Are hedge funds the next bubble to burst? If you read general interest business magazines, you might think so. In October, for example, Forbes repeated its assertion, made a year earlier in a cover story, that hedge funds charge outrageous fees...

For months, advisors looking to invest in a solid small cap fund have been faced with a growing problem: Many of the best ones have been closed to new investors. Of the 301 small cap value funds tracked by Morningstar, 33 are closed. About 10...

These days, Anthony Soslow often finds himself facing a problem most reps haven't faced since clients were clamoring for hot IPOs back in the heady years of the last millennium. When Soslow, president of Global Capital Management, a financial...

When the bull market was hot, so were index funds. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund even eclipsed Magellan as the largest mutual fund in the country, and other index funds dominated their actively managed peers as well. Nevertheless, nearly three years...

Think you're safe buying an investment grade bond for your client? Guess again. Rating downgrades are coming at a record pace. By increasing client asset allocation into bonds, brokers may not necessarily be reducing risk, even when restricting...

For all the proselytizing by wirehouse management and leading consultants about the virtues of selling separately managed accounts, the fact is that for the most part the only brokers who got religion were the reps in corner offices with...

On Aug. 14, as part of the government's new get-tough policy on deceptive corporate accounting, the CEOs and CFOs of 974 of the country's largest public companies had to personally swear that their financial documents were accurate. But if you...

Is it time to get your clients back into telecom? If the very word still gives you the jitters, that's understandable. No sector has caused so much pain to so many investors. Some $2 trillion in market capitalization has been lost over the last...

Traditional separate account programs can come with a variety of frustrations. Advisors must scan through a menu of dozens of managers, trying to pick a few that will complement each other and, together, achieve the client's goal. Even with...