Practice

Advisor-owned financial services firm HighTower has snapped up a Credit Suisse advisor team with about $1 billion in assets under management, marking the eighth team to move to the firm this year.

How might the world have been different if, starting 10 years ago, every would-be home buyer had access to a free and independent tool that showed them - in highly personalized and granular detail - precisely what they could and could not have afforded to buy? Would there have been a real estate crash at all?

Marketing expert Marie Swift says basic seminars are no longer a client magnet. Successful financial planners must be educators, networkers, and online trailblazers. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Chris Kirby says financial advisors often become hostages of their own "to-do" lists. That's why it's so important to create and adhere to a list of things that you're not going to handle so you can focus on the most important (and revenue-generating) tasks.

Lifelong income solutions for defined contribution plans are on the way. With defined benefit plans waning and life expectancy waxing, more retirees will need more guaranteed income than Social Security can provide.

More than a third of investors are less tolerant of risk than they were eight months ago, according to a new TD Ameritrade investor sentiment survey.

Defined contribution plan sponsors need to do a better job communicating key information to participants, according to a survey of plan participants conducted by State Street Global Advisors.

The SEC announced fraud charges and an emergency asset freeze against a Denver-based company and two Colorado residents for allegedly carrying out a $15.7 million Ponzi scheme that dragged in more than 120 investors nationwide.

Ask Ed Slott: Your IRA Expert answers readers' questions about how to manage and account for excess contributions made to IRAs for tax purposes.

IRA contributions for 2011 were nearly 15% higher than those for 2007 and contributions to Roth IRAs have outpaced traditional IRAs by almost 63% a year over the same period.