Trader Talk

We’ve become accustomed to seeing headlines about major cyberattacks or cybersecurity breaches in a range of industries from internet and technology firms to major retailers to national health care systems. But financial advisors have always been particularly alluring targets for cyberattacks, with one out of five wealth managers reporting data breaches over the past five

One of America’s latest mass shootings touched wealth management directly while robbing family and friends of a beloved grandfather attending a holiday parade in his longtime home. Financial advisor Stephen Straus, an 88-year-old resident of suburban Highland Park outside his native Chicago, was one of the seven people killed in the July 4 shooting, according

Advisors are using artificial intelligence to expand access to wealth management insights. Traditional financial plans often required multiple meetings between advisors and clients with frameworks left to stagnate outside the meetings, but the inclusion of AI has allowed that conversation to become continuous, Sam Palmer, managing director and head of strategy, digital wealth planning &

In about five years, a gleaming new $500 million campus in central Dallas, a stone’s throw from the home of the Mavericks’ basketball arena, will house thousands of Goldman Sachs staff. The bank, synonymous with Wall Street and New York, is not alone in expanding in southern U.S. states at a time when social conservatives are unleashing

Banks’ souring sentiment toward buyout loans and a drought in initial public offerings are pressuring both ends of private equity’s deal machine, whose essence is the buying and selling of companies.  To make things worse, pension and endowment funds — the industry’s traditional cornerstone investors — may no longer have new money for their old

Ameriprise’s independent brokerage notched one of the biggest financial advisor recruiting wins of the year, adding a billion-dollar team that left rival Edward Jones. Advisor Jennifer Marcontell and eight other employees launched Houston-area independent practice Marcontell Wealth Management after 23 years at Edward Jones, where the team managed $1.7 billion in client assets. Edward Jones

A direct indexing asset management and financial technology company with more than $1 billion in AUM is set to be acquired by First Trust Capital Partners by the end of the month. First Trust, one of the world’s largest asset managers with more than $203 billion in assets, has announced its plans to acquire Veriti

Baby boomers are prone to quickly spending down their retirement savings — and they might outlive them, according to a new study. The findings from the Center for Retirement Research focus on a key difference between the two core types of retirement plans: defined benefit and defined contribution. The former are traditional accounts like pensions

The SEC is heeding a government watchdog’s calls to beef up its oversight of FINRA, but it’s doing so behind closed doors.  The Wall Street regulator, which is FINRA’s only supervisory agency, “generally agreed” with recommendations from the Government Accountability Office last December to improve its formal scrutiny of FINRA, which oversees brokers. According to

Whenever he’s asked about the genesis of Carefull, founder Todd Rovak said people expect him to tell a story about how a difficult, personal life experience spurred him to create what he touts as “the first fintech exclusively built for financial caregivers and aging adults.” There is truth to that. Rovak, like millions of other

As financial advisors coach clients through market volatility and inflation, they’re looking more critically than ever at their current brokerage firms, according to a new survey. Registered representatives at nine out of 13 wealth managers ranked in J.D. Power’s annual advisor satisfaction study received lower scores compared to a year ago. At least 15% of

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, Alan Foxman talks about what to expect when you’re expecting to make a move.  Foxman, a managing director with Foreside Financial Group, brings decades of experience in the world of financial and professional services to this week’s episode. He’s been a member of the Florida Bar

Morgan Stanley is seeking to bar a 90-year-old financial advisor from its facilities after he was accused of shooting a coworker at the company’s Oklahoma City offices last week.  Leonard Bernstein shot Chris Bayouth as many as five times in the torso, back, leg and foot on June 30, according to the Oklahoma City Police

Everyone in the wealth management industry knows about the  “great wealth transfer,” in which $84 trillion will shift from older generations to younger ones by 2045, according to Cerulli Associates. Now wealth planners are confronting a major complication with that massive flow of money: Many people who will inherit wealth  tend to shy away from

When addressing the significant tax obligations clients may incur from the sale of real property, the 1031 tax-deferred exchange is an effective strategy by which to defer capital gains and build net worth.  Randy Kaston For the last 100 years, 1031 exchanges have helped ensure the continuity of investment, with benefits that span across the

