Financial planning

The IRS’s ability to detect identity theft has improved, but billions of dollars were lost to criminals in 2011, according to a new report.

Social media marketing is a key component in an effective inbound marketing strategy, but it’s important to capture the right “voice” on your social media sites.

Demand is high for experienced executives across all channels. While advisor migration to independent RIAs remains the dominant trend, large wirehouse and bank players are also very much in the game for talent.

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.

Janet Yellen, vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board and President Obama's pick to run the central bank, will appear before the Senate Banking Committee on Nov. 14.

State securities regulators have been ramping up examinations of investment advisors in the aftermath of the Dodd-Frank Act, which required more than 2,000 midsized advisors who had been overseen by the feds to register with state authorities.

Our IRA expert answers questions on recharacterizations, the withdrawal penalty and the 5-year rule.

What are the unique questions your target market should be asking themselves? Because of almost universal access to information, if the clients fully understood their problem or their questions they would have little need for an advisor.

As advisors look to protect clients' assets, and lock in steady income streams as well, they're changing the ingredients they use. They're adding new products to the mix with an eye—always—toward allaying the anxieties of their conservative clients.

The first U.S. exchange-traded fund tracking China’s domestic stocks will lure investors seeking exposure to a broad range of industries in the biggest emerging economy, according to Societe Generale SA’s private bank.

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

As the standard-setting body for CFP professionals, the CFP Board has a critical role in shaping the financial planning profession. Along with the FPA, it has laid the foundation for the past 25 years for the recognition of financial planning and it has worked admirably in enforcing the standards for CFP professionals. …

The firms will be studied by U.S. regulators who are in the early stages of reviewing whether asset managers pose a potential risk to the financial system, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

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.

Advisors can do a better job when it comes to preparing team members to succeed.

The company has a new deal with a Texas firm targeting ultrahigh-net-worth clients.

ETFs let you maintain asset allocation while taking tax losses.

Here’s a look at ten of the most influential executives in the business and their insights, concerns and predictions for the future of the advisory industry.

Bill Gross no longer runs the world’s largest mutual fund.