Trader Talk

In this article UEEC URI A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., August 19, 2021. Andrew Kelly | Reuters The markets: It’s August, but it’s also Covid. Normal August trading flows are being greatly complicated by the delta variant. A third but still important complication —

Most plan structures today still don’t accurately reflect the urgent need to empower participants to efficiently secure income. Successfully entrenching income options in employer-sponsored retirement plans will also call for redirecting some robust participant allocations currently not geared toward income at all. There are few doubts that guaranteed income is the future. But, what’s required

Virginia, Minnesota and California had multiple spots in Smart Asset’s annual report Best Cities for Young Financial Advisors to Start Their Career, released this week. “We found that the top-ranking cities in Virginia and Minnesota have lower living costs and slightly higher pay than pricey Bay Area cities,” said Mark LoCastro, a spokesperson for Smart

(Bloomberg Opinion) — More than 100,000 people who used to work or live in New York State have received notices from the tax department questioning them about their whereabouts last year and asking why they paid less to the state than they have in years past. Additional notices are likely to be sent once high

The higher risk, higher reward world of private credit is targeting the wealthy. Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management and other large firms have started offering products for individuals to invest in loans to midsized companies that banks won’t touch. The lure is a potential annual return at times surpassing 8%, when corporate bond

Herbers & Company has hired a financial therapist to expand the independent consulting firm’s education on client communication, behavioral finance and digital client experiences. In mid-August, Sonya Lutter, who had been a professor at Kansas State University for 12 years, joined Herbers & Co.’s Academy as its new director of institutional research and education. She

At their peak, they looked like the A-list’s hottest new accessories. Alex Rodriguez got one. So did Colin Kaepernick and Shaquille O’Neal. Jay-Z was a fan, as was Serena Williams. Special-purpose acquisition companies — better known as SPACs, or blank-check companies — made a splash during the COVID-era retail-trading surge. They are companies built with

Jasmine Jor knew how to save money. That wasn’t the problem. She’d never learned what to do with it once it was sitting in her bank account, until the fintech startup where she works, Blend, started offering financial planning as part of her benefit package. “I’ve always known that I think I should be doing

Beacon Pointe Advisors of Newport Beach, California, bought Northstar Investment Advisors, a $1 billion RIA in Denver, Colorado, as it attempts a climb into the league of mega-sized advisory firms. The acquisition, which closed Aug. 16, gives Beacon a combined $20 billion in client assets. “It’s a significant size deal for us in one of

For decades, high net worth investors were like partygoers standing out in the cold, watching as institutional and ultra-wealthy investors were ushered into the private equity investment club. Their barrier to entry wasn’t the wrong look. Rather, it was prohibitive investment minimums of between $1 million and $5 million, stringent investor eligibility standards, and administration

Janney Montgomery Scott added eight advisors from six teams with $1.4 billion in client assets, among other career moves. Two unregistered advisors face SEC charges for malfeasance. And Dynasty Financial Partners signed up several athletes to its brand. Scroll through for a look at what happened this week in the world of financial advice.

I recently took my first plane trip since the start of the pandemic. In addition to the strangeness of being around so many people again, I was struck by the conversations. My Uber driver described his latest crypto purchase, and in the hotel lobby, I overheard guests discussing their latest meme stock trades. While I

A former Merrill Lynch financial advisor who pleaded guilty to fraud will spend three and a half years in federal prison. The judge also ordered him to pay back the company less than half of the more than $7.5 million in restitution it has paid to victims of his 10-year scheme. Marcus E. Boggs’ Aug.

