Trader Talk

Clients think they understand how to invest — but their advisors don’t agree, a new study found. Investors were three times more likely to say they were knowledgeable about the markets as their advisors, according to the second annual Investments and Wealth Institute’s 2021 Investor Behavior in a Market Crisis report, which found that there

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said Wednesday he wants mandatory disclosure on climate risks, and he wants the agency to

For advisors who are just starting out or veterans who are contemplating new models for their practices, going independent can be alluring. Independence promises autonomy, freedom from corporate bureaucracy and the satisfaction of building your own business. But it can also bring headaches and profound challenges, particularly on the regulatory and compliance front. In an

The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy is less than two months away. There will be many commemorations, many reflections on how downtown New York and the country has changed since then. But for the people who lived and worked downtown during that time and are still with us, this is also time to take

After a relatively quiet spring for wealthtech financing deals, iCapital Network announced a massive fundraising that nearly tripled the company’s total funding. The New York-based company, which provides a technology platform to help financial advisors access alternative investments, reeled in $440 million in an investment round led by Temasek, the government of Singapore’s sovereign wealth

RIAs embraced technology in 2020, a year that saw new challenges brought on by the pandemic — and it paid back big time, in more clients, assets and revenues, according to Charles Schwab’s 2021 RIA Benchmarking Study, released on Tuesday. “2020 created an atmosphere of innovation that helped advisors reimagine how they engage with clients,

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Source: NYSE The latest volatility in China — with regulators in Beijing attempting to rein in several sectors of the Chinese economy — is only the latest blow for international investors.  “The invest-in-China mantra has always been based on the idea that China was going

Market appreciation, larger sales and massive inflows to wrap advisory accounts helped boost one of the largest wealth manager’s profits by more than 50% in the second quarter. Minneapolis-based Ameriprise’s Advice & Wealth Management unit raked in nearly half a billion dollars in pretax adjusted operating earnings with a bump of 380 basis points over

Mercer Advisors has hired its first-ever chief technology and digital officer as the RIA looks to expand its technology and digital platform efforts. Mercer Advisors has tapped Christine Cataldo, Edelman Financial Services’ former chief operations and technology officer, for the position. In her new role, Cataldo will oversee plans to digitize Mercer’s workflows and improve

President Joe Biden has pledged that his sweeping American Families Plan will only target the nation’s wealthiest individuals, increasing taxes on those in the top 1.8% earning $400,000 annually or higher with the majority of new money coming from those bringing home $1 million a year. But owners of small businesses who are planning to

Over the next decade, the baby boomer generation will retire and eventually pass away with approximately $30 trillion in financial assets that will end up in the hands of women. On average, women outlive men by 5-6 years and 70% of widows will switch advisors within the year of their partner’s passing. This is the

Fidelity warned companies it invests in that, if they don’t take sufficient action to combat climate change, the asset manager will vote against management at shareholder meetings beginning next year. The $787.1 billion investment firm announced new policies on climate change and gender diversity Monday that include requirements for portfolio companies to manage their environmental

The Internal Revenue Service notified taxpayers last year about provisions of the CARES Act allowing them to take penalty-free early distributions from their 401(k) and IRA plans to provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions took advantage of it, according to a new report that warned of potential noncompliance with the requirements. The report,

Intelliflo, a new technology company created by asset manager Invesco, has landed a significant new customer. Insurance giant State Farm announced plans to migrate its brokerage business onto Intelliflo’s platform in an effort to boost agents’ ability to offer investment management and financial planning. Agents will get a single program to recommend products across brokerage

Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott added three teams from Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch across two states managing $1.4 billion in client assets, the firm said on Monday. “These are top teams and impressive hires,” recruiter Mark Elzweig, president of Mark Elzweig Company, says in an email to Financial Planning. “Many wirehouse advisors are attracted to

Like many of my colleagues, I came out of a large wirehouse environment. And I suspect, like many of you, I left that environment because I could not reconcile my need to do what was best for the client with the firm’s emphasis on product- and commission-driven transactions that may have met the suitability standard

