Recently added articles from Investment News:
Technology helps deaf adviser expand practice; Videoconferencing allows Louis Schwarz's Washington-area advisory firm to serve deaf clients face to face.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Lisa Shidler Louis Schwarz responds to his clients' concerns even though he can't hear what they are saying. Mr. Schwarz, who is deaf, has been a financial adviser for 26 years and works with many deaf and hard-of-hearing clients at Schwarz Financial Services ...
Ameriprise set to buy another asset manager or broker; Company could spend more than $1 billion on an acquisition.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Bruce Kelly Fresh from completing a $900 million offering of common stock, Ameriprise Financial Inc. is well-positioned to buy another asset management company or broker-dealer. In fact, Ameriprise of Minneapolis is aiming for a transaction in the range of $1 ...
Asset-based LTC insurance attracts buyers; But some advisers express concern about the products' limits.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Darla Mercado Although financial advisers have been leery of life insurance with long term care benefits, the products appear to be generating interest among consumers trying to insure against multiple risks and search for a place to store assets, according to a new ...
Wealth managers must improve business model to retain clients, report says; High-net-worth investors lack confidence in their advisers' ability to manage risk.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Charles Paikert In an effort to retain assets and regain the confidence of high-net-worth clients, wealth managers must find ways to improve their overall business model, according to a new report. The financial crisis resulted in "seismic shifts in the wealth ...
Breakaway brokers still a trickle, not a tide; Wirehouse exodus expected to pick up over the next 18 months.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Jed Horowitz Even though independence is losing its stigma as a sign of failure among wirehouse brokers, they continue to move at only a moderate pace to independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisory firms, a panel of experts said last week. ...
McCool says solution near on custody of alternatives.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Jed Horowitz The Charles Schwab Corp., which promised to spell out details of its plan to help advisers move alternative assets from its platform this month, has nearly met its deadline. The San Francisco-based firm is in the final stages of negotiating ...
Upcoming events.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... July 14 Webcast series: Using social media to market your practice Blogging, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Ning and Digg: These social-networking tools aren't just for teenagers anymore. More and more advisers are using them creatively to expand their ...
Battered equity boutiques broaden focus to bonds; Hotchkis, Driehaus add credit strategies; Third Ave. eyes junk.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Douglas Appell Some well-known equity boutiques have begun offering bond strategies this year, diversifying their portfolios after the market collapse focused attention on the ability of money management companies to cope with severe downturns. In the past ...
Managers desperate for big infusions of cash; Refinancing debt, raising capital tops on minds of firms.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Arleen Jacobius Real estate managers are making a mad scramble to raise cash. Their two top priorities this year are refinancing maturing debt and raising capital, according to a recent survey of more than 40 real estate money managers by Ernst & Young LLP of ...
SEC doesn't need a defibrillator after all; Administration would give it more clout, boost funding by 7%.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Sara Hansard At the beginning of the year, after it missed cues for seemingly everything from the massive Madoff Ponzi scheme to the credit crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission was being written off as all but dead. Many in the financial services ...
At the Bell.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Wealthy with advisersoutdid those without Millionaires who worked with financial advisers saw investible assets decline by an average of 4% last year, compared with 18% for those without an adviser, according to a survey of 1,000 participants released today by Fidelity ...
Lax compliance can be costly, warn experts; Cutbacks, procedural gaps leave many advisers vulnerable to fines far greater than any savings.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Lisa Shidler In their efforts to cut costs, advisers may be setting themselves up for some big expenses. "Firms are exposing themselves to sizable financial losses as a result of compliance failures, said Sharie Brown, a partner in the Washington office of ...
Equity issues hitting market at record pace; But returns historically dip following jump in issuance.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Record levels of stock issuance by public companies over the past several weeks could come back to haunt the market and hurt investors, at least in the near term. While the market rally from the March 9 low has started to level off, the impact ...
Big fraud cases put focus on disclosure; Suits and probes involving broker-dealers go undisclosed while reps face full exposure.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Dan Jamieson The Stanford and Madoff fraud cases have put the brokerage industry's disclosure system under the spotlight. News reports have uncovered the fact that regulators had looked into activities at the Houston-based Stanford Financial Group and Bernard ...
Sorry, my adviser istied up at the moment.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Lousy investment performance apparently drove four clients of a financial adviser in Speyer, Germany, to kidnap and torture him for four days this month, according to published reports. James Amburn, 56, told the London Telegraph that he was ...
Some advisers question future of LPL unit; Worries abound that Mutual Service will dump Pershing platform.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Bruce Kelly Tensions have been building for months among financial advisers affiliated with Mutual Service Corp., a subsidiary broker-dealer of LPL Investment Holdings Inc., as they wonder about the future of their firm. A big question is whether LPL will dump ...
Schwab to waive fees for its RIAs' new clients; Move could trigger a price war among custodian rivals.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Jed Horowitz The Charles Schwab Corp. is dipping into its deep pockets to help independent advisers capture business from full-service brokers. At its Explore conference for top registered investment adviser clients last week, Schwab said it will waive ...
Bill would give indie advisers sole right to offer 401(k) advice; Banning reps would shrink pool of available advisers, critics warn.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Mark Bruno After focusing their efforts on increasing 401(k) fee disclosure, members of an influential committee last week approved a more comprehensive package of potential retirement reforms. The House Committee on Education and Labor's bill the 401(k) ...
Knocking indexing.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... Byline: Sara Hansard Despite the widely held view that indexing is the safest way to invest, not everyone is a proponent. Indexing actually "helped recklessly drive our financial system and economy into the ditch last fall, said Scott Cleland, president of Precursor ...
We need financial cops - and speed limits.(News)
Jun 29, 2009 ... MARY SCHAPIRO, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is correct: Fiduciary standards for all who give investment advice won't be sufficient to deter fraud. High standards are never enough. Consider that every state and municipality has traffic laws and speed limits ...