An RIA consolidator and hybrid LPL Financial enterprise made its 10th deal of the year. The acquisition agreement comes as its private equity backer is reportedly considering a sale of part of its stake. Wealth Enhancement Group is buying Miami-based Investor Solutions, a fee-only firm with six financial advisors and $1.1 billion in client assets,

In this article TGT HD LOW Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Source: NYSE Retail earnings have never been better, but the delta variant remains the wild card. In theory, this is a golden moment for retailers, which begin reporting earnings this week. Consider the following: The consumer is flush. The American

Morgan Stanley has asked a New York federal court to throw out a class action lawsuit alleging the firm failed to properly wipe sensitive client information from decommissioned computer equipment that has since gone missing. The former clients cannot plausibly identify instances of personal data being accessed or misused, or any other injury, that give

A 52-year-old financial advisor affiliated with LPL Financial and Wealth Enhancement Group viewed and sent child pornography through the Kik Messenger app, authorities say. Nicholas Spagnoletti was arrested Aug. 12 after investigators acting on a tip from the app and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found “images and videos depicting the sexual

In a vote of long term confidence for cryptocurrencies, broker dealer MassMutual Life Investors Services (MMLIS) announced it has entered a placement agent agreement with NYDIG for a Bitcoin fund. “MassMutual continues to believe that cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming part of the financial landscape and is working on a number of initiatives to better serve

JPMorgan Chase is set to add more fuel to the boom in actively managed exchange-traded funds. The financial giant plans to convert four mutual funds with $10 billion in assets into ETFs in 2022, pending approval from their boards, J.P. Morgan Asset Management said in a statement Wednesday. With $2.6 trillion in total assets, the

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, June 18, 2021. Source: NYSE Stock rotation: anti-lockdown, anti-low yields.   We are halfway through the third quarter, with the S&P 500 up a respectable 3.8% in the last six weeks. Even while a lot of traders are on the beach, there are two big narratives in

On December 20, 2019, the Setting Up Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE Act) was passed into law. While the law made a substantial number of revisions to the rules for retirement accounts, no single change received more attention than the SECURE Act’s rewriting of the post-death distribution rules that apply to most non-spouse

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-regulating watchdog of brokerages, opened a new front on rogue brokers last month when it scored the SEC’s blessing to weed out “high risk firms” where advisors cheat investors. If FINRA’s analysis of recent history is a guide, “high risk” would exclusively mean small and mid-sized brokerages. By contrast,

The watchword for wealth management in 2021 is uncertainty. With potential tax changes on the horizon, questions over which asset classes will fare well, remain flat or falter abound and permeate nearly all aspects of wealth management and investments. As always, helping clients navigate this environment requires clear and direct communication and an organized approach.

President Biden’s plans to increase taxes on the highest earners and wealthiest Americans presents financial advisors with their greatest opportunity in decades to grow their business with high-net-worth and business owner clients. The last big opportunity was in the 1980s when income taxes were higher and estate tax exemptions were lower. Advisors who use this

It has only taken about a year and a half since a Canadian asset manager entered the U.S. wealth management industry to transform its business. For the first time ever, CI Financial posted more assets in its wealth management arm than in its traditional fund business at the end of the second quarter, the Toronto-based

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, Tech Editor Ryan Neal explains the divergence between large and smaller practices with respect to their digital plans. Neal is the author of FP’s recently published annual tech survey of financial advisors, entitled “The tech investment squeeze,” which tracked how practices are changing amid the coronavirus

(Bloomberg) — While dread gathers around the potential impact of a resurgent virus on the economy, stock bulls are clinging to their favorite rebuttal: U.S. mobility data. Information on the movement of people — in airports, on subways, at restaurants — is giving cover to equity longs who are poised to send the S&P 500

After several years of a steady increase in the number of consumers working with financial advisors, the rise of digital, “free” do-it-yourself trading apps over the past 16 months may be starting to reverse the trend. Engagement with a traditional advisor has fallen 4.3% among U.S. investors in 2021, according to research from Parameter Insights.

Affluent Americans are panicking over the Biden administration’s proposed tax hikes, perhaps the steepest in a generation. But some investors on the cusp of potentially big-time wealth have far less reason to worry. A loophole in the tax code known as qualified small business stock lets employees at small companies who receive stock as part

This week’s news about financial advisor Eileen Cure allegedly refusing to hire Black employees has shocked the industry. But it doesn’t come as a surprise to me, nor to other Black financial professionals. We have direct experience with these attitudes from employers, colleagues, prospects and sometimes even clients. If the story came as a shock