News
Harry Markowitz is best known for his pioneering work in Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). He evaluated the impact of things like asset risk, diversification, and correlation on the expected return of......
“The new iShares target-date funds are well-suited to IRA rollovers or small-sized 401(k) plans who want to offer their participants an option that combines certain benefits of ETFs such as transparen...
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...
“The new iShares target-date funds are well-suited to IRA rollovers or small-sized 401(k) plans who want to offer their participants an option that combines certain benefits of ETFs such as transparen...
Rydex Investments added the Russian ruble (XRU) to its lineup of CurrencyShares. The ruble is the official currency of the Russian Federation (Russia) and related territories and the currency of the a...
In the next office there’s a new recruit who also does $2 million in revenues a year. That new adviser negotiated an extra expense allowance, minimum staff support, but most of all he received a large...
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Everybody is having issues – virtually no one and no single firm escaped the financial tsunami that hit Wall Street in 2008. This is the year to re-build and re-affirm your relationships with clients,...
The major investment banks have represented about 30-33 percent, or one third, of recruits. Another third or so come from other independent firms. About 20 percent come from insurance companies and af...
The month of December was, of course, anything but jolly for another 524,000 workers, who lost their job - capping a year that saw nearly 2.6 million workers displaced. Notably, three-quarters of thes...
Americans continue to lose their homes and their jobs at an alarming rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1,330 mass layoffs in the third quarter, costing more than 218,000 workers their jobs...
If you want to know what kind of year 2008 was, all you have to do is look at the lopsided performance of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The top ETF performers in 2008 were mostly short ETFs designed t...
The last quarter of 2008 was very busy for the ETF marketplace. Between Direxion Shares and ProShares, 22 new leveraged and short ETFs were launched. Also, Claymore, WisdomTree Investments and XShares...
Despite the recent drop in oil prices and pullback in alternative-energy investing, XShares Advisors has introduced the AirShares EU Carbon Allowance Fund (ASO), which competes with the iShares Global...
Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has changed the name of underlying indexes for 14 bond iShares ETFs to “Barclays Capital Indexes” from Lehman. The change is part of a re-branding effort to integrate L...
Many funds, fund categories and stock- market indexes have dropped by about 40 percent through December 4, 2008, according to Lipper. The Dow Jones, for instance, is down about 37 percent, while ......
The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted unanimously to require fund companies “to provide investors with a concise summary — in plain English — of the key information they need to make inform...
In early December, MFS Investment Management pulled together several of its top experts to share year-end thoughts on the markets and trends affecting them. Erik Weisman, Ph.D., and a member of MFS......
In 2008, Nuveen Investments wrestled with the freeze-up of the auction-rate preferred securities market and sought to restore liquidity at par to preferred shareholders and to reduce the expected cost...
Fidelity Investments has launched WealthCentral, a web-based wealth management platform that integrates critical operational systems for RIAs, including portfolio management, customer relationship man...
Several months before Bank of America agreed to buy Merrill Lynch, industry expert Chip Roame of Tiburon Strategic Advisors shared his prediction of such an event in Research magazine’s 30th-anniversa...
Bank of America and Merrill Lynch shareholders have approved BofA’s purchase of Merrill. And, according to Merrill Lynch, the vast majority of its top advisors had recently signed its retention-bonus ...
UBS has confirmed that because of the U. S. federal grand jury indictment of former Global Wealth Management & Business Banking CEO Raoul Weil, it passed Weil’s duties on to Marten Hoekstra, deputy CE...
Once a card member reaches a minimum of 5,000 points, or $2,500 in purchases, points can be automatically swept as a $50 current year contribution into the user's designated Fidelity IRA. If the card ...
According to the Investment Company Institute, lifecycle funds or target-date funds (TDFs) have continued to grow. The funds managed $185 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2008, compared to $...
Investors may have only taken out cash, but their portfolios are down. A client’s withdrawals may be 8-10 percent of portfolio, but when the portfolio is down, you may need to adjust your withdrawals ...
The bear market has roiled many retirees’ or soon-to-be-retirees’ income projections, creating the dilemma of how to recover from those losses. Jerry Golden, president of MassMutual's Income Managemen...
Standard & Poor's Compustat data is used by institutional money managers and analysts around the world. With fundamental and market data on 88,000 global securities, Compustat provides vital company, ...
Smart, successful people and companies often make really stupid decisions when they fall victim to hidden psychological forces — sways — that unconsciously influence behavior and undermine logic. So s...
While Charles, who will remain as board chairman, has been more visible, Murphy has run the firm’s independent broker-dealer, Investors Capital Corp., for years and has been hugely instrumental in reb...
In the best of times, helping clients make the successful transition to retirement can be a complex and demanding challenge for advisors. The financial and personal issues involved with longevity plan...
Civilization carries a grand illusion of stability. Yet, things change around us constantly. Our personalities change with aging, societies die around us, the Earth warms and cools in turn. However, w...
Voices/Columnists
Tip 1: Have a plan. Sounds trite, doesn’t it? But true. If you spend 1 nanosecond online studying “emergency planning,” you will see that ALL experts recommend, “Have a plan.” OK. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY...
Now that 2008 is in our rearview mirror, I can’t help but be reminded of my worst blind date, when the lady fondly told me, “Don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out!” As I’ve learned ove...
Forbes columnist and investment guru Ken Fisher points out that people can become rich both in strong and weak economies — which is good to know given today’s current environment. In his newest book, ...
To glean ideas and learn what some of the industry’s top planners will be doing to keep clients and staff at ease and on track, I talked with Arthur Cooper, CFP, co-founder and principal partner of Co...
Recent market volatility has led many financial advisors to yearn for more efficient and profitable businesses. Particularly as portfolios have precipitously plummeted, many advisors whose compensatio...
I was in Atlanta for a couple of days to attend Charles Schwab’s INSIGHT 08 conference. Dorothy A. Brown’s sojourn in the South has been considerably longer — she came to Emory Law School after teachi...
First, let’s clear up a misconception. The economic crisis is not about house prices, credit or the stock market. The crux of the matter is the U.S. consumer, the main force driving the global economy...