Charles Paikert

Increased demand for due diligence on hedge funds -- if not for the funds themselves -- may be the initial impact of the SEC's recent ruling lifting an 80-year-old ban on advertising for private offerings.

Securities America has ramped up the fierce competition for independent advisors, launching a new RIA targeting advisors with between $50 million and $250 million assets under management.

Wealth management is “significantly behind” other industries in adopting emerging mobile technology to interact with clients, according to Darrin Courtney, research director for Boston-based CEB TowerGroup. How can advisors change this trend?

Over the past decade, firms offering clients their own investment products increasingly lost ground to those recommending an open architecture array of investment options from outside managers, but there has been a recent resurgence in proprietary management among wealth managers.

Sanctuary Wealth Services, a San Francisco-based platform provider and services support firm for wealth managers, has snagged a Morgan Stanley breakaway team specializing in proprietary asset management.

Three new reports suggest that the wealth management industry still needs improvement — and hint at a slowdown after recent growth.

A NAPFA membership rule change has provoked criticism for the way the decision was reached and communicated.

While a new report on multifamily offices finds big growth industrywide -- nearly 10% asset growth in 2011, the last year cited -- family office executives said a "primary growth constraint" was the ability to hire dedicated business development professionals.

Should financial advisors leave their smaller accounts behind when they switch firms?

Industry veteran Steve Dunlap, who previously held two top jobs at Bank of New York Mellon, is joining Cetera Financial Group as executive vice president, wealth management.

Increasing emphasis on client satisfaction may be changing the way wealth managers get paid and how they are evaluated.

Claiming the next generation of clients and standing out from the crowd are very much on advisors’ minds, but they’re still grappling with how to deal with those two critical issues.

Government policy is becoming a more prominent topic of conversation between financial advisors and their clients, according to a recent study as well as anecdotal reports -- and remarks by the Federal Reserve chairman last week on the future of the Fed’s stimulus policy have spurred even more discussions about government policy.

Thinking of working for a family office? First look under the hood – and into the mirror.

Seven financial advisors had their right to use the Certified Financial Planning certification marks permanently revoked in March as part of a series of public disciplinary actions announced by the CFP Board this week.

More than 60% of high-net-worth clients expressed a high degree of trust in both their wealth managers and their firms, according the World Wealth Report 2013, but a majority prefer to work with a single firm to “manage all of their financial needs."

Scottrade emerged as the top-rated firm in J.D. Power & Associates 2013 U.S. Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study, but overall investor satisfaction with self-directed firms declined from last year.

Networking and a hands-on approach to learning about investing, running the family business and entrepreneurship are the best ways to attract and retain next generation clients, according to the head of one of the industry’s most successful and longest-running Next Gen programs.

Advisors with at least some technology integration can perform a whole lot better than RIAs with none, according to a report from Aite Group, the Boston-based research and consulting company.

“Nothing I did in the last five years had anything to do with selling on a commission basis,” he told Financial Planning.