Separately managed accounts are taking up a growing piece of the product-allocation pie, according to a recent study by Reuters AdvicePoint and research and consulting firm Sway Research LLC. About 10,000 advisors across all channels were surveyed...

A generation ago, retiring clients usually had most of their money locked up in certificates of deposit at the local bank. Simplicity, predictability, and the double-digit yields of the time provided a nice compliment to Social Security or pension...

Now may be the time to get your clients more life insurance: In 2008, life-insurance premiums will be 11 percent lower than they were two years ago and half of what they were a decade ago, according to the Insurance Information Institute...

The punches keep on coming for some of Wall Street’s biggest firms. A handful of firms were sent subpoenas late this summer courtesy of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo

So far in this young century, the brokerage industry seems to have successfully endured its run down the gauntlet. Let's see, there was that embarrassing tech collapse, in which securities firms and asset managers sure did look, well, greedy and...

Wall Street's titans made a terrible mess with their bets on the sub-prime mortgage market, and now they're paying for it dearly. Most of the major U.S. banks and brokerage firms recorded massive write-downs of sub-prime and CDO (collateralized...

What are the chances that one of your funds will return 100 percent (or more) next year? Slim extremely slim. Funds rarely double in a 12-month period; and when they do, one wonders: To sell or not to sell? Well, recently, just such a rarity has...

We all know what a lousy third-quarter Merrill Lynch had it reported the worst loss in its 93-year history (a $2.3 billion net loss along with a staggering $8.4 billion in bond write-downs). As a result, CEO Stan O'Neal was forced into retirement...

One would think a client's collection of 50 cars, let alone 50 Corvettes, would be hard for a team of financial advisors and estate planners to ignore.

Financial Advisors may discuss charitable giving with clients for the same reason that most people choose to give in the first place: It's the right thing to do. But you can use that discussion to clean up your client's portfolio and simplify your...