Last year’s markets were not very kind to brokers and their firms, which both took major hits in the fourth quarter thanks to the credit fiasco. For those betting on 2008

The start of a new year can be seen as a time of reckoning. For independent advisors and registered investment advisors this could mean it’s time to benchmark their practices and set new profit-margin targets. But before resolving on a good...

Want to know what clients really want? It's more financial education for themselves and all their family members. This past June, wealth owners from four countries gathered at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, paying close...

Asset protection grows ever more popular and permanent. After spending over six years in prison for civil contempt, Stephen Jay Lawrence is a free man once again. In the statement releasing Lawrence from prison, Judge Alan Gold for the U.S...

In Private Letter Ruling 200747001, issued Nov. 23, 2007, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that an inter vivos charitable lead annuity trust (CLAT) qualified as a grantor trust for income tax purposes. The ruling is both important and curious...

Last year ushered in a new titleholder for the wealthiest man on earth: Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim took that honor, knocking Bill Gates and Warren Buffett into second and third place. And the two American icons of wealth could fall further...

With so much buzz about the RIA world's rapid growth in assets and number of advisors, news about the other independent channel seems to be slipping through the cracks. Just a few years ago, it was the independent broker/dealer firms that were...