Dave Lindorff

Many financial advisors look for opportunities to win the 401(k) business of local employers because it both provides them with some immediate revenue and, more important, steers cross-selling business their way as employees get to know them and turn to them for financial advice -- especially as they retire and bring them their rolled-over assets to invest.

Exchange-traded funds, a relatively cheap and tax efficient way for individual investors to invest in equities while maintaining a degree of diversification in portfolios, are becoming more popular among wealthier investors and their advisors.

Despite recent volatility, UBS analyst says investors should buck up and “stay the course,” not shifting their allocation away from equities.

The analysts at Standard & Poor’s, who have pegged the U.S. economy’s growth rate at a paltry 2% for 2012, say that advisors and investors might find some value in steel stocks and ETFs.

Among large-cap indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial average was the top performer in a decidedly bad month for equities, but still shed 4.36% of its total value in August.

A closely watched index established by Dow Jones Indexes back in November 2010 began flashing red on Tuesday, a development that now has investors and their advisors reviewing the back-tested index’s history for signs of what’s to come and what investment strategies they should pursue next.

Despite all the doomsday prognostications, 2011 will likely have fewer muni fund defaults than either 2009 or 2010. So why are advisors and investors still so gun-shy?

A trio of finance professors are blasting the big three rating agencies, Moody’s in particular, claiming in a new report that they've unearthed evidence that asset classes that provide the agencies with most of their revenue benefit from better credit ratings while classes that provide less revenue receive harsher treatment.

The stock market continued its recent hot streak Monday as some analysts and investors interpreted Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Friday statement as a sign that the central bank is considering a QE3 program to prop up a troubled economy.

The latest measure of home sales took another significant dip in July and things might actually turn out to be worse than the number suggests. That’s particularly bad news for investors and retirees who often have the vast majority of their net worth tied to their residence.

While politicians and economists debate whether or not tax cuts or expand government stimulus spending -- or both -- to spark the U.S. economy, a new report from REL Consulting, a cash-flow consulting firm based in London and Miami, concludes that the nation’s 1,000 largest firms are hoarding over $853 billion in cash.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday said that he’s confident that, despite the U.S. economy’s weak performance and the Labor Department's recent downward revision of the second quarter GDP growth rate from 1.3% to just 1%, things are likely to get better going forward. But what if he's wrong and things don’t get better?

Total life insurance sales in the second quarter of 2011 slowed a bit from the pace of the first quarter, but were still marginally better than the same period a year ago, reports LIMRA, the Windsor, Conn.-based insurance and financial services research institute.

S&P equity research analysts say iconic founder Steve Jobs' resignation from an active management role at Apple isn't dissuading them from recommending the company's shares, but investors may still want to at least check their portfolios to see just how many Apple shares they actually own.

U.S. investors may be overly worried about the fate of the euro, and overly confident in the U.S. dollar, according to Kieran Osborne, co-portfolio manager of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Merk Funds.

Two weeks ago, Apple Computer had its day in the sun, briefly surpassing Exxon Mobil in market capitalization to become the largest corporation in the world. Now it’s gold’s turn.

A new report just released by Moody’s Capital Markets Research Group says that the recent volatility of equities markets in the U.S. -- along with other dreary economic news -- is having an unmistakably negative impact on the nation’s economy.

As the cost of college soars and many state institutions are charging as much as $36,000 a year for out-of-state students and private college costs approaching more than $50,000 a year, the percent of total costs families say they are able to cover themselves has fallen. Yet most advisors aren't recommending 529 college savings plans to their clients.

The equities analysts at Swiss-based UBS are taking an increasingly dim view of the U.S. and global economies and are suggesting that investors should be reducing their equity exposure from “overweight” to what they call a “neutral tactical stance” of stocks, bonds and cash.

Standard & Poor’s may be negative on equities markets these days, but its analysts are pretty high on utilities stocks and ETFs.