Trader Talk

An intense debate over whether inflation is poised to return has divided wealth managers into two camps: don’t sweat it, and time to worry. Advisors are watching closely as economists argue whether the government’s unleashing of more than $5.3 trillion in pandemic aid over the last 12 months will turbocharge the economy and fuel a

Cash-out refinancing, when borrowers trade an existing mortgage for a bigger one and then pocket the difference, reached the highest level last year since the 2008 financial crisis. With home prices appreciating during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s actually surprising that it isn’t happening even more often. It should. Many homeowners worry too much about being

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE Are you confused about what is going on in the markets? Traders sure are. “We all got comfortable thinking Covid was done or manageable, and it may turn out to still be a wild card,” Peter Tchir from Academy Securities told me. ”Nobody wants another

Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg News Over the past year, we have heard the SEC argue that investors should be given greater access to the private markets. We have seen the proliferation of online trading platforms, zero commission trading, and apps that provide investors with easy and continuous access to options and stock markets. Across all fronts, investors

Is it crazy to pay $69.3 million for a digital artwork that is itself a composite of the artist’s other major artworks? More specifically, is it crazy to pay that much merely for the right to claim you own the original copy of a collection of pixels that can be reproduced by anyone? The more

As the clamor for cryptocurrencies increases, BNY Mellon is making a strategic investment in a startup that custodies digital assets for institutions. The investment is part of the company’s broader plan to roll out digital asset custody by the end of this year, in a sector where competitors have experienced significant demand in recent months.

When financial advisor Ross Gerber decided he would start helping clients invest in cryptocurrency last year, he knew it wasn’t going to be easy. There were the hacking attempts he’d faced on his own Bitcoin wallet and the lack of SEC guidance — not to mention there were few companies to help him make it

An activist investor aiming to overhaul a midsize wealth manager’s parent firm is appealing directly to the firm’s advisors for support. Ancora Holdings — an asset manager with $8.7 billion in assets that owns 3.4% of outstanding shares in Avantax Wealth Management parent Blucora — sent an open letter on March 17 to Avantax’s roughly

The Internal Revenue Service has pushed back the tax-filing deadline until May 17 after heavy pressure from Congress and tax and accounting groups. The move will give taxpayers and tax professionals an extra month after the original deadline of April 15. May 15 falls on a Saturday, so the date was moved up until Monday,

At the end of January, an impeccably preserved painting by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli sold for a record $92.2 million. Six weeks later, a work that could not be further from the Old Master, a digital compilation of images by an artist who goes by the name of Beeple, sold for $69.3 million. The

Stifel Financial is aiming for a bigger slice of the IBD market. The firm, long known for its employee brokerage and other finance units, is rebranding its independent broker-dealer business and has tapped a former Wells Fargo FiNet executive, Alex David, to lead the effort. “We already offer the products, services, technology, and support to

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 16, 2020 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images March 16, 2020 was the day when Covid got very real for market investors.  It was the week everyone realized that we would be in for a prolonged shutdown. When

A former New York Life broker is potentially facing decades behind bars after being convicted on 24 charges of fraud and identity theft against one client. The verdict came only five months after a grand jury indicted the same ex-broker in a separate case that’s part of the largest health care fraud and opioid enforcement

Government regulation may be creating future business opportunities for advisors — although, in some cases, a long way off. California, Oregon, Illinois and other states are instituting state-mandated automatic IRAs for businesses that do not offer their employees retirement plans. The programs, which are being implemented in stages, have the potential to push millions of

It has been nearly a year since the coronavirus pandemic upended just about every aspect of life — for financial advisors, their clients and everyone else. National lockdown orders and market volatility have had a material impact on business, with many people losing their jobs or placed on furlough. Then there is the emotional toll

As private equity firms race to grab even small stakes in RIAs, a global giant with a growing wealth management portfolio is scooping up a part of one the industry’s biggest names. Edelman Financial Engines and lead investor Hellman & Friedman agreed to sell a minority stake in the firm to Warburg Pincus, the companies

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE Do you have Fear of Missing Out on all this wild trading going on this year? Would you buy a FOMO fund if someone offered it to you? Some investors are betting you will. Investing in the stock market these days is like

Beware of celebrities hyping SPACs. That’s the message from the SEC, which warned investors Wednesday about buying shares of special purpose acquisition companies based on endorsements from Hollywood actors, professional athletes and famous musicians. The SEC highlighted that the red-hot listings, which have captured the attention of Wall Street and retail investors, can pose substantially

One of the largest wealth managers is adding to its ranks with a focus on advisory assets and an expanded pool of potential recruits amid the coronavirus pandemic. Cetera Financial Group recruited nine teams with $1.7 billion in client assets in February, and the firm poached a bank’s investment program from rival LPL Financial earlier

In a rare SEC reversal of a FINRA disciplinary action, a former Ameriprise financial advisor is no longer subject to a one-year suspension and a $50,000 fine. The March 5 finding came eight years after FINRA first accused David B. Tysk of violating its rules by supplementing his contact notes after a customer complained to

A global network of active asset managers is expanding its significant U.S footprint and breaking into wealth management under a major M&A deal. Litman Gregory Asset Management — a 34-year-old practice that has also managed a lineup of mutual funds since 1996 — sold to iM Global Partner, the firms said March 9. San Francisco

One advisor is in jail, accused of murdering a client for his life insurance money. Another was arrested on charges of child sex abuse. An alternative investment manager raised billions of dollars for funds now described by authorities as a Ponzi-like scheme by selling its risky and costly products through wealth managers. None of these

Wells Fargo is dropping the Abbot Downing name for managing ultra-rich clients’ money as wealth and investment management head Barry Sommers remakes the unit. The firm will move the business under the Wells Fargo Private Bank brand, according to a statement Thursday. The company previously combined Abbot Downing and the private bank, which serves clients

The 60/40 portfolio has been a mainstay of investing for years. After all, it’s been a winning defensive strategy — allocate the bulk of a fund to riskier equities with the remainder seeking the relative safety of fixed income. But with stratospheric stock markets sparking talk of a bubble, the bond side of the trade

The $1.9 trillion COVID relief package signed by President Biden on Thursday isn’t aimed only at lower-income and middle-class individuals. Advisors say that many upper-middle-class earners and even the mass affluent can potentially qualify for a portion of the tax breaks or direct cash payments. Here’s a cheat sheet to the main personal finance elements

CI Financial, the leading acquirer of independent wealth management firms last year, is aiming to retain that title. The Toronto-based RIA said Thursday that it had snapped up Barrett Asset Management of New York, its second acquisition this year. The deal by CI Financial, an RIA with nearly $186 billion in client assets, is the

Investing in financial markets should be as common as shopping on Amazon, says Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, defending his brokerage against watchdogs, lawmakers and critics. “Investing should be as ubiquitous as shopping online,” Tenev says in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang. “It should just be something that people do.” The Menlo Park, California-based

Two of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds say investors should expect much lower returns going forward in part because the typical balanced portfolio of 60/40 stocks and bonds no longer works as well in the current rate environment. Singapore’s GIC Pte and Australia’s Future Fund said global investors have relied on the bond market

It has been about three decades since the first ETF became available to investors. Since then, the industry has grown to more than $4 trillion. Over the last 15 years, the 20 ETFs with the largest net inflows, and at least $100 million in assets under management, brought in a combined $808.93 billion, Morningstar Direct

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. NYSE Stock traders don’t normally talk about bond auctions, but all this week the 10-year Treasury auction that will happen on Wednesday has been the main subject of conversation. “It’s been a long time since stock traders have cared about bond auctions,” Matt Maley