The challenge: Because of the increase in corporate layoffs, retirement plan rollovers are becoming bigger than ever.
The country stands to lose a sizable chunk of economic activity in 2009 as consumers at home and abroad retrench in the face of persistent economic troubles.
Investors' concerns about negative market returns are likely to create a greater demand for guaranteed products such as variable annuities, but the downturn in the markets has changed the insurers' cost of managing the hedging risk of VAs.
Much as the Great Depression spawned an entire generation of skeptical and conservative investors, the current financial crisis could have a similar effect on the financial tendencies of today's "Millennial" generation.
In a nod to today's touchy political environment regarding executive compensation, financial advisers at the firm born out of a joint venture between Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney will not receive retention bonuses.
Advisers may complain about variable annuities, but most still endorse the product.
The irony is powerful: Just as client demand for quality advice is reaching an all-time high, the business models that support the selling of advice have never looked worse.
As the broad market continues its free fall, independent broker-dealer Woodbury (Minn.) Financial Services Inc. is grappling with changes in senior management and the lingering problems of its owner, The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc.
Many aspects of the U.S. financial system must be reformed in the wake of the financial crisis.
Wealth managers in the Phoenix area say that the financial crisis and its calamitous impact on the stock market is forcing them to rethink their investment strategies.
As this year's returning chairman of the NAIC's Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee, Eric R. Dinallo's priorities are making sure that consumers are protected while helping carriers steer a course through choppy economic waters.
The Charles Schwab Corp., concerned about liability related to hedge funds, is telling registered investment advisers that it will no longer accept custody of alternative assets.
With the equity markets testing new bear-market lows as part of a five-month run that has seen the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index fall by 38%, it can be disorienting to discover a stock moving aggressively in the opposite direction.
Seeking to assess the strength of the insurance carriers they do business with, many smaller independent broker-dealers — flummoxed by the insurers' opaque balance sheets and arcane accounting practices — are relying on a time-tested tool: their own observations.
While R. Allen Stanford's investors were swallowing claims of vast returns on safe investments, some of his employees weren't so sure.
The Labor Department said Friday that consumer prices rose by 0.3 percent last month, the biggest monthly increase since a 0.7 percent rise in July.
Concerned about liability related to hedge funds, Schwab is telling registered investment advisers that it will no longer accept custody of alternative assets.
Trustees handling Bernard L. Madoff Securities is in the process of selling the market making operation connected with the firm, trustee Irving Picard said today .