Americans say financial advisors are their most trusted sources for financial advice, with nearly four in 10 saying they’re working with an advisor, according to a poll for Northwestern Mutual. Those seeking advanced education can try out Kaplan’s new master’s degree in financial analysis. And advisors were on the move, to Verdence Capital Advisors, LPL

In this article DAL Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), July 21, 2021. Brendan McDermid | Reuters A quarter of the way through earnings season, we are headed toward the best profit growth in over a decade.  One-fourth of the S&P 500 has now reported second-quarter earnings. Overall earnings are

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is planning to more than double the advisors in its traditional broker business as the Wall Street giant plots an expansion in wealth management amid intensifying competition for rich clients. The bank aims to hire more than 500 advisors in coming years, bringing its total in the unit to 1,000, said

Many of the world’s biggest asset managers say they’re increasingly struggling with some of the rules guiding the $35 trillion market for environmental, social and governance investing. Much of the confusion revolves around defining the social aspect. The guideposts are generally seen as confusing and this is “going to become a bigger issue going forward,”

Americans expect their financial advisors to act in their best interests, an expectation that can only be achieved through education, commitment to ethics and rigorous enforcement of high ethical standards. During my 20-year career at the SEC, I worked in the enforcement division, where we focused on investor protection, developing programs designed to detect various

When Direxion’s new budget-stock fund starts trading on Thursday, its biggest holding will be one of the most famously expensive shares in the country. A quirk of indexing means that AMC Entertainment Holdings — currently pricier than about 90% of S&P 500 members — has yet to exit the gauge of cheap shares tracked by

Prudential Financial said it would sell its full-service retirement business to a unit of Canada’s Great-West Lifeco for $3.55 billion as the life insurer continues implementing Chief Executive Officer Charles Lowrey’s three-year transformation plan. The business will be purchased by Great-West’s Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Empower Retirement division. Prudential expects total proceeds of about $2.8 billion

Worries over rising prices on everything from cars to plane tickets to washing machines are overblown for now, a senior Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist said Wednesday. Michelle Meyer, the head of U.S. economics at Bank of America Global Research, told a webinar hosted by the Wall Street bank and its Merrill Lynch wirehouse

Fresh off a private equity infusion and billion-dollar valuation, one of the largest hybrid RIAs is investing in financial advisor content with a new hire for its coaching arm. Carson Group — the firm whose minority stake was acquired last week by Bain Capital — appointed ex-FPA Publications Editor-in-Chief Ana Trujillo Limón to be the

A Houston, Texas-based midsize independent broker-dealer will pay $750,000 to settle a FINRA case for alleged systemic supervisory failures relating to excessive trading and variable annuities, according to the signed agreement. The firm, NEXT Financial Group, was also censured and required to retain an independent consultant. Atria Wealth Solutions, which acquired NEXT in June 2019,

UBS Wealth Management Americas more than doubled its pretax operating profit, despite the net loss of 136 financial advisors from a year earlier. The wirehouse reached a record $505 million in pretax income after its thinned-out force of 6,274 advisors reeled in net new advisory assets of $13.5 billion, UBS said in disclosing its second-quarter

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE I have several friends in the restaurant business. For the past few weeks, I’ve heard the same story every weekend: business is fabulous, and we can’t get enough help. This week, several of those restaurant people asked me what was going on with these Covid

Mariner Wealth Advisors has made its largest RIA acquisition to date to bring aboard a longtime business partner and friend of CEO Marty Bicknell. The consolidator is buying AdvicePeriod, a Los Angeles-based RIA with $5.1 billion in assets under management. With backing from private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, which owns a minority stake

Financial advisors with a massive wealth manager bought and held an expressly short-term product for more than a year in hundreds of clients accounts, according to the SEC. UBS Financial Services agreed to pay $8.1 million in disgorgement, interest and a civil penalty after the regulator alleged that the wirehouse’s advisors placed 1,882 accounts in