If there’s one thing to be learned from “all weather” investment strategies such as muni laddering, it’s this: there is such a thing as too conservative.

The overhaul of the mutual fund industry spearheaded by Eliot Spitzer is widely viewed as a victory for investors, but some analysts are challenging that notion. In September 2003, Spitzer set off a firestorm, charging mutual fund companies with...

Eliot Spitzer has gone on the warpath again, this time against insurance companies, leaving their stocks wounded some critically along the trail. When Spitzer guns for an industry, investors typically get out of the way, and it was no different...

During the 1990s, Tom Marsico made investing look easy. As manager of Janus Twenty, Marsico recorded huge gains while limiting his portfolio to two dozen stocks. The fund often held well-known stars such as Lucent Technologies and Pfizer. Plenty...

Richard Branson, founder of Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airways, was once asked the best way to become a millionaire. There's really nothing to it, he joked. Start as a billionaire and then buy an airline. Branson's joke must seem like...

To what can administering to a separately managed account be best compared? Arm-wrestling an octopus, some posit. Herding cats, others offer. Fact is, just about any advisor offering managed accounts can testify to the complexity of the related...

During the late 1960s, best-selling author Adam Smith called Fidelity Investments the Green Bay Packers of the mutual fund world. Just as Green Bay dominated professional football, Fidelity attracted a record following because of growth-oriented...

In his influential book, Pioneering Portfolio Management, Yale University's chief investment officer, David Swenson, makes the case for illiquidity. Swenson notes that on Oct. 19, 1987, the day the stock market dropped by more than 22 percent, a...

With the securities firms forever searching for edgy products, it should come as little surprise that exchange-traded-fund (ETF) wrap accounts are growing in popularity. ETF wraps, which are less expensive than mutual funds, are seen by many as a...

No one likes paying taxes, but clients get extra steamed when they are blindsided by a particularly hefty IRS bill. Unfortunately, such tax surprises could become increasingly common for shareholders of municipal bond funds. The source of the...