Washington's effort to make fund marketing more transparent could make selling these products a lot trickier for brokers.

Once considered heresy, market timing is now advocated by managers who expect the markets to remain choppy.

For months, advisors looking to invest in a solid small cap fund have been faced with a growing problem: Many of the best ones have been closed to new investors. Of the 301 small cap value funds tracked by Morningstar, 33 are closed. About 10...

When the bull market was hot, so were index funds. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund even eclipsed Magellan as the largest mutual fund in the country, and other index funds dominated their actively managed peers as well. Nevertheless, nearly three years...

Traditional separate account programs can come with a variety of frustrations. Advisors must scan through a menu of dozens of managers, trying to pick a few that will complement each other and, together, achieve the client's goal. Even with...

The stock market may be sickly, but plenty of Ken Richard's clients face painful capital gains tax bills. A registered financial consultant at Kara Financial Services in St. Paul, Minn., Richard advises longtime employees of such Minnesota blue...

There is nothing like a bear market to spook clients. Disciplined, patient investors, who used to know the value of putting money in different sectors and asset classes, have grown overcautious. After witnessing so many high-flying stock funds...

The SEC requires more disclosure of after-tax returns, but the data can be confusing.

Middle class millionaires are very keen to get alternative investments in their portfolios.

Your qualified clients want to get the benefits of hedging strategies. But where do you start? Nobody reports on the 6,000 or so hedge funds the way Morningstar and Lipper report on mutual funds. So, many retail brokers turn to funds of funds to...