Trader Talk

Financial literacy in the United States is low. And things don’t look to be getting better anytime soon. Because of that, financial advisors play a crucial role in ensuring that the nation’s most vulnerable communities are protected against those who wish to take advantage of that lack of understanding, and shielded from making bad decisions

The Foundation for Financial Planning opened its 2023 grant request application and named its 2022 award recipients. Bernstein Private Wealth Management is launching a podcast that will include conversations between the company’s executives and celebrities about financial topics and investment strategies. Any California employer that has more than 100 employees and doesn’t offer a private

Lois is an incapacitated senior suffering from a traumatic brain injury. Her conservator, who was overseeing money reserved for her long-term care and support, opened an account with a registered investment advisor. The money would need to be managed conservatively, since it was intended to care for Lois over the remainder of her life. Instead,

With multiple fundraising deals in recent weeks, the wave into alternative investments is showing no signs of crashing in the new year. On Tuesday, CAIS, a digital platform offering financial advisors access to alternative funds and products, announced a $225 million round of funding led by Apollo and Motive Partners, with additional investment from Franklin

A client arbitration complaint in which a broker’s living trust sought $20 million in damages will be removed from another financial advisor’s record after a panel granted the expungement. The Amended and Restated Julian I. Stoopler Living Trust had settled the case against Merrill Lynch for $595,000 a couple of months before the Jan. 11

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, January 12, 2022. Brendan McDermid | Reuters Earnings season begins with a focus on guidance.  It’s a cliché, but it’s true:  Investors are focused on the future, not the past.  But it’s even more true for 2022 than most other

Goldman Sachs Group delayed its return to office for staff in the U.S. by another two weeks as it looks to wait out the COVID-19 surge nationwide. Goldman’s employees were told they could delay returning until Feb. 1, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bank’s management, aggressive champions of having its offices

After about 100 other SEC cases involving disclosures of 12b-1 fees in the past three years, a midsize firm resolved the regulator’s allegations that it failed to disclose its conflicts of interest. O.N. Investment Management, the RIA subsidiary of Cincinnati-based independent brokerage The O.N. Equity Sales Company (Onesco) and insurer Ohio National, breached its fiduciary

It has been nearly two years since James “Jim” Seegan’s wife and son found him dead in his Carrollton, Texas, home office. His former friend and financial advisor, Keith Todd Ashley, stands accused of killing Seegan and staging the crime scene to make it appear as if Seegan had taken his own life. In the

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, CFP Board CEO Kevin Keller explains the certification organization’s continuing efforts to reform its enforcement programs. Since Keller took over the role in 2007, the number of CFP certificants has grown by more than 50% to more than 92,000 certified financial planners. Enforcement has emerged as

A million-dollar client arbitration complaint against Raymond James involving “a highly speculative options strategy” ended in a settlement and the expungement of a broker’s record. The firm agreed to pay a settlement of $250,000 to Lawrence A. Savarese Jr. on behalf of the Lawrence A. Savarese Revocable Living Trust and Jennifer D. Port for the

Shannon Eusey first sketched out her idea for a financial planning firm when she was studying for an MBA and working at a small wealth management firm in Los Angeles. In a 25-page paper for her “Entrepreneurship and Venture Initiation” class at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in 2001, she wrote a business plan for

CEO Jamie Dimon issued a warning to the vaccine holdouts among JPMorgan Chase staff in New York. “To go to the office you, have to be vaxxed. And if you aren’t going to get vaxxed, you won’t be able to work in that office,” Dimon said Monday in an interview on CNBC. “And we’re not

With faster and more user-friendly investment technology comes greater risks to clients vulnerable to fraud, according to state regulators. Cryptocurrency and other digital assets, promissory note fraud, internet and social media scams and abuses of self-directed IRAs are the top four threats to investors in 2022, according to a survey of 46 state regulators released

The semiconductor industry has gotten much attention over the last couple of years from consumers to lawmakers to investors because of the ubiquity of chips in electronic devices, cars, and yes, even in your refrigerator. Recently, there has been a massive shortage of chips due to a range of complicated factors. At the onset of

