Discipline is key to any successful investment strategy, and thankfully there seems to be plenty of that going around these days.

Risk has been falling out of favor over the past 12 months, with investors pulling money from high-performing equities and reallocating into fixed-income products, like bonds and money market funds, according to recent Vanguard research. Rather than a sign of panic, investors are sticking to portfolio targets and rebalancing after years of strong stock returns. Much of the repositioning is being handled by financial planners, along with automatic rebalancing programs embedded in model portfolios and robo-advisors. Surprisingly, though, Vanguard is also seeing the same behavior among do-it-yourself investors.

“Some [more experienced traders] have a cynical view of the naive retail investor not doing a good job,” said Fran Kinniry, head of Vanguard’s Investment Advisory Research Center. “Investors are actually setting a portfolio and rebalancing to it. That’s not easy to do because you’re selling your winners and buying your losers.”

Making Moves

It’s no secret that the stock market has been on a tear. In six of the past seven years, equities have returned more than 17%, while companies like Nvidia and Rocket Lab have given new meaning to the term growth stock. However, that performance has left many portfolios overweight in equities and investors looking for other options:

• Roughly, a combined $90 billion has flowed out of domestic and foreign large-growth equities over the past year, according to Vanguard data.
• Meanwhile, nearly $600 billion has poured into money market taxable funds, with another $106 billion moving into ultrashort bond strategies.

“For most of history, investors would chase returns,” Kinniry told Advisor Upside. “The last five to seven years, we’ve actually been seeing investors have good behavior, meaning they’re selling what’s hot and buying what’s not.”

Where’s Your Fed At? With President Donald Trump nominating a new Federal Reserve chair, all the political hubbub can create uncertainty around the bond market and rates, which the central bank held steady last week. However, Kinniry advises planners and investors to not let it panic them and says that the positive fixed income trends of 2025 should continue this year. “The most important thing is to tune all that out,” he said. “The Fed only controls the very short end of the curve. The market will set interest rates for non-overnight yields.”

Popularity only looks easy to achieve. In reality, it requires hard work, as any politico, celebrity and now even LPL Financial can tell you.

The leading independent broker-dealer has secured signed agreements from a little more than 80% of advisors from Commonwealth Financial, which it acquired in August. While the number looks high, it’s still lower than LPL’s 90% retention goal, which CEO Rich Steinmeier reiterated during the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings call last week. The firm also reported retaining 97% of its overall assets over the past 12 months.

“I think there are still advisors who are making their decisions over the course of the next couple of months, and maybe even through the next couple of quarters,” Steinmeier said on the call. “When you look at [remaining Commonwealth advisors] on average, they are larger, they are faster-growing, and they are higher producers than those that have decided to go elsewhere.”

Growth Engine

During the fourth quarter, total advisory and brokerage assets rose 36% to $2.4 trillion, while net income climbed 11% year-over-year to $301 million. The growth outpaced analysts’ expectations, due in part to a booming stock market. The results were in line with those of several other wealth management giants that released fourth-quarter reports:

• Bank of America’s wealth management unit reported net income of $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter.
• Profit in Wells Fargo’s wealth management unit rose 29% to $656 million.
• JPMorgan’s wealth management business posted net income of $1.81 billion, up 19%.

Winter Break. December and January can often be a bit slower for wealth management firms looking to grow organically. LPL recruited around 50 advisors in the fourth quarter, with recruited assets for the quarter hitting $14 billion. CFO Matthew Audette said on the call that it will take some time to “ramp up” recruiting efforts again. “January is usually pretty low, and then as you move [into] February and March, it builds,” he said.

The Super Bowl is this weekend, which means one thing: TV ads. OK, football and TV ads.

The commercials are as much a part of American culture as the game itself, and they’ll once again be packed with appearances from professional athletes. For today’s sports stars, the playbook is all about getting that bag both on and off the field. But, that can be a tricky balancing act even for experienced athletes. For young pros and college athletes — the latter of whom can now receive income directly from their schools in addition to name, image and likeness deals — the sudden access to massive amounts of cash and visibility can create real risks. Advisors are now taking on the role of second coach to help keep them financially grounded.

“Your brand as a rookie, coming into professional sports and even college, should be being a great teammate and winning games,” said Joe McLean, managing partner of sports and entertainment at MAI Capital Management. “With the next NFL draft, we caution players to not do a lot of commercials too early for fear that your teammates will think you care more about that than actually performing.”

Listen Up

McLean played basketball for the University of Arizona in the 1990s. At the time, players were given student union cards for food and a small stipend of $2,500 for any extra purchases. “We’ve gone from not being able to afford a sports coat to now millions of dollars, potentially, in NIL money,” he told Advisor Upside. “The money now can either be a blessing or a burden,” he said.

Because student athletes are still so young, advisors often need to be more involved in their day-to-day lives than with a typical client. Victor Sobers, who works with athletes, young and old, as senior vice president at Merino Sobers Wealth Management Group, said he helps clients organize their time in structured blocks, with the largest portion devoted to school, practice and recovery. Another block is reserved for branding opportunities. The final block comes before major games or exams, when distractions must be minimized.

Some students are making millions of dollars, while also cramming for tests:

• Last season, Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning — nephew to Eli and Peyton — reportedly earned nearly $7 million in NIL money.
• It’s rumored that small forward AJ Dybantsa will earn a similar amount of money from NIL deals during this basketball season at BYU.

“The good thing is that these athletes are disciplined,” Sobers told Advisor Upside. “They just need someone to coach them in that area to make sure they don’t lose sight and don’t get that celebrity mentality or mogul vibe, where they feel they don’t have to go to class.”

Don’t Spend It All in One Place. Sobers also emphasizes incentives and accountability. If a student athlete meets bi-monthly savings goals from NIL income, it’s treated as a win, and they’re encouraged to enjoy some of the money. “We do micro luxuries with macro discipline,” he told Advisor Upside. “Some kids get it, some don’t. All you can do is give them the keys and put the right structures in place.”