Trader Talk

I’m not going to lie: My palms were sweating, and I could feel the heat of the overhead lighting. I was about to lead a conversation with two finance industry veterans who almost need no introduction. To my right sat Jason Wenk, CEO at Altruist and a four-time founder who has successfully started and scaled

Wall Street’s push to refill office towers across the country has been derailed again. This time it’s the highly transmissible omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus that’s forced executives to rethink their plans. A record 10 million people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the seven days through Sunday, almost twice the pandemic’s previous weekly high,

The big theme of investing for 2021 has been decision-making under uncertainty. When things are unpredictable or unreliable, cognitive and emotional biases can play an even bigger role in investors’ decisions. As Morgan Stanley wrote in an Aug. 2020 note, the pandemic has served as a trigger for emotional biases of many stripes. While COVID

While the world of wealth management is one of mergers, acquisitions and celebrating growing AUM totals, it is also one that occasionally includes client deception, federal indictments and criminal behavior. The past 12 months have seen several new allegations brought to light, as well as a number of lingering cases finally reaching resolution after years

Like many other industries, the world of wealth management has spent the past 12 months tackling diversity and inclusion (somewhat) head-on after generations of sidestepping the conversation. Built on promises by industry leaders in 2020 to provide opportunity and plant seeds for a more inclusive environment in the years to come, new initiatives were launched

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, a veteran diversity consultant explains how a major industry vendor is trying to help remove barriers against historically excluded groups. Sales enablement firm Seismic, which works with Ameriprise and Advisor Group as part of a client list spanning four out of the five largest wealth managers,

For over a decade, savers in investment-grade bonds have watched their yields trend from poor to worse. But with inflation surging, recent speculation on the Fed’s tapering of bond purchases and the potential for interest rate hikes, is the bond investor’s long-awaited relief from low yields finally on the horizon? If so, what might investors

There’s little reason to fear that the rally that catapulted U.S. stocks to successive records this year will end soon, according to JPMorgan Chase strategists. In fact, it may get broader. “Conditions for a large selloff are not in place right now given already low investor positioning, record buybacks, limited systematic amplifiers and positive January

It was a busy year in the world of wealthtech in 2021. Meme stocks blew up, SEC chair Gary Gensler took aim at online brokerages, crypto and more, and direct indexing started to enter the mainstream. (Read our list of top tech stories in 2021 here) What does 2022 hold? We asked wealthtech insiders just

Catherine Wood, chief executive officer of ARK Investment Management LLC, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images Cathie Wood started the year as a bona fide superstar in the rarified world of active stock picking. She ends the year

A select group of financial advisors, executives and entrepreneurs stand ready to break records and drive change in wealth management in the new year. As wealth managers draw new infusions of capital from an expanding group of investors while breaking records for M&A volume and deal size, the staff at Financial Planning set out to

When it comes to taxes, investors and their advisors have been on a roller coaster this year, careening through a legislative funhouse of trapdoors and hidden surprises. Best stay buckled in, because the wild ride is continuing into 2022. What began in 2021 as a push by the Biden administration to raise rates on the

Financial planning and advising requires a wide range of skills, from technical and investment knowledge to business management and people skills. We asked advisors what books, read in 2021, made the most impact for them professionally. Answers included books on money management, to those on psychology, goal-setting and philosophy. Scroll through to see what inspired

Superlatives followed one after another in 2021’s wild ride for U.S. stock investors. The most all-time highs in 26 years. Triple-digit rallies in some small caps thanks to retail-trader frenzies. A $1 trillion rout after China cracked down on some of its biggest companies. In a year marked by a waning pandemic, new COVID-19 variants,

Helping a client reach their financial goals while managing risk is the most fundamental part of an investment advisor’s job. While we can all agree that rebalancing is key to doing it well, there is almost no universal agreement on the best way to approach the process. Each year in Advyzon’s annual survey, we ask

With cash yields near zero and safe bonds paying little more, many U.S. investors say they have no choice but to take more risk if they want to grow their money. While that may be true, investors also appear to be chasing the same investments in their quests for higher returns, stretching valuations and ratcheting

Regulators rejected a pair of proposals to offer physically backed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, handing crypto enthusiasts a proverbial bag of coal ahead of the Christmas holiday. The SEC said on Wednesday that the proposals from Valkyrie Investments and Kryptoin failed to meet requirements to prevent fraudulent and manipulative practices that are needed to protect investors.

