Steve Garmhausen

Americans have a record $5.9 trillion in liquid deposits in domestic accounts, notes Dan Geller, executive vice president of Market Rates Insight, in San Anselmo, Calif. The reason, he argues, is that they just don’t trust the recovery.

Consultants to financial advisers constantly preach about weeding out nonprofitable clients and focusing on the wealthiest prospects and largest accounts, but Mike Byrne, a partner at Lighthouse Planning Consultants LLC, in Cherry Hill, N.J., thinks differently. About 30% of his clients are not profitable — and he plans to keep it that way.

In February 2010, the head of Firstrust Financial Resources LLC said the advisory firm was looking at different options to spur growth — with a goal of increasing assets under management from $600 million to $1 billion.

As overseas turmoil continues, financial advisers are growing concerned about the U.S. economy and stock market, according to a benchmark from asset manager Rydex SGI.

Zachary Gronich, founder and chief executive of RIA in a Box, has seen his consulting company quickly grow bigger than he expected.

“Opinions are continuing to move in a positive direction,” said American Century's Jennifer Sussman. “Social media is being seen as a trend with future potential.”

The Lansing, Mich.-based company just launched an online portfolio construction tool—aptly named the Portfolio Construction Tool—that helps advisers assemble portfolios customized to their clients.

Several years ago, Grant Rawdin passed on the chance to become a charter shareholder in National Advisors Trust, a trust company owned by a registered investment adviser and designed to serve advisers nationwide.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s retirement services unit is generating significant new business, much of it from existing clients of the bank.

Bank-owned life insurance assets reached a record $140.24 billion in the third quarter of 2010—a 4.8% increase from $133.87 billion in the third quarter of 2009, according to the Michael White/Meyer-Chatfield Bank- Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) Holdings Report.

Union Bank of California enjoyed a steep increase in brokerage revenue last year as a result of referrals to its financial advisers from a beefed-up corps of licensed bankers.

With $4 billion of assets under management, the financial advisory firm James E. Bashaw & Co. does not really need to reach out to new kinds of clients.

Five "psychographic" categories can help to give advisers a handle on their clients and potential clients, but they can also provide some reassurance to baby boomers

Asian hedge funds attracted $518 million in net new capital in the final three months of last year, according to Hedge Fund Research, Inc., making it the best quarter of the year for the industry.

ETF assets held by the firm’s clients climbed 34% last year, compared with 28% growth in the ETF industry overall, according to Schwab. The brokerage’s clients hold more than $111 billion in ETF assets.

Part of the reason for the surge in the first nine months of last year appears to be that brokers in the bank channel pushed harder for fee income as other fees came under pressure.

For a mutual fund with a strong track record, Nicholas Equity Income Fund is not particularly large. And its manager is fine with that.

Advisors and regulators expect one rather odd twist for college savings plans.

An innovative do-it-yourself investment platform is looking to broaden its business by providing high-net-worth-style service to investors who have as little as $50,000.

Many investors are assuming that that headache of cost-basis calculations are no longer their problem, period, said Nico Willis, chief executive of NetWorth Services, Inc., a financial software company in Phoenix. What most don’t realize is that the requirement doesn’t apply to securities bought before Jan. 1.