Financial planners applauded last week’s dramatic one-half-percentage-point cut in the federal funds rate by the Federal Reserve Board, saying the move provides an opportunity to calm nervous investors and help clear up their debt problems.
After being beaten down as a result of the subprime-mortgage mess, junk bonds now look like big winners following last week’s interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Some financial advisers are relying on an old strategy called a grantor-retained annuity trust to help rich clients who want to pass their assets on to their children free of estate tax.
Broker-dealers will need to beef up compliance and oversight of variable annuity sales by their representatives at the start of next year.
With growth-oriented stocks poised to make a comeback, many mutual fund companies may soon be forced to weigh the power of lessons learned from the burst of the dot-com bubble against the allure of growth.
The insurance industry wants Congress to do something about the Byzantine system of state-by-state agent licensing and oversight.
Financial advisers are questioning the decision of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. to keep them in the dark after hackers gained access to their clients’ Social Security numbers, account numbers, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
Despite initial resistance, a few independent-broker-dealer firms have begun to allow their financial advisers to serve as fiduciaries, following pressure from the advisers themselves.
With the deadline for ending fee-based brokerage accounts looming, big brokerage firms are scrambling to move their customers into advisory accounts.
Chief executive Eric Schwartz is handing the title of president to chief operations officer Amy Webber.