As more wealth management arms of banks and credit unions partner with outside brokerages and RIAs, a $5 billion enterprise is seeking greater scale by folding into a larger firm. Fieldpoint Private, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based bank with about 25 financial advisors who manage $5.1 billion in wealth management client assets, sold its wealth management business

A joint drop in equities and bonds is hitting exchange-traded fund investors with the worst start of a year in a decade. Investors who subscribe to the moderate-risk portfolio strategy of 60% stocks and 40% bonds have been walloped this week. Treasury yields spiked higher on concerns the Fed will raise interest rates and reduce

Citigroup was the first major Wall Street bank to impose a strict COVID-19 vaccine mandate: Get a shot or face termination. With its deadline fast approaching, the company is readying for action. Office workers who don’t comply by Jan. 14 will be placed on unpaid leave, and their last day of employment will come at

After criminal cases against the alleged ringleaders and a massive settlement by a rival wealth manager, Merrill Lynch has reached an agreement to resolve its part in a giant investment scheme involving a Vermont ski resort. The wirehouse agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle a case from the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation and

Dennis Moore of Mercer Advisors is the new president of the Financial Planning Association, stepping into the role on Jan. 1. Janney Montgomery Scott wrapped up a year of positive recruitment efforts. Cetera’s acquisition and recruitment efforts in 2021 brought in an additional $47 billion. An advisor is accused of defrauding the elderly. Executives were

Kamila Elliott said the full impact of her latest career achievement didn’t hit her until Monday of this week. That was when a friend of hers made a public Facebook post expressing excitement that Elliott is the first Black woman to lead the CFP Board, a position for which her peers tapped her back in

With the mass movement to index-tracking funds giving asset managers vast amounts of shareholder votes at publicly traded companies, the firms are facing more pressure to use that power to drive change. A group of unions, corporate responsibility organizations, faith leaders and other investors is accusing asset managers of making “public statements in support of

Private equity funds are investing heavily in independent financial advisory firms, staking billions of dollars on the wealth management industry’s fastest-growing corner. Along the way, the investments are creating war chests for advisors to buy competitors and injecting Wall Street-style business and management practices into a fragmented industry. But private equity also brings something else

More retirees would claim their Social Security benefits online if they knew they could do so and get answers to basic questions about the process, a new study says. Only about 35% of retirees claim their Social Security benefits completely online without any phone calls or visits to the agency’s local office, according to an

Want to be a certified financial planner? Pursue another credential first. A recent study from the College for Financial Planning says urging the next generation of aspiring advisors to get other financial designations before going after their CFP certification could lead to a more diverse industry. The working paper, published in early November in academic

Cryptocurrencies had a break out moment in 2021, and NFTs were some of the biggest stars. Now, as with any new and hot investing trend, financial pros are hoping to capitalize on the craze with products promising a way to piggyback on the market. NFTs, short for non fungible tokens, exploded across the worlds of

About four years after choosing a rival brokerage over the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, a billion-dollar enterprise moved to LPL Financial. Elite Financial Network, a Huntington Beach, California-based office of supervisory jurisdiction with 30 financial advisors and $1 billion in client assets, left Advisor Group’s Securities America to rejoin LPL, the firms said on Jan.

As goes January, so goes the year. That’s the theory of a phenomenon known as the “January Barometer,” which suggests that if the stock market rises during the first month of the year, further gains may be in store for the next 11 months. Since 1950, the so-called January Barometer has been right 84.5% of

The first two dozen FINRA arbitration decisions involving a UBS options overlay strategy have gone slightly against the clients seeking about $200 million in combined damages. However, at least 10 clients have received compensation after filing cases alleging that the UBS Yield Enhancement Strategy, or “YES” for short, was an unsuitable recommendation, including Claimant Cheryl

More is the new less: Even if lawmakers decide not to raise taxes to bankroll the Biden administration’s climate and social spending plan, you may still end up paying more money to the IRS for this year. A combination of rising wages and inflation threatens to elbow some taxpayers into higher tax brackets this year,