Investment

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...

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...

The total volume of assets in managed accounts grew only slightly in the second quarter, limited by poor returns in the stock market.

The stock market may be sickly, but plenty of Ken Richard's clients face painful capital gains tax bills. A registered financial consultant at Kara Financial Services in St. Paul, Minn., Richard advises longtime employees of such Minnesota blue...

What did they know and when did they know it? That's the question being asked by government regulators about corporate insiders who sold massive amounts of stock. The answer can help distinguish between simple profit-taking and outright fraud. To...

In nearly 10 years, demand for exchange traded funds has grown from nearly nothing to three-quarters of a trillion dollars a year. Impressive? Of course. Still, some financial services executives see ETFs as a disappointment. Consider this: From...

There is nothing like a bear market to spook clients. Disciplined, patient investors, who used to know the value of putting money in different sectors and asset classes, have grown overcautious. After witnessing so many high-flying stock funds...

John P. Calamos was a retail broker in the 1970s when he first began using convertible bonds in clients' portfolios. Convertibles were somewhat exotic then, but they struck Calamos as an antidote to a financially turbulent decade marked by a lousy...

Their potential is significant now that the genome hype has passed and cash-rich firms plunge ahead with development.

Abandoning bonds in favor of stocks might appear sensible — but risky.