Elizabeth Wine

Debt casts a big shadow in the minds of most Wall Street thinkers’ as they make their 2013 forecasts, and Jim Swanson of MFS Investments warns investors not to take the complacent view of “well, we’re a lot better off than Greece and Italy.”

Investors who have saved more than $250,000 towards retirement feel more confident and are more willing to take the risks of putting their money to work in the stock market than their peers with a smaller nest egg, according to a new survey from Wells Fargo.

Despite the volatility of the last few years and the continued economic malaise in much of the developed world, global stocks are still attractive, according to executives at Morgan Stanley.

“Advisors talk about Black Swan events and tail risk – you didn’t hear retail planners talking about tail risk 10 years ago, or if you did it was the top 1% of the group. Now, it’s the new nomenclature,” said Jeff Montgomery, head of AFAM/Innealta Capital.

Among investors aged 21 to 50, 72% report that saving for retirement is their top financial goal, a priority applauded by T. Rowe Price’s resident retirement guru, senior financial planner Christine Fahlund, but most investors are unwilling to take on the necessary risk to improve their retirement savings.

Millions of Americans are facing their own personal fiscal cliff, with half of middle class investors saying their most important day-to-day financial concern is paying the bills, never mind saving for retirement, according to a survey from Wells Fargo. What can advisors do to help?

In spite of Medicare’s almost constant presence in the news recently, most U.S. investors still grossly underestimate how much they will need to save to cover the costs of healthcare in retirement, it emerged in a webcast last night from Wells Fargo’s retirement group.

Despite the worldwide market turmoil of recent years, U.S. investors have been boosting their allocation to overseas funds, but need more education from advisors to battle a serious overweight in U.S. stocks, according to a new white paper.

In spite of all the worries about investor sentiment amidst a sluggish recovery, assets in mutual funds and ETFs both hit record highs in August, with $8.8 trillion and $1.2 trillion, respectively., according to Cerulli.

ImpactAssets, a nonprofit financial services company, introduced its annual database of fund managers who invest for maximum social, environmental and financial impact.

Wirehouses are set to lose 7% market share in the next three years, according to a report released Monday by Cerulli Associates. "These survey findings indicate a shifting advisor base between channels, with a lot of activity moving away from the wirehouse firms," Bing Waldert, director at Cerulli, said in a press release.

The increase in both market volatility and interest from the Baby Boomers in generating retirement income should be a slam-dunk for variable annuities.

Three-quarters of institutional investors nationally have changed their approach to risk management over the last five years, and say alternative investments are critical to spreading portfolio risk, according to a survey from Natixis Global Asset Management.

Investors are less aggressive than their advisors' risk profile assumes them to be, according to Cerulli. In fact, "many investors simply have no desire to endure ongoing market volatility," the report said.

After the shock of 2008, investors had a generally sunny outlook: they were satisfied with their portfolios and their advisors and the firms that employed them. But that is no longer the case.

As interest rates look to remain low for the foreseeable future, investors are searching for income, and rediscovering an old instrument: closed end funds. But why so much enthusiasm now?

Even as increased liquidity in Europe and the United States has boosted investors' outlook, sending stocks to four-year highs, the U.S. dollar has suffered. All the sectors of the S&P 500 have become much more sensitive to fluctuations in the value of the dollar over the last three years, but by looking at correlations, investors can see which sectors are most likely to benefit, according to Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ.

Investors are bucking the general trend of gloominess pervading the national audience, sending stocks to their highest level in four years last year, and if history is any guide, prices could soar even higher by the end of the year. But what do confident investors know that pessimistic voters don't?

LearnVest, a financial management website built as an electronic financial advisor for mass market investors, will announce Tuesday morning it is now a registered investment advisor and will be hiring more advisors in the coming months.

Oceans of ink have already been spilled handicapping the presidential candidates' chances, based on how the stock market is doing. Now, let's take a peek at the crystal ball to see how the stock market's sectors will do if President Obama gets another four years, or the country gives the nod to Republican challenger Mitt Romney.