Investment insights

Tax reform legislation is unlikely to move forward this year, but municipal bond market participants shouldn’t think that the threat to the tax exemption for munis is gone, observers in the market said.

How do you expand your practice to more than $4 billion in AUM? For one firm, it's by helping clients align their investments with their value systems

Treasuries fluctuated before the government sells $32 billion of two-year notes as part of $96 billion of coupon-bearing securities auctions this week.

What could cause the dollar to fall and inflation to rise? Planners should keep their eyes on three potential triggers.

Scott Stringer vowed during his successful campaign for New York comptroller to reduce the $370 million in fees the city’s five pension funds pay money managers and consultants annually. His job, which starts Jan. 1, just got harder.

Blogger, equities analyst and CIO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, Barry Ritholtz responds to the 'counterintuitive claim that portfolio rebalancing doesn’t really work,' in a recent column by Paul Merriman at MarkeWatch.

The Fed will probably hold down its target interest rate long after ending $85 billion in monthly bond buying, and possibly after unemployment falls below 6.5% said the Fed chairman.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will have negative inflation-adjusted returns during the next seven years because U.S. stocks are so overvalued, said Ben Inker, head of global asset allocation at investment firm Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co.

While the traditional way of gauging a client’s tolerance for risk is typically determined using a basic questionnaire, there’s another method that’s just as – if not more – reliable.

Fitch Ratings placed the BBB-minus rating of Puerto Rico's general obligation bonds on rating watch negative, citing in part concerns about market access.

For those nearing retirement, a market downturn may be something they simply can’t afford to endure. Without enough time to make up for the damage to their portfolios, they won’t be able to afford the retirement lifestyle they had envisioned.

With stocks increasingly expensive and bond returns paltry -- what’s an advisor to do?

Advisors face two key questions: How much exposure to have, and whether to shorten durations to gird for a rate increase.

Firms should reach out to clients early to pre-empt potential downturn in their portfolios, FINRA said.

There’s been a steady increase in opportunities for overseas investment and clients’ willingness to include international investments in their portfolios.

Municipal managers and strategists, still reeling from Detroit's bankruptcy, the surge in Puerto Rico yields, and a mid-year sell-off that was the worst in a quarter century, are getting their portfolios ready for the next expected hurdle as 2014 approaches — another spike in interest rates.

Advisors look to alternative investments to diversify, hedge against inflation and decrease correlation, but should all clients have alts?

The U.S. is in the midst of an economic revolution akin to the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, says Raymond James strategist.

Over time, by angling a portfolio towards value-oriented stocks and small caps, investors will be compensated for taking on additional risk according to academic research.

More than three-quarters of U.S. public finance rating changes made by Moody’s Investors Service in the third quarter of 2013 were downgrades, reflecting concentrated credit pressures in some areas of the country even as economic recovery is seen on a larger scale.