May 20, 2011
By Diana Britton
Younger advisors are going to play a more integral role in the industry going forward, as $18 trillion in assets is set to move from the Baby Boomer generation to Generations X and Y from 2017 to 2052, said Tom Bradley, president of TD Ameritrade Institutional...
May 19, 2011
By Brad Zigler
Ever since the first index-tracking fund was launched the early 1970s, investment pundits have been throwing brickbats at each as they debate the merits and the costs of active management...
May 19, 2011
By Diana Britton
NAPFA, a trade organization for fee-only advisors, hopes to become the recognized leader in support and business development to the financial planning profession by 2020, and the organization has launched a new branding campaign to reflect that. The new branding, titled “The Power of Trust,” was announced at the organization’s National Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, this week...
May 18, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
Despite Congress’ eleventh-hour move in December to head off sharply higher estate taxes, confusion remains over the future of the levies. The tax revisions lawmakers made at the end of last year set a maximum rate of 35 percent with a $5 million exemption for 2011 through 2012...
May 18, 2011
By Matt Oechsli
May 18, 2011
By Stan Luxenberg
Even though the market has been rallying for more than two years, clients remain wary. Many still are clinging to big cash stakes. To calm nerves and ease clients back into stocks, consider using equity funds that rank among the most conservative choices...
May 18, 2011
By Charles Paikert
Multi-family offices have a tantalizing window of opportunity to meet a surge of demand by wealthy families looking for a primary provider of investment, planning and administrative services, according to Jamie McLaughlin, a veteran industry executive turned consultant...
May 17, 2011
By Kristen French
Financial advisors should focus extra attention on their 50 best clients to achieve growth and build their “ideal” practice, said Nancy Petrucelli, a coach who has worked with wirehouse advisors for the past 20 years and has the numbers down to a science. ...
May 17, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
Larry Swedroe calls it the Holy Grail—the search for managers who can deliver returns that beat the appropriate risk-adjusted benchmarks. And it’s “a fool’s errand,” he adds; he spends much of his new book, The Quest for Alpha (John Wiley & Sons), reviewing the evidence for that view...
May 17, 2011
By Alan Lavine
How well-diversified are your big-ticket clients’ life insurance issuers? Standard & Poor’s threw Uncle Sam, the insurance industry and financial advisors for a real loop in April when it downgraded long-term U.S. government debt to AAA negative from AAA stable and revised its outlooks for five U.S. insurance groups to negative from stable...
May 17, 2011
By Diana Britton
Advisors are often recruited to broker/dealers based on promises that the firm later fails to deliver on, according to a recent Registered Rep. reader poll.
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May 16, 2011
By Brad Zigler
Exchange-traded products are cheaper than hedge funds, but are they efficient? ...
May 13, 2011
By Lauren Barack
Wealth management software firm Advent Software announced plans Thursday to acquire rival Black Diamond Performance Reporting for $73 million—a move that will cement Advent’s hold in the portfolio management software playing field...
May 13, 2011
May 13, 2011
By Bill Singer
Brokers who go unnamed in complaints may still face disclosure issues...
May 12, 2011
By Mindy Diamond
As retention agreements begin to wind down, some advisors are becoming more willing to consider options for switching firms...
May 12, 2011
By Matt Oechsli
The increasing importance that the advisor-assistant relationship plays in the loyalty of today's affluent client prompted the Oechsli Institute to conduct a study on advisors and assistants. Among numerous findings, we were able to uncover seven key attributes advisors want to see in their assistants...
May 11, 2011
By Diana Britton
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission are stepping up their scrutiny of the accounting and audit process of broker/dealers, reviewing financials more closely and requesting data on a more frequent basis, according to panelists at Wednesday’s New York State Society of CPAs Broker/Dealer Conference...
May 11, 2011
By Diana Britton
Regulators and industry participants continue to battle over what kinds of reforms should be made to money market funds. Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission held a roundtable on money market funds and systemic risk in which several panelists talked about the merits of various proposals aimed at preventing money market funds from breaking the buck in the future, as they did in late 2008...
May 11, 2011
By Charles Paikert
A whole lot of money should change hands in the next few years, as inheritances get passed down to the next generation, according to the Institute For Preparing Heirs. The industry buzz word for this: intergenerational wealth transfer...
May 10, 2011
By Stan Luxenberg
Advisors don’t appreciate how cautious clients have become, said speakers at the Investment Company Institute’s recent general membership meeting in Washington yesterday. Despite two years of rising markets, clients continue to hold big amounts of cash...
May 10, 2011
By Diana Britton
Portfolio manager at Motley Fool Asset Management, a division of The Motley Fool in Alexandria, Va...
May 10, 2011
By Susan Konig
Wells Fargo Advisors’ is looking for recruits in out of the way places. In April, Kent Christian, president of Wells Fargo Advisors’ financial services group, told a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference that the aging FA population is creating a shortage that will seriously impact the industry and investors, and which he believes “cannot” be solved by recruiting from rival firms...
May 9, 2011
By John Aidan Byrne
The economic threat from unsustainable U.S. national debt—over $14 trillion and counting—is the No.1 concern today for many of the nation's wealthiest families and individuals, according to a new report slated to be released later today by UBS Wealth Management Americas...
May 9, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson and Diana Britton
New SEC rules that require federally-registered advisors to disclose their disciplinary histories in brochures and provide them to clients will get under way in earnest by the end of the summer. The initiative, aimed at improving transparency for investors, is likely to result in some difficult conversations for advisors with material marks on their records...
