Survivorship Life Back In Favor 

By Alan Lavine

Despite current laws that reduce the estate-tax bite, survivorship life insurance is making a comeback as an estate-planning tool among some advisors....

GOOD TIMES, BAD TIMES 

By John Churchill

If you work for one of the major wirehouses, you're in pain. If you're a commission-based rep, business is slow. And if you are a fee-based rep, your...

THE BEAR FACTS 

David A. Geracioti

Bear markets are shrinking. According to Leuthold Weeden Institutional Research, in a typical post-WWII bear market, the S&P 500 declined 30 percent over...

Mini Mess 

Christina Mucciolo

Fidelity Investments is paying big bucks ($3.75 million) in fines for, among other things, playing with little people. Thirteen Fido employees accepted...

COMINGS & GOINGS 

Halah Touryalai

Wilkes Thomas Martin III joined Morgan Keegan & Co., Inc. as a financial advisor and senior vice president in the firm's Greenville office. Prior to joining...

The Failure Chain 

BY JOHN CHURCHILL

Consider the Curious and Rather Grotesque Case of Gary J. Gross, a financial advisor from (where else?) Boca Raton, Fla. Gross' U4 is close to 100 pages...

Beating The Bear 

By Stan Luxenberg

Academics have long scorned actively managed mutual funds. Instead of spending money on managers who attempt to beat the market (however that is defined),...

How Low Can You Go? 

By Stan Luxenberg

With credit markets jittery and the economy on the lip of recession (or in recession, depending upon whom you ask), real estate funds have plummeted....

Focused And Then Some 

By Stan Luxenberg

Competing fiercely for the attention of investors, fund companies have brought out a wave of specialized offerings. Many of the choices which include...

SMAs On The Rise 

By Christina Mucciolo

Separately managed accounts are taking up a growing piece of the product-allocation pie, according to a recent study by Reuters AdvicePoint and research...

The CMA Promise 

By Guy Manuel Andre Cappon, Stephan Mignot, of The CBM Group, Inc.

Exactly 30 years ago, Merrill Lynch launched the first CMA (Cash Management Account). The revolutionary new product combined an investment account, a...

Stifel Who? 

BY JOHN CHURCHILL

Takeover bait. It's a description most regional brokerage firms have become accustomed to and for good reason. Several have been gobbled up over the years,...

Meet the Retirement Geek 

BY DAVID ADLER

Moshe Milevsky, professor of Finance at York University Canada, is a widely recognized innovator in the field of retirement-income planning, insurance...

High Sat Scores, High Hedge Fund Returns? 

Christina Mucciolo

Those darn SAT scores will always come back to haunt you especially if you're a hedge fund manager. At least according to the findings of a recent study...

Banking on Brokerage 

By Susan Konig

Over the years, bank-based brokerages haven't posed much of a threat to Wall Street firms' pursuit of high-net-worth individuals. Most bank brokerages...