Portfolio

Low rates and longer lives make the conventional wisdom of 4% withdrawal rates obsolete.

Financial services firms have to start recruiting the half-million college students who may be interested in becoming advisors, or risk having demand for financial advice outstrip supply within ten years, a new study from Pershing shows.

Bank CEOs John Allison, Ed Wehmer and David Zalman blended good-natured banter with insights on breaking the $10 billion-asset barrier, the danger of bank buyers paying too much and changing attitudes about M&A at an industry conference this week.

At a time when recruiting is down across the independent broker-dealer space, Cetera Financial Group has added 247 net new advisors nationwide between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2013.

Gorman, who owns about $31 million of his firm’s stock, has a Morgan Stanley private wealth advisor and his personal investments include municipal bonds and a biotech fund, while he favors global equities for his children’s accounts.

These investment strategists say they believe the emerging economies in the world are where equity opportunities are to be found.

According to Federated Investors' 2013 Investor Mindset Survey, high-net-worth investors will begin making a decisive shift in their portfolios over the next 12 months with 24% planning to invest more in equities over the next year versus only 10% for bonds.

If forced to choose, most investors would seek to preserve capital rather than pursue higher returns, a survey by Natixis Global Asset Management has found.

More than one in three investors plan to increase their allocations to defensive assets, such as cash, gold and other precious metals, and real estate in the coming year.

(Bloomberg) -- Providers of money-market mutual funds and the states and corporations relying on them to manage cash will tell U.S. House lawmakers today to be wary of new regulation of the $2.6 trillion industry.