Back in the Great Buying Panic of the late 1990s, I once asked a financial advisor what his biggest problem was. His response: “Managing client expectations.” This question was posed in the summer of 1999, the year the Nasdaq Composite...

Beginning in July, Schwab will waive commissions on electronic equity trades and reimburse account transfer fees for its RIAs’ clients. The offer is good through the end of 2009. And for the more than 2,200 investment advisors who use Schwab...

RIAs have a lot on their plates. They’ve seen their assets drop significantly over the last year, their clients are demanding more of their time, revenues are taking a hit and on top of it all, there’s potential for major regulatory...

Not surprisingly, last year’s market took its toll on the wealthy, reducing assets, slimming their ranks and undercutting their trust in institutions associated with the market, according to the 14th annual Global Wealth Report, released...

More than nine months after one of the oldest and largest money market funds suffered such severe redemptions that the net asset value of its shares fell below $1, the SEC is proposing structural and regulatory changes for money markets so it...

Lose a client’s money, what’s the worst that could happen? According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, last week in Germany, elderly pensioners allegedly beat their financial advisor with Zimmer Frames (metal walkers) and then kidnapped...

The SEC today indicted four individuals for helping Bernie Madoff in his colossal Ponzi scheme. One of the individuals was a registered rep and a second was an investment advisor. If the allegations are true, the men and one woman are quite wicked...

Allen Stanford, the flamboyant 59-year-old billionaire CEO of the Stanford Group Companies was indicted Friday on charges of conspiracy to commit securities, mail and wire fraud. Six other individuals were also indicted, including the chief...

The Department of Labor and the SEC are holding a joint hearing today in Washington to explore “issues” related to target date/lifecycle funds. Many of these funds actually underperformed the S&P 500 last year. You can watch the...

Among other measures, the Obama administration proposed today that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) require that broker-dealers offering investment advice be held to the fiduciary standard rather than the suitability standard. The SEC...