Trader Talk

For nearly six years, a UBS financial advisor allegedly used unauthorized transfers of money from one family’s accounts to buy things for several women who were his romantic partners. The gifts to the tune of $4.6 million included vacations, luxury cars, private school tuition and an apartment in Colombia, according to investigators. After the clients,

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, Ballentine Partners financial education specialist Akeiva Ellis explains her multifaceted role with one of the largest RIAs in the country. Ellis joined the Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm in 2017, and her latest project is a podcast called “Ballentine Broadcast: Conversations on Black Wealth.” Ballentine is the No.

After wealth managers helped sell scandal-plagued private placements to an estimated 4,000 seniors and 13,000 other retail clients, they’re getting hit with a steady stream of arbitration awards. MSC-BD, a brokerage owned by Austin, Texas-based investment banking firm Madison Street Capital, must pay 75-year-old widow Maria Albers an award of $221,000 in compensatory damages, attorney

Massachusetts securities regulators are zeroing in on broker-dealers that offer target date funds to retail investors. The regulatory crackdown comes after Vanguard cut its minimum investment for it’s institutional target date funds, resulting in bigger accounts moving to that share class and leaving smaller accounts, some of which were taxable, with big tax bills. Secretary

Credit Suisse Group closed out a scandal-tainted year by warning of a deeper quarterly loss as charges mount and business slows at its two biggest units. The lender said in a surprise statement Tuesday that it will post a loss in its investment bank as it exits the business with hedge funds and trading conditions

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 21, 2022. Brendan McDermid | Reuters Should you be worried?  On Monday at one point, the S&P 500 was down 10% from its recent highs.  However, investors who are panicking should bear in mind long-term trends.  What’s

This year’s chaotic tax filing season has a bright side for the affluent. As pandemic challenges and temporary tax law changes besiege the IRS, the agency’s official watchdog has forecast a particularly turbulent season for the more than 160 million Americans who could begin filing their federal returns on Jan. 24. But when it comes

In its largest M&A deal in nearly three years, Baird secured an agreement to acquire a privately held wealth manager with more than 90 financial advisors. Hefren-Tillotson, a 74-year-old brokerage and RIA with six offices in Greater Pittsburgh managing $18 billion in client assets, plans to fully integrate into Baird by October following the expected

Traders on the floor of the NYSE, Jan. 21, 2022. Source: NYSE Two factors that determine the direction of stock prices are 1) expectations of earnings increasing or decreasing, and 2) the market multiple (price/earnings ratio), which is an estimate on what investors are willing to pay for a future stream of earnings.  Both are

The investment approaches of Cathie Wood and Warren Buffett couldn’t be more different. But over the past two years, their investors have ended up with almost exactly the same results. Cathie Wood’s ARK has been a stock market darling recently, pulling up close to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s perennial trader favorite.Bloomberg News Wood’s ARK Innovation

As a former student-athlete at The University of Texas at San Antonio, I have always understood the concept of working hard in order to achieve success. As a Division I football player, I had to quickly learn what being organized and disciplined entailed. A typical daily schedule ranged from 6 a.m. meetings to 10 a.m.

Live by the meme, and die by it. That’s the lesson from Morgan Stanley research about how quickly small-time investors went from world-beaters to also-rans in the post-pandemic stock market. Using exchange and public price-feed data, a chart from the bank’s trading desk estimated overall gains and losses to retail traders based on their stock

These are strange times for even the richest Americans: A pandemic shook the world and yet everything rose in value. Now many are calling up their wealth managers, asking more — and often unusual — questions. Can a third or fourth home be a good investment? Should I add cryptocurrency to my investment portfolio? How

The new year brought new leadership in boardrooms and management positions across the wealth management spectrum, including the Association of African American Financial Advisors, the Financial Planning Association journal and the Financial Services Institute. The CFP Board has a new Appeals Commission. Captrust Financial Advisors and Beacon Pointe Advisors announced deals to end 2021. And

Analysts say the decision by Dynasty Financial Partners, the St. Petersburg, Florida-based RIA and turnkey asset management platform with $65 billion in client assets, to launch a $100 million IPO is what would be expected from a firm that has undergone measured rather than explosive growth with managers who have significant experience in the public

Credit Suisse Securities will pay $9 million to settle claims that it violated multiple laws and rules related to customer protection, conflict of interest disclosures and preservation of client records. FINRA announced the sanctions Thursday, stating that Credit Suisse violated the SEC Customer Protection Rule by failing to maintain control of billions of dollars in

Recently released research from Morningstar suggests that those who begin retirement today may want to consider withdrawal rates as low as 3.3% — lower than the commonly quoted, but flawed, 4% rate. This sounds like bad news for retirees, but focusing on any withdrawal rate can be misleading. In reality, retirees spend dollars, not percentages.

