Trader Talk

After weeks of grumbling, the world’s biggest bond market spoke loud and clear Thursday — growth and inflation are moving higher. The message wreaked havoc across risk assets. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields catapulted to the highest in more than a year at over 1.6% and traders yanked forward their opinion of how soon the Fed

Thasunda Brown Duckett, who helped build JPMorgan Chase’s retail banking network, will take over at TIAA, the companies said Thursday, joining the asset manager at time when its rivals are scaling up to survive. Duckett, 47, will become chief executive and president of TIAA on May 1, succeeding Roger Ferguson Jr. — who had previously

The lack of coordination and coherent policy on China has sent mixed signals and confusion to American investors investing in Chinese companies listed on the NYSE. Collectively, this represents over $1 trillion worth of shares trading in the US. In an unprecedented move, on Dec 31 the NYSE announced it would delist several Chinese companies.

In hockey, it’s the equivalent of moving the red line. Two years ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with Pennsylvania officials and a union leader, lobbied Donald Trump’s administration to expand an area earmarked for tax incentives so it would include the site where the hockey team is embarking on a $1 billion development project. The

Cryptocurrency investors face two big headaches this tax filing season: the Internal Revenue Service is ramping up scrutiny of digital assets, and some investors owe large tax bills after cashing in last year’s hefty profits on Bitcoin and other blockchain-based coins. The twin challenges, a counterpoint to Bitcoin’s blockbuster gains so far this year, create

With more than 4 out of 10 financial advisors aged 55 or older, a large wealth manager rolled out a new training program aimed at the next generation of independent advisors. Ameriprise’s Associate Financial Advisor Business Development Program is its first formalized training for the hundreds of licensed associate advisors the Minneapolis-based wealth manager’s independent

RIAs are hiring — often from one another. Approximately 39% of new hires at RIAs in 2019 came from other independent firms, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab. That’s the top source of new recruits, according to the research. With growing demand for financial advice during the coronavirus pandemic, RIAs are on the

Just seven years after landing an internship with Northwestern Mutual as a college student, a financial advisor launched a new office of the giant insurer and wealth manager. Anthony Williams leads a team of four representatives and four other staff members who opened the new office in New York City on Feb. 19, he said

Thasunda Brown Duckett, the highest-ranking Black executive at JPMorgan Chase, is set to exit the company after 17 years to take over as president and CEO of TIAA in New York. The CEO of Chase Consumer Banking since 2016 and one of the most powerful female bankers in the industry, Duckett will succeed Roger Ferguson

A financial advisor who says his practice has expanded by more than $200 million in the past six years dropped his longtime broker-dealer after launching an RIA. Assets under management at Palash Islam’s Synergy Financial Group surged to $225 million this year from $21 million at the end of 2013, according to Islam, who onced

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on “The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress” on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh | Pool | Reuters Stock investors are trying desperately to interpret what a rise in bond yields means for the stock market. Since February 10th,

Client trading activity was high last year, but in 2021 it’s “off the charts” at Morgan Stanley’s platform for self-directed investors, according to CFO Jonathan Pruzan. Daily average trades are 50% higher year-to-date than they were in the fourth quarter when Morgan Stanley averaged 1.1 million, Pruzan said. And client engagement has soared in the

Activists are pushing Nasdaq to expand its proposed board-diversity rules to include people with disabilities. The exchange operator’s planned regulations are currently too narrow and should be amended, Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities said in comment letters submitted jointly to the SEC. In a Jan. 8 letter to the SEC, Nasdaq

Rockefeller Capital Management added to its growing advisor ranks and branched out into the Centennial State. The New York-based firm picked up a four-member team from Merrill Lynch to staff a new office in Denver. The group includes advisors Matthew Richeda and Christopher Farr; Christopher Nazzaro, senior client associate; and Anna Miller, client associate. Richeda

Robo advisors rebounded from a tough first quarter to finish 2020 with strong investment performances. The average automatically managed portfolio returned 14.90% on equity holdings and 6.3% on fixed income, according to Backend Benchmarking, a research firm that analyzes the performance of the industry’s leading digital advisors. Over the five years that Backend Benchmarking has

