Portfolio

Building a successful fund requires a distinguishable brand, an effective marketing strategy, and a commitment to distribution support.

Options have been used in asset management for several decades, but due to current market conditions asset managers' interest has been renewed in this strategy. With bonds in a bear market and an equity market meandering horizontally, these managers are embracing options as a way to generate income while protecting against the downside.

Growth from both retail and institutional investors has been steady in what is now called ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues.

The "do it yourself" investor crowd is not exactly new. But now it has a newfound source of power. A new tool on the market from Motif Investing makes it easier than ever for individual investors to create their own ETF-like investment funds.

The "do it yourself" investor crowd is not exactly new. But now it has a newfound source of power. A new tool on the market from Motif Investing makes it easier than ever for individual investors to create their own ETF-like investment funds. The timing is what makes this tool potentially troubling for established mutual fund and ETF companies. Combined with an overall mistrust of the financial industry and a general populist empowerment (social media, anyone?), it could become the next disruptive change.

Southern California-based Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors has another notch on its belt.

The 50 largest asset managers accounted for more than US$38 trillion in assets under management at the end of 2012. This is a full US$4 trillion more than the year before, even as the biggest firms in the industry continue to enlarge, according to The Cerulli Report: Global Markets 2013.

From improving communication with clients to placing a bigger emphasis on risk management, advisors share how they’re navigating the rebounding market environment and how their practices have evolved as a result of hard lessons learned during the financial meltdown of 2008.

A week after adding four advisors with $533 million in assets, the firm said it added another round of brokers with a combined $508 million.

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. will pay $39 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of women employees at its Merrill Lynch unit, according to court filings.