Yes, it's true that the commercial real estate industry is suffering from increasing vacancies, decreasing rents and declining property values. Call it a trifecta of bad news. Yet, for bottom-feeders er, contrarians this might be a good time to...
Bernard Madoff’s astonishing fraud has accelerated calls for regulatory overhaul that had already begun with the credit crisis. then again, the regulatory system was antiquated. The real problem for retail financial advisors: Your clients no...
It was yet another cold and rainy January morning in New York City and the NYSE's morning bell would not be rung for another hour. I sat in my office waiting for my client let's call him Joe, a top producing financial advisor for a major firm in...
Ringing in at roughly $170 million, President Barack Obama's inauguration bash was the most expensive ever, according to The New York Times. The inaugural committee might have limited donations from individuals to $50,000, and Wall Street might be...
The aim of the LIG [Leadership, Innovation and Growth] program at GE was to embed growth in the DNA of our company, GE CEO Jeff Immelt says in an interview in the January 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review. You will have to read the article...
Even though the value of your clients' homes isn't reflected in the assets you manage (and don't get any funny revenue-boosting ideas), these residences do represent a significant chunk of their net worths. And the sentimental value they attach to...
Here's something that may get Smith Barney advisors' blood boiling: Former CEO and Chairman Sandy Weill is still enjoying his 10-year employment agreement with Citigroup, including a full-time car and driver, access to Citi's fleet of jets (two...
Registered Rep.: As newly appointed chair of the Financial Services Institute board (a trade group for independent b/ds), what's at the top of the agenda for 2009? Eric Schwartz: We have four key priorities for the year: First, we are already...
Last month's column discussed the importance of helping clients maximize the amount of money available to pay for higher education expenses specifically, by encouraging parents to apply for financial aid. But it's what you tell them to do with...
A broker instructs his assistant to select five equities for a client's portfolio and to make a note of the price of each. But the assistant gets confused. Instead of pricing the equities individually, the assistant makes as many pairings of the...