CHICAGO — The seemingly endless quest for cost-effective alternative investments has increased the interest in collective trusts among employee benefit plan sponsors and financial advisers, though concern about transparency remains a hurdle.
DETROIT — Financial advisory firms that concentrate on holistic planning and leave the investment management to outside professionals are seeing the benefits in real dollar terms, according to a recent study.
NEW YORK — Another independent broker-dealer has shut its doors, months after one of its brokers got in trouble with regulators.
IRVINE, Calif. — Wachovia Securities LLC’s whirlwind tour of brokers at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. has helped calm anxieties about the merger of the two firms, but it hasn’t kept some representatives from abandoning ship. A 40-city tour by six Wachovia executives, including Wachovia chief executive Danny Ludeman and his counterpart at A.G. Edwards, Bob Bagby, is scheduled to conclude this week.
CHICAGO — Pension consultants and third-party administrators want bundled providers, including industry giants such as Vanguard and Fidelity, to disclose their revenue-sharing arrangements with affiliated service providers, but the bundled providers are balking.
Leasing often represents the alternative to making an investment in a non-financial asset. In many cases when the asset is essential, such as with a car or home, we can perform a buy-versus-lease analysis to determine which approach to take. Here I examine leasing’s strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate its uses for the car or home.
IRVINE, Calif. — Credit market turmoil has soured the outlook for the securities industry through next year. The fallout from the subprime-mortgage mess continues to roil much of Wall Street’s product origination and trading side.
PHILADELPHIA — Even though he was aware that it would violate their contracts, Gary Black, chief executive of Janus Capital Group Inc., told the company’s portfolio managers last October that they would receive pay cuts, according to a lawsuit filed last month.
CHICAGO — Financial advisers play a big role in directing individual retirement account rollovers. Fully 67% of individuals who completed a rollover during the two-year period through April did so with the help of a professional adviser, according to a study released Aug. 23 by Spectrem Group in Chicago.
NEW YORK — Workers know they need financial planning, and they are looking at their employers to guide them to sound decisions, according to a study from Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Minneapolis.
