Lee Conrad

Cross selling is really important, but most banks still aren’t doing it very well.

For investment managers, the capabilities most in demand this year from retirement plans, endowments and foundations will be global and emerging markets investing, hedge funds, private equity and real assets, according to the 2011 Consultant Search Forecast.

Lots of strong returns, but many investors are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There are more choices than ever, but are these new products largely unnecessary?

Diversification is the best way to hedge against volatility, but now there are more ways to invest in volatility itself.

The new offering will integrate absolute return funds that seek positive returns over a three-year period with less volatility than traditional asset classes.

Nearly every day, I get a notice touting the launch of some new ETF. And at this point, most of them represent some fringe aspect of the investment world. Small-cap stocks from one certain country in the Middle East, say, or a fund from Africa that deals with water infrastructure. Sometimes, they are sliced so thinly that there are just a handful of companies in the underlying index. Useful perhaps, but probably only for a…

The new hires, which all came from wirehouses, continue Baird’s expansion into new markets.

Even if you outsource stock picking, or buy only mutual funds, somebody somewhere has to select stocks.

Sam Pyle and Shauywn Smith joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney from Merrill Lynch.

I’m all for the notion of having options, but if you look at just the ETF universe there are more than 1,000 on offer

The St. Louis brokerage company continues to its slow-but-steady growth with new addition in Connecticut.

This comes shortly after seven other FA’s joined MSSB.

Planning for retirement isn’t just about hitting the “magic number.”

Last year saw a 22% increase in M&A worldwide, and another 36% increase is expected this year, according to Thomson Reuters.

The U.S. has the most REITs, but the emerging markets are drawing more interest from investors.

Nearly 875,000 employees increased their 401k contributions in 2010, a 21% increase over 2009’s level of 721,000 employees, according to Merrill report.

The trust unit continues to see record growth; promotes two managers

The majority of baby boomers intend to have a more active lifestyle in retirement than their parents, as well as a better standard of living.

This changeover includes 1.9 million clients with a total of $131 billion in assets.