There was a time when the institutional side of a securities firm would walk with a swagger. After all, it was you, the retail financial advisor, who was stuck making presentations at a coffee table with mom-and-pops. Institutional brokers...

Sports and financial markets have more than a little in common. Just as a sports contest takes several innings or quarters to develop, bulls and bears tug and pull upon an asset's price, and when one side starts to win, a trend is created over...

John Ritter is an unusual case, but he may also be a harbinger of things to come. A fee-only advisor with Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory, an RIA in Cincinnati, Ritter has over $2 million of client assets in annuities, and says he plans to put...

During the heyday of paper assets, stockbrokers regularly lorded over their commodity-dealing brethren. It wasn't personal, mind you, just the nature of the business. Stock jockeys were making commissions hand over fist, leaving commodities...

In September 2006, an SEC official gave a remarkably prescient speech to an obscure organization (well, obscure to me, anyway). Martha Mahan Haines, chief of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities, presented a short speech to about 400 women...

Despite current laws that reduce the estate-tax bite, survivorship life insurance is making a comeback as an estate-planning tool among some advisors. With Democrats in control of Congress, and a good chance that a Democrat will take the White...

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. During the 12 months ending in January 2008, the category lost 21 percent. Should investors stay...

Academics have long scorned actively managed mutual funds. Instead of spending money on managers who attempt to beat the market (however that is defined), academics argue, investors should stick with index funds. Lately the index proponents have...

Competing fiercely for the attention of investors, fund companies have brought out a wave of specialized offerings. Many of the choices which include mutual funds and exchange-trade funds focus on hot-sounding industries, or growing areas of the...

With markets soaring last year in places such as India and Turkey, investors poured cash into international funds. Of the $6.6 trillion invested in equity funds, about one quarter is in overseas portfolios, according to the Investment Company...