“The intellect is always fooled by the heart.” - Francois de La Rochefoucauld   Of all the cognitive biases that influence human behavior, recency bias is by far the most harmful to long-term investors. This is the tendency for investors to pro...

One of the ironies of Ben Bernanke’s tenure is that he set out with a goal to improve Fed communication while in office. Immediately after his first meeting as chairman in March 2006, Bernanke set up a subcommittee tasked with facilitating...

Despite the evidence that active managers fail to beat their passive index alternatives, investors have not given up on alpha – they still want to beat the market. Ironically, they have decided to simplify their search, rather than intensify...

It is no secret that today’s advisors face a fiercely competitive business landscape that requires a differentiated manager. Time and again investors report that they look to advisors to do more than manage money; they want someone to solve...

What would investors’ ideal advisor look like? An older, white male, apparently. This certainly doesn’t come as a shock, given that the average age of advisors is around 55. Spectrem Group recently conducted a study, asking investors to choose a...

FINRA rules require brokers to make extensive and often intrusive disclosures (vis-à-vis a broker's Central Registration Depository ("CRD") record) concerning their work and disciplinary histories.  These disclosures...

There are fewer female advisors than male advisors; in fact, females make up only 12 percent of advisors in North America, according to PriceMetrix. But female advisors tend to have larger clients, a new report from the firm shows. On ave...

Most of us are familiar with the Wealth Effect: when people perceive themselves to be richer, they spend more. This personal wealth pendulum is usually influenced by rising property values or an uptick in investment performance.  While real...

Chicago:    “I’m not sure how to approach 2014 business planning," Martin said before explaining his reasoning, “I don’t think anyone is taking this as seriously as they should and it’s aggravating...

FATCA implementation slowly but surely continues