wiserinvestor.com.
3/7/2009 Casey had an article posted at ETF Market Pro
Casey had his article about the risk of investing in ETN’s published at ETFMarketPro.com. This site is a new up and coming authority on Exchange Traded Funds and indexing. The article was posted on the home page at www.etfmarketpro.com.
3/2/2009 Casey and Kyle Return from Singapore
Casey and Kyle participated in the Indexing and ETF Asia conference in Singapore on February 23rd and 24th. Day one was Casey & Kyle leading the ETF Masters class on the advanced applications of ETF’s. The tweleve delegates that participated indicated that it was well worth their time. The class ran from 10am to 4pm. On day two Casey talked to the 150 delegates about the importance of understanding how ETF’s work and not to take things at face value. He also discussed the structure differences between an ETF and ETN. The 11 day trip also included a stopover in Tokyo, Japan.
2/4-7/2009 Wiser Wealth Attends TD Ameritrade Conference
Casey, Kyle and Cam attended the 2009 TD Ameritrade Conference in Las Vegas. This annual conference allows Wiser to network with advisors from all over the country. This year there were over 800 attendees. The main speakers were Tom Bradley of TD Ameritrade, Carl Rove – Republican Strategist, Wesley Clark – Retired US General and T. Boone Pickens – Oil Billionaire. There were several break out sessions on marketing, portfolio management, compliance and business operations.
2/2/2009 Kyle Waller Posted His Monthly Article at Indexuniverse.com
In this month’s article for IndexUniverse Kyle takes a look a the currency risk when investing in foreign indexes.
We should also note that Kyle is becoming more and more followed for his investment research and commentary. There are many new financial products coming on line each month. At Wiser Wealth our investment objectives are to maintain diversified portfolio’s, keep investing cost low and always invest for the long term. Many of these new products try to reinvent the wheel. Part of Kyle’s job is to sort out the junk from the quality index tracking ETF’s. His recent “that a boy” from Index Universe only confirms that Kyle has great talent and is looking out for our investors.
Click HERE for the
1/23/2009 Casey Helps Prospective Berry Students Experience Berry College ”First Hand”
Casey Smith participated in Berry College’s “First Hand” campaign through the schools Campbell School of Business. Casey and Justin Neel from NorthWestern spoke to prospective berry students about their experience while at Berry and their accomplishments since graduation. Berry college’s First Hand campaign is designed to open the 28,000 acre campus in North Georgia to high school students and allow them to experience Berry “first hand.” You can learn more about Berry College at www.berry.edu.
1/24/2009 Casey Presents to the ASA Delta Connection Pilots
On Saturday January 24th, Casey will make the second retirement planning presentation to the pilots of Atlantic Southeast Airlines. The first workshop had standing room only and we expect a similar turnout for the final scheduled workshop. The main message of this workshop is to show the pilots how to select mutual funds to meet their risk tolerance and to reinforce the fact that this pilot group is responsible for their own retirement savings.
1/14/2009 Kyle Has Article Accepted at Investment Advisor Magazine
Investment Advisor Magazine is a written for financial industry professionals. Today we received notice that Kyle Waller, a Research Analyst here at Wiser Wealth has had his article accepted by the magazines editor. The full page article will appear on page 88 in the February 2009 issue of the magazine. In his article he addresses whether or not the S&P 500 is an appropriate benchmark for advisor’s and that maybe a better way to compare a diversified portfolio is to use iShares’ new asset allocation indexes.
Click Here to see the article.
1/12/2009 Casey Presents at the ETF Conference in Boca Raton
Casey Smith and Kyle Waller presented to the Inside ETF Conference today how Wiser Wealth uses Exchange Traded Funds in their clients portfolio. The conference took place in Boca Raton at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. Over 400 attendees were present for their presentation as well as several other speakers.
While this event does not add business directly to Wiser Wealth, it shows that this firm is being recognized for its achievements and allows it to stand out in the crowed investment advisory field.
