Trader Talk

In today’s climate of environmental, human and health crises, investors are interested in purpose-driven investments that align with trends, shareholder returns and employee desires. This new expectation is shifting the way organizations transact with both internal and external stakeholders. To succeed as an investment professional, you must take a holistic view of your investment strategy.

Robinhood is seeking a valuation of $35 billion in its initial public offering, just short of the highest analyst projections, as the free trading app advances toward a debut likely to attract buyers from its own novice investor base. The company at the center of this year’s meme stock frenzy will market 55 million shares

As clients increasingly commit money to make a positive impact on society, “impact-first investing,” which puts social and environmental benefit ahead of financial return, is a logical next step for philanthropically inclined individuals and families looking for a way to make a difference. But they’ll need help from financial advisors, many of whom are already

Interest in cryptocurrency has gained serious momentum in 2021. As waves of new retail investors join established institutions in evolving their investment strategies, your clients with crypto holdings may welcome ways to leverage their cryptocurrency gains and offset the tax implications. Contributing cryptocurrency to a donor-advised fund (DAF) has become a popular strategy to strategically

Charles Schwab reported mixed results for the second quarter as net income was up significantly from the year-over-year figures but down slightly from the first quarter. The Westlake, Texas-headquartered financial services company reported $1.3 billion in net income for the second quarter on revenue of $4.5 billion, helped along by the country’s returning normalcy, the

There’s no shortage of buzz about quantum computing these days, and rightfully so. Quantum computers have the potential to unlock new answers and solve new problems by performing functions not only faster than standard computers, but also in entirely new ways. Depending on who you ask, the industry is anywhere from years to decades away

Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management has fired an advisor facing kidnapping and battery charges after he allegedly beat and imprisoned a woman in his Parkland, Florida, home just three weeks after being arrested for domestic violence against another woman. According to local news reports, Scott Jay Matalon, 40, threw his girlfriend of two months

The workplace, self-directed and retail wealth management giant that Morgan Stanley amassed through acquisitions in the past two years is humming to the tune of record revenue. After supplementing its existing wealth management unit with the purchases of employee stock and retirement plan firm Solium in 2019 and self-directed investing service E-Trade last year, the

The U.S. economy is on pace for its best year of growth in GDP in decades, according to LPL Financial’s midyear outlook. The SEC hired a team of new policy officials, and barred a jailed Morgan Stanley advisor who pleaded guilty to defrauding clients out of $6 million. Wealth management mergers and acquisitions are at

Target-date funds for the next generation of retirees have underperformed broader indexes over the last five years. They have also recorded significant outflows. The top-performing 2025 target-date funds, with at least $100 million in assets under management, notched an average five-year gain of roughly 11%, Morningstar Direct data show. Over the past year, the same

Wealth management is a silver lining at Bank of America. The Wall Street behemothreported earnings of $9.2 billion in the second quarter, up from $3.5 billion a year earlier. The huge increase was due in part to the bank’s release of more than $2 billion it stashed away in anticipation of covering soured loans from

Despite substantial hits from lost business and waivers of fees on money market funds, one of the largest custodians is adding assets and clearing accounts more quickly than a year ago. BNY Mellon’s Pershing brought in $40 billion in net new assets in the second quarter, which is nearly four times the $11 billion it

The current resurgence in value stocks calls for a discerning eye to gauge the different factor exposures driving the value rotation. Value’s resurrection began late last year as COVID-19 vaccine distribution campaign geared up and expectations for economic reopening increased. This coincided with a market shift that favored value stocks over more expensive companies exhibiting

The SEC has settled unrelated cases with two wealth management firms for improper disclosure of conflicts of interest. On Friday, the SEC announced that Kestra Advisory Services would pay $10 million for allegedly failing to disclose compensation received by its affiliated broker-dealer for investing clients in certain mutual funds. Kestra Private Wealth Services paid an

As markets rose and clients clamored to invest more, both with advisors and digitally, JPMorgan Chase’s Asset and Wealth Management unit reported $1.2 billion in net income for the second quarter of 2021 on revenue of $4.1 billion, a record, the bank announced July 13. The unit, which includes the New York-based bank’s financial advisors