Stephanie Mackara’s clients are “long-term, buy-and-hold investors,” but that hasn’t stopped some from calling to ask her about special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), the trendy alternative to an initial public offering that’s sweeping the equities markets. “[SPACs] are extremely speculative and one is putting their full faith and credit into the SPAC firm to pick

Startup custodian Altruist has hired an ex-TD Ameritrade director to lead the company’s market strategy and help develop its offering. Pete Dorsey, TD’s former national managing director of institutional sales and relationship management, will now serve as chief strategy and revenue officer at Altruist. “Pete will be leading our go-to-market initiatives as well as overseeing

Cathy Wood Crystal Mercedes | CNBC Some called it the “Cathie Wood sell-off.”   At the open Tuesday, the top names owned by Ark Investment Management were the biggest decliners in the market.  Shares of Palantir, Tesla, Roku, Square, Paypal, Teladoc, Baidu, Zillow, Shopify and Spotify were all down big, in many cases by double-digits.  All

The American College of Financial Services’ new Center for Economic Empowerment and Equality has a plan for turning the industry’s oft-stated goal of boosting financial literacy and generational wealth among underrepresented groups into a reality. It’s one that, in the early stages at least, won’t rely on financial advisors. The new center comes as part

A year after adding thousands of financial advisors from a massive acquisition, Advisor Group is taking steps to build connections across its six firms. The 11,000-advisor network held the first quarterly meeting of its new National Advisory Board of a dozen advisors last month, according to Erinn Ford, the Phoenix-based wealth manager’s executive vice president

Broadridge is now offering securities-based lending to advisors and their clients as the company tries to grow its wealth-management business. The fintech company has a new digital marketplace called the Wealth Lending Network where wealth managers can connect with a bank and access loans. Bancorp is the inaugural bank on the marketplace, and Broadridge is

Custodian Apex Clearing has agreed to go public through a merger with the blank-check company Northern Star Investment Corp. II, according to people familiar with the matter. The transaction, which could be announced as early as Monday, will be valued at $4.7 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is

Although there are as many as seven to nine million Americans estimated to be living abroad at any given time, widespread knowledge among U.S. financial advisors on how to advise expat clients is lacking — particularly in those parts of the U.S. where few residents leave for more than a few weeks of vacation or

For financial advisors looking to move their practice to a new firm, making the transition is rarely a simple process. With so much at stake, there is a long list of complexities and considerations that must be taken into account, from compliance issues and fiduciary responsibilities, to professional ethics and legal and procedural obligations. Understanding

Taxpayers can expect a smooth filing season despite monumental challenges in getting pandemic relief to millions of people, according to the nation’s top tax official. IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told a virtual event held Jan. 17 by the New York City Bar Association that the annual season “is going seamless.” With two rounds of stimulus

Higher savings rates and changing spending patterns drove down unsecured personal lending in 2020, even as other consumer lending in other categories rose. Total balances of unsecured personal loans fell 8% year over year to $148 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, TransUnion said in a consumer credit report released Thursday. The number of

The Internal Revenue Service provided guidance Thursday on how employees and employers can carry over unused money from flexible spending accounts and dependent care assistance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notice 2021-15 details the relief offered under the stimulus package passed by Congress in December, which included provisions allowing greater flexibility for employee benefit plans

In its second recruiting grab of the young year involving at least $1 billion in client assets, Raymond James added an indie team from Wells Fargo. Eight financial advisors managing $1.06 billion in client assets with Hall Financial Advisors and Karageorge Wealth Management left Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network for Raymond James Financial Services, the

It’s winter during a pandemic: the perfect season to snag a bit of alone time by reading a book. We asked financial advisors across the country to tell us the best work-related books they’re reading now or have recently finished. From business to finance to economic history, these books will help you level up in

On Jan. 28, the day after GameStop mania hit its crescendo on the back of a short squeeze for the record books, about $359 million worth of shares were caught in limbo. More than 1 million shares were deemed failed-to-deliver that day due either to buyers lacking cash to complete purchases or sellers not having