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Come on, all the cool kids are doing it. With names like Joe Montana and Snoop Dogg jumping on the bandwagon, cannabis (marijuana) isn’t just something for those late night frat parties anymore. Welcome marijuana into the mainstream, where it’s easier than ever to invest in cannabis companies through an exchange, commingled fund or private venture interest. Before you get hooked though, advisors should know the five ways to sniff out the stench of a bad cannabis investment.

When people think of a financial advisor, what comes to mind are Roth IRA conversions, tax planning and investing your 401(k). Nobody thinks a financial advisor has the power to save somebody’s life.

After weeks of speculation, on Thursday, June 1st, 2017, President Donald J. Trump publicly announced the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. To many Financial Advisors with a passion or special focus on Impact Investing, ESG (Environmental Social Governance) Issues, or SRII (Socially Responsible Impact Investing), a withdrawal was something that had the potential to setback their progress, but is it possible that it had the opposite effect?

As promoters of the Impact Investing movement, we've noticed that story telling is at the core of the movement. When we speak to people about Impact Investing, the stories behind the projects and investments resonate far deeper on a human level, than the numbers do. So in that spirit, we'd like to share a story that our CEO Steve Distante posted on Linkedin this week. 

I am on a flight on my way back from the 2016 WinOPS User Groups Conference in Denver for a group of BD Operations and Compliance professionals where I was invited to speak on a panel with Industry Titans, John Simmers (former CEO of the ING Advisor Network with more than 8,500 registered representatives) and Jane Reilly (President of NSCP) about the current state of DOL and what we should be doing.