A sometimes overlooked wealth management sector spanning thousands of banks and credit unions is turning into one of the most in demand for industry giants’ recruiting. With the goals of boosting their own wealth management services and adoption among their substantial client and member bases while retaining their most productive advisors, the institutions are changing

(Bloomberg Opinion) — The financial markets operate within a series of market regimes during which certain sets of economic conditions exist for a period of time. My first encounter with the concept was in 2000, when I read quantitative analyst Emanuel Derman’s paper, “Regimes of Volatility.” Derman explained that we have periods with persistently low

Vanguard agreed to buy a company that helps financial advisors build custom portfolios, branching further beyond its roots in traditional index-based investing — and marking its first-ever acquisition. The firm, called Just Invest, oversees $1 billion in assets managed with a direct indexing strategy, Vanguard said in a statement. Direct indexing involves replicating the performance

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Source: NYSE Earnings season begins with two major tailwinds: sky-high prices and soaring expectations.  On paper, second-quarter earnings season looks like the mother of all earnings reports, with estimates having risen steadily for the past six months, from expected 45% growth in January to 65% growth

Some of the world’s biggest money managers are betting on a swift comeback for battered reflation trades. JPMorgan Asset Management, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management — which together account for some $12 trillion in assets —- say the bond-market gains that have sent yields into a sudden tailspin are nothing to worry about. It’s

After its 50th deal over the past 15 years, one of the largest RIA consolidators is predicting that wealth management’s record-breaking M&A won’t be letting up in the near future. Captrust purchased Nachman Norwood & Parrott Wealth Management, a Greenville, South Carolina-based firm with eight financial advisors managing more than $2.1 billion in client assets,

One of the largest wealth managers’ desire to grow financial advisors’ practices has led to its hiring of a new head of business consulting. Michele Dillon started at Cetera Financial Group in April and has over 30 years of experience in the industry. She was most recently employed at St. Petersburg, Florida-based financial services firm

How wealth management firms plan to move beyond the coronavirus pandemic may reveal an emerging gap between how large and small practices can invest in technology. Most advisors intend to increase their tech budgets over the next year, according to Financial Planning’s annual Tech Survey. Four out of 10 firms plan to keep budgets consistent,

While there may be a divide between how large and small firms are using their technology budgets, advisors across the board recognize how important technology is for the future of their firms and the wealth management industry. Ninety-three percent of financial advisors say technology plays either a critical or very important role in their practice,

Central bankers might sound relaxed, but inflationary pressures are quickly rising, and not just in the U.S. For example, more manufacturers say they are paying higher prices for materials than any time since 1979, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s report for June. If that wasn’t problem enough, central bankers are still too focused

If Peter Thiel could use a special retirement account to accumulate $5 billion tax free, why can’t you? It’s only natural to wonder after a ProPublica report last month detailed how the venture capitalist turned a humdrum retirement savings vehicle into a shelter for spectacular capital gains. Thiel used what’s called a self-directed Roth IRA,

Failing to properly supervise their reps’ solicited sales of non-traditional ETFs, among other improper actions, has cost Sanctuary Securities a censure and more than a half-million dollars in fines and restitution. FINRA ordered the fast-growing broker-dealer with multiple custodian relationships to pay $530,161 — a $160,000 fine and restitution of $370,161, with interest. Sanctuary failed

An advisor took his $250 million practice from Merrill Lynch to LPL Financial, affiliating with Gladstone Wealth Partners as his OSJ. Americans aren’t as worried about the economy as they were last year, a new survey from Allianz Life Insurance found. And TIFIN, a fintech collective, will distribute its products to advisors through Broadridge Financial

Workplace retirement plans play a major role in helping Americans reach their retirement goals. Access to a retirement plan, though, is really just a starting point. The next step is nudging employees to save, save and save some more, particularly for employees who may have scaled back how much they were saving due to the

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has yet to make a federal political contribution to candidates of any party in 2021, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. Although many of the companies that suspended donations from their political action committees in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former