January 2023 White-Labeled Client Letter

First, we tie our shoes.

From this month’s white-labeled client letter:

Many investors have given up on diversification over the past decade. As the S&P 500, and more specifically, tech shares outperformed year after year, investors started eschewing international and asset class diversification to concentrate further in US large-cap stocks.

Investing seemed easy. For example, after suffering a nearly 34% drawdown early in the year, the S&P 500 ended 2020 with a 16.26% increase. Even bear markets seemed easy!

2022 was a different animal. Markets slipped up early in the year and never seemed to catch their feet. Here is how major markets ended 2022:

• S&P 500: -19.44%

• International Stocks: -16.15%

• Nasdaq Composite: -33.10%

• Barclays Aggregate Bond Index: -13.01%

John Wooden, who famously coached UCLA to nine national college basketball championships from 1964 to 1975, was known to take the first day of practice not to input complex offensive schemes or work on fastbreak layups but to teach his players how to tie their shoes. The proper tying of your shoe diminishes the risk of blisters and sprained ankles.  

Diversification is like that. It is primary, decreasing the risk of investment-related blisters, sprained ankles, and other more severe ailments. A ‘first things first’ approach to financial planning checks off investment diversification and other essential tasks, like creating an emergency fund or saving in your 401k.

Unfortunately, diversification is not fun.

Continued in this month’s white-labeled client letter.

The January 2023 letter is longer than usual. But I think there are numerous ways to edit it if you prefer. Remember, the client letters are yours to use, edit, copy however you like as long as they are only directly mailed or emailed to your clients (no blogs or social media posts).

I included same language on the SECURE Act 2.0 as well as the usual investment and ‘value of advice’ notes. With a little work, you could easily turn this into two separate notes for your clients.

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A note on the subscription:

Friends and subscribers have recently pointed out that the subscription cost for ‘The Value of Advice’ is, and I quote, ‘laughably low’ for offering a professionally written and white-labeled client letter plus other valuable content for planning-focused financial advisors.

Going forward, the new monthly rate will be $30/month or $330/annually (one-month free).

If you are a current subscriber and have any questions about the pricing change, please reach out by replying to this email.

I dearly value the patronage of every paid subscriber, and I am so excited to continue building on your behalf and creating valuable content for you and your practice. Thank-you!

Your Cause is Righteous.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Your white-labeled monthly client newsletter is linked below. Just click on the Dropbox link and download it from there. A whole bunch of disclosures is included at the bottom of this email, but I urge you to follow these simple guardrails:

1. You are welcome to change, alter, snip, and edit the document as you see fit. If you like one sentence, copy it and put it into your own newsletter. If you like the whole thing. Use the whole thing. It’s yours!

2. Put everything under your name. My name or the name of this newsletter is not to be sent to any of your clients.

3. Should you decide to use any or all verbiage from the newsletter in communication with your clients you are liable for its usage with your clients and responsible to verify its suitability and accuracy.

4. The newsletter is for emailing or mailing to your clients and prospects only. It is not to be posted on your blog as a blog post, nor should it be posted anywhere that can be googled.

Feel free to email me with any questions!