March has already proven to be extremely exciting, with many twists and turns, in both NCAA men’s basketball and with the political, economic and financial markets.

The notion that active managers shine during periods of market volatility hasn’t had a chance to be tested for quite some time, but February gave them reason for optimism.

Using direct indexing, advisors can build cheap, customizable portfolios for clients based on indexes or model portfolios, using fractional shares of stocks, automatically rebalanced, with lower transaction costs.

Declining liquidity and incrementally more sellers than buyers offer plenty of reasons to be more cautious and particular about investments.

Investors need to understand that value funds and ETFs don't all look, or behave, alike. They warrant deeper scrutiny beyond costs.