Moore’s Law, proposed in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, states that the speed, capabilities and processing power of computers exponentially increase every couple of years, while the cost of those computers is halved at roughly the same rate. In theory, this would make the possibility for increased computing power limitless. But while manufacturers

The “freakish” organic growth of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in 2021 reached a level so high that the firm just can’t maintain it into the future, CEO James Gorman said. The net new assets flowing into the wirehouse jumped 11% in 2021 to a record $437.8 billion, an amount prompting Gorman to point out in

An RIA and turnkey asset management platform backed by some of the biggest names in wealth management is inviting the public to invest alongside them. Dynasty Financial Partners filed a Form S-1 with the SEC on Jan. 19 seeking to raise $100 million in an initial public offering for the St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm spanning

Amid the millions of new retail investors during the pandemic and concerns about Americans’ low financial literacy, FINRA plans to issue a regulatory notice about cryptocurrency. The guidance to more than 3,400 firms and 617,000 registered representatives overseen by FINRA will cover “the rules around the sale of crypto assets by or through our member

Financial firms need to take more cues from Silicon Valley, according to Charles Schwab Corp. Chief Executive Officer Walt Bettinger. Consumers want their banks and brokerages to offer technology with the same level of personalization they get from ride-hailing and food-delivery apps, Bettinger said in a wide-ranging interview after Schwab reported fourth-quarter results this week.

Last year at Invesco we operated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with much uncertainty, and many questions about how we would move forward and when we would resume our old routines. Now in 2022, with the pandemic still with us, we’ve realized that we need to, as a 2021 McKinsey study put it,

At least 1,000 victims. More than $115 million stolen. A deception that persisted for a decade to support a life of jet-setting, champagne popping and $10,000 suits. Those staggering figures summarize the rise and eventual fall of a former New York advisor and convicted scam artist known as “King Perry.” On Friday, 41-year-old Perry Santillo

Wells Fargo ended 2021 with fewer advisors in the room, more cash in its coffers and a whole lot of confidence heading into the new year. The bank’s Wealth and Investment Management unit lost a total of 1,146 registered representatives from either Wells Fargo Advisors or its Private Bank over the past 12 months, according

The favorite strategy of long-term investors and their financial advisors is about to get more complicated. Exchange-traded funds, with lower costs and built-in ties to benchmarks like the S&P 500 or themes like technology, are the go-to option for independent advisors helping clients, particularly younger ones, plan for major expenses like college, home-buying and retirement.

There’s a whiff of 1968 in the air. China’s “lying flat” movement has more than a passing echo of the U.S. counterculture of the 1960s and has found resonance around the world. It isn’t only the young and disaffected who are choosing to drop out. Two years into a global pandemic, the number of Americans

One of the biggest trends in asset management masks a secret. Passive investing has exploded in popularity over the past decade thanks to index funds, the holdings of which mimic benchmarks like the S&P 500 or specific themes like growth stocks. Unlike traditional mutual funds, regular index funds don’t involve a manager trading individual stocks

As investors begin 2022, an old adage comes to mind: “Everything in moderation.” This phrase appropriately describes the current environment — a world of moderating gross domestic product (GDP) growth, moderating fiscal policy, moderating central bank support and moderating equity returns. Candice Tse With everything seemingly in moderation, it’s important to not lose sight of

The trillions of dollars in assets moving into model portfolios should come with a note of caution about ETF costs, returns and how they relate to conflicts of interest, a new study suggests. Asset managers working with financial advisors in a “dual role” through their funds and model investment portfolios recommend affiliated ETFs more often