Portfolio

Today we begin ranking the top advisors in the bank channel. Next week: The BIC Top 50.

Advisors with a combined $1.9 billion in client assets have joined Stifel Financial, Merrill Lynch and Raymond James. See the latest hires, moves and promotions among advisors at the wirehouses and regionals.

Changes in IRS rules have made the paperwork more onerous and the tax breaks less generous. Advisors should examine clients' reasons for giving, and make sure they act well before year-end.

Changes in IRS rules have made the paperwork more onerous and the tax breaks less generous. Advisors should examine clients' reasons for giving, and make sure they act well before year-end.

The impact of making a few large gifts may be quite different than the outcome from making many smaller gifts. Here are some tips to help clients decide how many charities to support.

The impact of making a few large gifts may be quite different than the outcome from making many smaller gifts. Here are some tips to help clients decide how many charities to support.

As strategies for charitable giving become more complicated, software can help planners, clients, attorneys and accountants evaluate different options.

Steven A. Cohen’s new firm will stop collecting employees’ best trading ideas for a central investment pool and rewarding them with a special bonus, a practice that the U.S. government said created wrong incentives at his former hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LP.

How monitoring mutual fund capital-gains distributions and avoiding the surtax can help clients reduce their tax bill for 2014; making charitable donations before Dec. 31 and prepaying state and local taxes for next year.

Among recent notable product launches is an ETF aimed at accessing China's onshore bond market, a new index that will track publicly-listed companies developing or providing cyber security technology, and a fund aiming to outperform an index composed of futures contracts on 14 heavily traded commodities.