May 3, 2012
By Kristen French
The auction rate securities hangover has not gone away, yet. A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Morgan Keegan...
May 2, 2012
By Juliette Fairley
Floating Rate notes would be the first new U.S. government debt security since TIPs were introduced in 1997. But would they make sense for your clients?...
May 2, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Great minds think alike; sometimes, they even end up in bed together. Why should the world of RIAs be any different?...
May 2, 2012
By Diana Britton
After being quiet throughout the winter, the Occupy Wall Street movement once again hit the streets Tuesday in their own version of “May Day” in many cities around the world...
May 2, 2012
By John Aidan Byrne
UBS Wealth Management Americas (WMA) expanded its advisor force by 48 to 7,015 financial advisors in the last quarter as the brokerage unit of the Swiss banking giant posted both record pre-tax profit and invested assets. ...
May 2, 2012
By Kristen French
Advisors who manage client portfolios can now benchmark themselves against each other, as the firm rolls out a suite of new tools aimed at making investment returns a top priority for clients. That may make some clients happy and some advisors cringe. It may also make the firm a bit safer from legal fallout. ...
May 1, 2012
By Diana Britton
Non-traded REITs have been getting a lot of bad press lately, as valuations for some have dropped dramatically....
May 1, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Sponsors of 401(k) retirement plans who worry when employees borrow from the savings vehicle have a solution, but it comes with a price, a new report by Vanguard says....
May 1, 2012
By David Trainer
New Constructs’ David Trainer’s guide to the best and worst mutual funds and ETFs across several sectors. Trainers’ analysis takes an x-ray approach to funds, ranking them based on the quality of their individual holdings. ...
May 1, 2012
By Jonathan Moreland
Which stocks are getting attention from insiders?
Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, April 30, 2012 as ranked by dollar value....
Apr 30, 2012
By Diana Britton
LPL Financial saw mixed results in the first quarter, with lower earnings and net new advisory assets and record net revenue and advisory and brokerage assets. ...
Apr 30, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Ah, the good old days of the mid-1990s, when business people debated whether they needed a website. Lately there’s déjà vu in the air now that social media is playing a greater role in the affairs of financial advisors. Do I need to be on Facebook, or have a Twitter account? Do my clients really care?...
Apr 30, 2012
By Jonathan Moreland
Below are lists of the top 10 mainly open-market insider purchases and sales filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, April 27, 2012 as ranked by dollar value....
Apr 27, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
One of the topics at this morning’s Investment Adviser Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco was advisor use of social media. ...
Apr 26, 2012
By Diana Britton
Despite the focus on retaining Morgan Keegan advisors and integrating the b/d into its operations, Raymond James reported a solid recruiting quarter as well as record advisor productivity. ...
Apr 26, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Meir Statman, author of “What Investors Really Want,” led off today’s programs at the Investment Adviser Association’s annual conference in San Francisco. Statman supplements his discussion about the ways investors betray their best interests with plenty of visual aids, chiefly commercials and film clips from TV programs....
Apr 26, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Savant Capital Management and The Monitor Group say combining forces gives them a more holistic level of expertise and a retirement route for their advisors – more importantly, they aren’t giving up equity to aggregators....
Apr 26, 2012
By Stephen Boswell & Kevin Nichols
LinkedIn is great for connecting with other professionals and business-oriented clients, but Facebook is the real jackpot for connecting with clients (after all it has over 900 million active users!) ...
Apr 25, 2012
By Diana Britton
Full-service brokerage firms need to take a lesson from their fast-growing online peers when it comes to communicating with clients via technology, says MFEA panelists....
Apr 25, 2012
By Kristen French
The long-awaited and much-debated SRO (self-regulatory organization) bill has finally hit the floor. On Wednesday, Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R., Ala.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D., N.Y.) introduced the Investment Adviser Oversight Act of 2012, which would allow one or more SROs to oversee investment advisers....
Apr 25, 2012
Apr 25, 2012
By Jonathan Moreland
Which stocks are getting attention from insiders?...
Apr 25, 2012
By David Trainer
The Financials sector ranks last out of the ten sectors as detailed in my sector roadmap. It is the only sector to earn my Very Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 48 ETFs and 224 mutual funds in the Financials sector as of April 18, 2012....
Apr 25, 2012
By Kevin McKinley
Any advisor worth his or her proverbial salt is familiar with reverse mortgages, and how the unique arrangements can allow house-rich but cash-poor seniors to afford to remain in their primary residences. ...
Apr 24, 2012
By Diana Britton
While Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP) reported lower profits for the first quarter, the firm managed to bring advisor productivity back up near record levels and slightly increase its advisor headcount....
