Portfolio

Global assets invested in exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products eclipsed the $1.7 trillion threshold in August - an all-time high.

With 478 advisors in 40 states, Independent Financial Partners is LPL's largest branch, but the Tampa, Fla., based firm certainly won't rest on those laurels. Currently, less than a dozen IFP advisors are fee-only, according to William Hamm Jr., the company's CEO, but that is about to change.

As investing in alternatives such as real estate, private equity funds, hedge fund strategies and commodities grow in popularity, the way these are being used by institutions and investment advisors is changing.

Can it possibly be? Technology stocks are paying the most dividends?

In a nod to the competitive pricing pressure roiling the financial services industry, Advisor Group, one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the nation, has eliminated, or drastically reduced, the mutual fund fees it was charging to clients of its financial advisors.

The pullout from domestic stock funds continued last week, to the tune of $3.7 billion. But bond funds got another big influx.

Pimco's Gross says investors face an "age of inflation, which typically provides a headwind, not a tailwind, to securities prices -- both stocks and bonds."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 11.54 points Wednesday to finish at 13,047.48 while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell 5.79 points and 1.50 points, respectively.

The pullout from domestic stock funds continued last week, to the tune of $3.7 billion. But bond funds got another big influx.

Keith Bernard, former Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, at Pax World Management, has left the firm, Money Management Executive has learned.