News
As America’s financial crisis attempts to resolve itself, one can only wonder what comes next. So many unnerving events have happened during such a short time span. But don’t let any of this keep you ...
The current financial crisis began when the American Dream of home ownership was planted in the hearts of millions, even those that didn’t have the fiscal discipline or financial wherewithal to be hom...
Despite a swooning stock market, First Trust has unveiled a new ETF focused on global infrastructure (FLM). PowerShares followed suit and launched the PowerShares Emerging Markets Infrastructure Portf...
As America’s financial crisis attempts to resolve itself, one can only wonder what comes next. So many unnerving events have happened during such a short time span. But don’t let any of this keep you ...
Emerging market stocks were supposed be the future of capital growth. They were a source of spectacular gains. In fact, they were so invincible it was believed by some they were disconnected from the ...
The good news is that you are likely the most blessed group of people on Wall Street. For top-quintile advisors seeking new firms, packages can exceed 200 percent. Even as Wall Street slashes staff, s...
The bad news for advisers considering a move (and the good news for shareholders) is that the recruiting “bubble” we’ve experienced for the last two years has finally burst. The “front end,” or non-co...
We were particularly gratified earlier this year when Raymond James was not only ranked highest in full-service investor satisfaction but also ranked highest in employee advisor satisfaction in a tie ...
This industry continues to fare pretty well relative to many others, losing just under 3,000 jobs for the month; albeit against downwardly revised numbers for October and September. Job losses for the...
Anyone who’s been in the business for 15 years — the minimum requirement for our Advisor Hall of Fame nominees — is a survivor. The ups and downs of market cycles test and refine us, and rookie adviso...
Even us crude oil sky rocketed, energy ETFs weren’t able to stage significant advances. Earlier this year, oil companies struggled to pass on the rapidly rising cost of crude oil to consumers. This so...
"In a challenging year such as this one, taxes matter more than ever and iShares ETFs continue to prove their tax efficiency," said Lee Kranefuss, global CEO of BGI's Intermediary and Exchange Traded ...
Think about it: Pandit’s Citi gang was able to accomplish what the gang at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers couldn’t do. Good thing too. Citigroup was on the verge of becoming Citi Bear Brothers Group...
The NETS FTSE CNBC Global 300 ETF will compete with other funds in its same category like the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) and the iShares MSCI AWCI Index Fund (ACWI). Each of the latter ETFs c...
Furthermore, the past three months have been a traders market. As a matter of fact, the regularity of 3-plus percent swings up or down has created a traders paradise. More than one out of three securi...
It wasn’t too long ago that analysts predicted oil prices to skyrocket to $200/barrel. Even though crude oil did sell for as much as $147/barrel it fell well short of the $200 mark. Now, with crude oi...
Over 15 years ago, in 1993, the S&P Depositary Receipts (SPY) went up against a who’s who of fund heavyweights; Fidelity Magellan, Legg Mason Partners Fundamental Value, MFS Growth Stock, Oppenheimer ...
Until recently, dividends were out of style. During times of economic expansion, investors are willing to forgo a dividend payout in return for capital gains. On the flip side, when investors are fear...
What has that meant for bear funds? Some ProShares and Direxion equity funds focusing on China, real estate, precious metals and emerging markets, for instance, are up by a range of 45 percent to 127 ...
Research magazine has asked Vanguard and other major mutual-fund groups to explain how investors are responding to the current market climate. “Vanguard shareholders have been showing remarkable resil...
(Phoenix) Paul McCulley, one of the keynote speakers at Commonwealth Financial Network’s recent education conference, is a managing director of Pimco. He speaks frequently to industry groups about his...
Merrill Lynch is poised to merge with Bank of America in a $50 billion stock transaction and has rolled out a retaining-bonus plan in the hopes of keeping as many of its 16,850 financial advisors with...
Morgan Stanley says it has begun “leveraging” its 8,500 financial advisors, 500 retail offices nationwide and new bank-holding structure, to build new bank deposits. The company also says Morgan Stanl...
In the third quarter, Wachovia reports that the number of Series 7 brokers has stayed flat at 14,635. The number of bank, or Series 6, brokers, stands at 4,447, up 3 percent from the second quarter. T...
“This will probably be the most successful recruiting year ever in terms of the momentum and pace we’ve seen in the candidates meeting with us in all channels,” says Raymond James Financial President ...
(Phoenix) Commonwealth Financial Network advisors seem to be taking a measured approach to the present financial crisis. And that means they were quite keen to listen, take notes and share ideas ......
The Institutional Retirement Income Research Council (IRIRC) has launched a series of planned white papers with its first release, “A Call to Action.” The IRIRC, which is comprised of a dozen plan con...
Morningstar Investment Services Inc., a registered investment advisor and subsidiary of Morningstar Inc., has introduced Morningstar Managed Portfolios Retirement Income Series. This managed-account s...
The funds have been enormously popular since their introduction. There are now over 250 target-date/lifecycle funds available, and according to the Investment Company Institute, the funds had attracte...
Eckerline: There wasn't one retirement issue that hit me unexpectedly, but one that hit some of my clients was the decline in value of the safe part of their portfolio -- mainly fixed income that has ...
U.S. Food: After six years, commodity cost inflation looks set to ease: Food companies look poised to see significant relief as year-on-year dairy inflation has already fallen below zero in recent mon...
Colleagues joke that Chris Sargent has operated largely under the radar because he is gentle and modest. Yet the 68-year-old Sargent has been a million-dollar-producer for over 25 years and manages cl...
Back in 1992, over coffee at McDonalds, Edward Jones advisor Jim Goodknight sketched out a contract on the back of a paper napkin that would have him share a portion of his clients with an up-and-come...
“It was a whole different world. Most people back then didn’t even understand how to buy Treasuries,” says Starner, whose bio by then included long-range strategic planning for entities such as the St...
The story is signature Zeke Strid, a man who has been an indefatigable advocate for Philadelphia’s homeless for 40 years. For the 65-year-old Strid, it’s not just about writing checks but delivering c...
With more than $1 billion in assets under management, the 52-year-old Walker has created one of the industry’s most successful financial teams with a core clientele that reads like a Who’s Who of New ...
Sollmann: About two and-a-half years ago, our Chairman and CEO Rob Henrikson, to whom I report, asked me to lead MetLife’s efforts to capture the global retirement opportunity. With that mission in mi...
In February 2009, the Managing Retirement Income (MRI) conference — sponsored by the Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA) — will focus on the design and development of retirement income produ...
Voices/Columnists
Sadly, when the financial firestorm hit, from the president to the administration to Congress down to many financial advisors in the trenches, there was no plan. There was thrashing around, bills pass...
As the end of the year approaches, pretty much every advisor out there is starting to worry about those dreaded annual client reviews. During a financial year that is being referred to as the worst si...
Normally, when people make investment choices preparing for retirement, they tend to look at their monthly bank and financial statements and the value of their home. However, what most don’t do is ass...
The Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 implements numerous changes to the federal tax code that benefit military personnel and their families. But the new law has received little at...
Research sponsored by CEG Worldwide consistently shows that the single biggest driver of financial advisor success is client loyalty. Consider a 2005 study of 1,417 affluent individuals that used in-d...
Ken Dychtwald and I were originally supposed to get together in late September in Atlanta, at Charles Schwab’s IMPACT 08 conference. Dychtwald was one of its stellar line-up of keynote speakers, which...
Monday, October 13 was a great day. Shrugging off the unlucky devil’s dozen date and the traditional curse of October, all three main indices on Wall Street moved up by 11 percent. The Dow narrowly mi...