Following the “breakdown of the central pillar of competitive markets,” new regulatory changes will be needed in the areas of fraud, settlements and securitization in order for the financial markets to “return to stability,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said today.
Advise clients that the choices they make on their beneficiary forms are more important than they might imagine.
The financial services industry yesterday called on Congress to enact sweeping regulatory reforms, including creating a “stability regulator” to oversee systemic risk in all financial services firms.
Independent financial planners are poised to “own” the personal finance market, but that is partly contingent on advisers getting up to speed and becoming more comfortable with the Internet and blogging technology.
More than half of large companies are using automatic enrollment in their retirement plans, and overall, more employers have begun pulling the trigger on automatic enrollment, a new study shows.
It is time for politicians of all stripes to stop blaming the financial crisis on "Wall Street greed" and level with the American public.
Amid the failures and mergers on Wall Street, there is at least one silver lining for independent broker dealers and smaller asset managers.
Brokers and industry observers worry that the Department of the Treasury's capital purchase program to inject $250 billion into the financial services industry could mark a new era of government control and mistrust of the industry.
Advisers were denied access to the San Francisco-based Schwab Institutional website, which allows them to input client orders and check accounts and transaction histories, for about one hour, Schwab spokeswoman Alison Wertheim said.
Why download music when you could instead be listening to a market outlook forecast from MFS Investment Management?
Let’s say you were a financial planner in 1926. Of course, there was no such discipline as financial planning in the Roaring ’20s.
Advisers have a huge opportunity to win business in the 403(b) arena, but they must act quickly, a retirement expert said at a panel on the subject at the Center for Due Diligence’sconference in Scottsdale, Ariz.
AARP is collaborating with state securities regulators to monitor “free-lunch” seminars given by financial-product providers.
Advisers need to keep an eye on a particular court case regarding 401(k) fees, because if the U.S. Court of Appeals rules in favor of participants, an outpouring of additional lawsuits could occur in short order, according to a lawyer who specializes in retirement issues.
Advisers need to brace themselves for more changes in and scrutiny of 401(k) plans, particularly as investors have witnessed their nest eggs dwindle dramatically in recent weeks, according to one retirement expert.
The following is an edited transcript of the round-table discussion. It was moderated by InvestmentNews news editor Bruce Kelly and InvestmentNews reporter Jed Horowitz.
Some representatives and advisers wonder whether their broker-dealer will be able to cut it, and broker-dealer executives are dealing with the trials — and prospects — presented by the financial-markets crisis.
About 300 financial advisers packed the meeting room for the Financial Planning Software Show-down during the Financial Planning Association's national conference in Boston last week.
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation's $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
Now is the time for financial planners and investment advisers to demonstrate that they are what they have always claimed to be: trained, capable, cool-headed professionals.