Just like a year ago at this time, FINRA is unveiling a flurry of cases under its 529 plan program and other settlements with ramifications for wealth managers. In the past week alone, at least 13 firms settled 10 different FINRA cases while agreeing to pay more than $15 million in restitution and fines. After

The Department of Labor wants to clarify a statement made under the Trump administration about the use pf private equity investments in 401(k) plans. Edward Jones has raised more than $30 million toward its $50 million goal to fund Alzheimer’s research. There were hirings and moves, as usual. Scroll through to find what you might

Between a meme stock frenzy powered by digital brokerage apps, cryptocurrencies continuing their wild ride and a never-ending parade of mergers, acquisitions and fundraising deals, fintech kept making headlines in 2021. As we move into the holiday season and take a well-deserved break before getting back to work in the new year, here’s a look

An SEC committee is calling out firms over form CRS disclosures, stating that many of the summaries provided by registered broker-dealers and investment advisors are inundated with jargon, technical terms and readability issues that impede the intended goal of the process. But fiduciary and plain-language experts critical of the required summaries say the commission’s call

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on December 08, 2021 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images Will there be a Santa Claus rally? The bulls say yes. The Santa Claus rally is a very specific event. It is the tendency for the market to rise in the

Our ongoing discussion about the dynamic landscape of cryptoassets would not be complete without unpacking the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement. This emerging space has piqued the interest of investors around the world, and your clients are among them. The industry is ripe for disruption, and it is highly probable that the world we operate within,

Wirehouses will give up the title of the wealth management channel with the most client assets by the end of this year and fall to third place by 2022, according to a new report. Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo could stem the tide, however, with their investments in online brokerages, workplace retirement

Amid the widespread confusion about standards and high barriers to entry for impact investing managers, some of the strongest advocates of ESG metrics are also among the biggest critics. With more than $17 trillion in sustainable investing assets in the U.S. and $35 trillion in global AUM flowing into an array of new and growing

Despite a drop in clean-energy stocks and intensifying concerns about widespread greenwashing, the market for investment products sold as being ESG-related had another record year by most yardsticks. Issuance of sustainable loans and bonds, where proceeds are supposedly earmarked for environmental projects or to further a company’s social goals, exceeded $1.5 trillion, including about $505

Avantax is settling charges with the SEC that 1st Global Advisors recommended high-cost mutual fund share classes to classes without disclosing that it generated revenue from the fees. Avantax will pay a total of nearly $17 million to settle the case. The firm will return $12.4 million to investors in revenue generated from 12b-1 fees,

A brokerage firm accused of failing to track “junk bond” overconcentration in customer accounts for years has agreed to pay $1 million to settle with FINRA. The regulator has sanctioned RBC Capital Markets, a New York-based broker-dealer with 2,400 registered representatives in its 275 branch offices, in a case involving potentially unsuitable concentration levels of

What factors will empower the new crop of chief diversity officers to make progress after decades of little industry movement? What are their priorities for the next year? How much of a barrier is inclusion and what does that really look like in practice? For answers to these questions and more, join EY vice chair

Elad Roisman, one of two Republicans at the SEC, said Monday that he plans to step down by the end of January. His departure will leave Hester Peirce as the only GOP commissioner at the agency as Chair Gary Gensler pursues an ambitious rule-making agenda that is opposed by some business groups. Gensler, who took