Investments in 529 plans are not as popular as they could be and that's saying something because they are pretty popular right now. They are, in fact, the fastest growing product in financial planning, with the only real rival in terms of...
The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would stiffen rules governing the way mutual funds, high-cost loans and other financial products are marketed to military personnel. The House bill, called the Military Personnel Financial...
Eight years ago, Jed Schlanger got an inspiration: to focus on small business owners whose companies produced tangible goods. I felt I'd get a vicarious thrill from working with people who made something real, he says. So, Schlanger, who heads The...
The industry's focus on high-net-worth clients has been a boon to many advisors, but the high energy focus required to succeed in the high-net-worth game is not always easy to sustain. An advisor I know named Marsha admitted: Sometimes I wonder if...
The pioneering ways of registered investment advisors (RIAs) are coming back to bite them, according to a report from Cerulli Associates. Once on the cutting edge of financial planning and fee-based client relationships, RIAs are now just one of a...
ARTnews magazine says three of the world's top 10 art collectors (based on the volume of their acquisitions in the past year) hail from Wall Street. #1 Leon Black former head of mergers at Drexel Burnham, he founded Apollo Advisors, a private...
When regulators began attacking rapid trading of mutual funds, many funds rushed to slap on redemption fees. The SEC encouraged the practice, proposing last year that anyone who sells a fund within five days of purchasing it should pay a 2 percent...
The wealthiest Americans are giving considerably less to charity than they did during the go-go years of the Internet boom. American households with a net worth of $5 million or more (excluding the value of their primary residence) gave 70 percent...
Every advisor is different, but a striking number have the exact same three priorities when switching firms: a big transition deal, a fertile source of high-net-worth referrals and a 90 percent payout rate. It goes without saying that the vast...
RIPE TARGETS: FAMILY BUSINESS OWNERS Most high-net-worth business owners have no idea what their businesses are worth. That could have terrible implications for their families' financial futures and even the U.S. economy. But it spells opportunity...
