With no permanent repeal of the estate tax in sight, advisers are appeasing worried clients by putting new twists on old estate-planning tools.
Dwindling assets and intense regulatory scrutiny continue to take their toll on mutual fund B shares, which at the current rate of attrition are likely to become nearly extinct inside five years.
Let's say you paid $7 each back in early 2003 for 1,000 shares of a struggling Cupertino, Calif.-based personal-computer and consumer electronics company that was trading at a fire sale price based on a classic fundamental- valuation metric.
There just aren't enough planners to go around, according to leaders of the financial planning profession. Speaking this month in New York, Nicholas Nicolette, president of the Denver-based Financial Planning Association, said some firms will need to double or triple in size in the near future.
With the third-quarter-earnings season in full swing, financial advisers and analysts are finding similarities between this technology boom and the previous one — and they can't help but wonder if another bust is on the horizon.
The Phoenix Cos. Inc. has formed an alliance with Jefferson National Life Insurance Co. in which Phoenix will use the Jefferson technology platform to offer no-load variable annuities to fee-based advisers at wirehouses and regional broker-dealers.
It is difficult to evaluate funds and strategies that haven't yet established a track record, but the <b>Aston/Neptune International Fund (ANIIX) </b>comes to market with a certain pedigree and a legitimate strategy for investing outside the United States.
Here is a quick quiz that will test your qualifications to fill either of the two current openings on the Securities and Exchange Commission:
As we spoke, I could tell by the glint in his eye and his body language that Michael L. Weiss, chief executive of Frontier Financial Advisors LLC, is a helluva salesman. The fact that he was several miles away was just a technicality.
Lord Abbett & Co. has added Marybeth Leithead as a portfolio manager on its Municipal Bond team.