Elon Musk’s fortune plunged almost $62 billion. Jeff Bezos saw his wealth tumble by about $63 billion. Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was slashed by more than half. All told, the world’s 500 richest people lost $1.4 trillion in the first half of 2022, a dizzying decline that marks the steepest six-month drop ever for the

Technology is transforming financial services, allowing the ability for investments and planning to be more scalable than ever. In this session, Head of Product for Goldman’s Personal Financial Management business, Cynthia Loh, will discuss what the firm is doing to enhance client web and mobile apps to better serve advisors so they can help clients

Grayscale Investments said it had sued the SEC after the agency rejected a bid to convert its Bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund.  CEO Michael Sonnenshein tweeted late Wednesday that Grayscale was suing the regulator and the company said it had filed a lawsuit in U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The SEC on Wednesday denied the

Artificial intelligence has the potential to forever change financial services. And now more than ever, advisors seem ready to move in lockstep with the shift. The attitudes, opportunities and barriers related to AI in wealth management were the focus of recently published research from consulting firm Accenture. Their “AI in Wealth Management” survey polled 500

As trading in cryptocurrency and other digital assets continues to grow, advisors are facing a surge of interest from knowledgeable clients.  “What we’re hearing now is a lot of questions about how do we think about [cryptocurrency], what’s the impact to my business if I start to think about adding these products in and what

Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Canadian bank that’s been expanding through acquisitions, is weighing a deal for the brokerage firm Cowen, according to people familiar with the matter.  The Toronto-based lender is working with advisors to study a possible transaction for Cowen, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. No

Millennials shouldn’t rely on Social Security for 100% of their retirement. In fact, a new study says, they shouldn’t even rely on it for 100% of their Social Security checks. According to the HealthView Services, a healthcare research group, Americans born between 1981 and 1996 should expect about a 20% cut to their projected benefits

In today’s environment, financial institutions face challenges that include: ● New and more complex calculations due to regulatory demands (i.e., FRTB) and climate risk● Explosive data growth and the need to move and analyze this data● Limited on-premise compute capacity● Need to improve time to value by accelerating risk model deployment to production To help

This week, Docupace’s turn-key Advisor Transitions Program hit a milestone it has been building to since its launch in 2017.  The California-based fintech focused on helping financial professionals on the move “re-paper” all client accounts at one time has successfully transitioned more than 500,000 clients for advisors going to new wealth management providers. Docupace CEO

UBS Group agreed to pay the SEC $25 million in penalties to settle allegations that some of its advisors recommended a complex investment strategy involving options that may not have been in their clients’ best interest. UBS investment advisors marketed and sold YES, or the Yield Enhancement Strategy, for about a year starting in February

If you haven’t planned for an SEC audit, you should.  Why? Because you are likely to face one. Advances in technology and the adoption of a data-centric approach have made it fast and easy for the SEC to comprehensively audit even the smallest firm, regardless of its location.  Thomas Reid The SEC’s 2021 Examination Priorities

Technology needs to become more human. As wealth management firms increasingly use digital tools to reach and serve investors, they’re also honing in on clients’ personal values, attitudes and goals for building a long-term nest egg. The missing piece in those two trajectories, according to a senior J.P. Morgan executive: not deploying technology in a

When getting to know a client, some questions dig deeper than others. Oddly, sometimes it’s the least direct ones that reveal the most. Behavioral finance, the study of how psychology affects markets and investors, can shine a light on which inquiries will get to the root of clients’ motives. Advisors who take this approach use

A midsize wealth manager that’s under new ownership after a compliance overhaul agreed to its second major FINRA settlement this year relating to sales of affiliated alternative products. As part of a June 23 order, National Securities agreed to pay nearly $9 million to settle FINRA’s charges that the firm “engaged in misconduct intended to

Roth IRAs have been incredibly popular retirement vehicles since their first introduction under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. In exchange for making contributions in after-tax dollars to a Roth account, growth within the account is tax-deferred, and those gains can ultimately be withdrawn tax-free as “qualified distributions” if certain basic requirements are met. Because