Financial planning

Once you've identified the risks and opportunities among your female client base, it's time to take action to better serve female clients. Here are four key strategies to consider.

The new portfolio management and research tool is aimed at advisors in both Raymond James' employee and independent channels.

For any number of reasons, clients sometimes want to prevent their inheritors from draining their IRA accounts right after they die. LPL Financial is joining a handful of other firms in offering a turnkey product -- a so-called inherited “trusteed IRA” -- for advisors to use in these situations.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will issue two concept releases next month, one seeking public comment on whether to develop a best execution rule and another requesting input on enhancing post-trade data reporting and developing standards for collecting and disseminating pre-trade information.

The Treasury Department said it expects to borrow $209 billion in the third quarter and end with a $95 billion cash balance.

Equities continue their climb, notching gains of 15.7% so far this year, as measured by the S&P 500. This comes after a 13% gain last year. Against that backdrop, we asked Morningstar to rank the top mutual funds in the U.S. for the past 12 months. We limited it to open-end funds that have at least $100 million in assets and that have been in business for at least five years.

Older clients create three major challenges for advisors. If planners aren't analyzing their client base and preparing response strategies, they risk jeopardizing the future of their business.

The U.S. economic expansion is “two-speed,” favoring those who are already well-off financially, said Vincent Reinhart, the chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley.

A federal funds rate stuck near zero means cash will continue to deliver negative real returns for some time. Who in their right mind, the standard Wall Street taunt goes, would own cash when it’s a guaranteed losing proposition?

Forthcoming federal rules could require all investment advisors to implement formal anti-money laundering programs -- a shift that would bring RIAs under a similar regulatory regime as that governing broker-dealers, mutual fund complexes and other financial institutions.

Men and women alike underestimate how much money they will need in retirement. Here are some of the findings from an annual survey from the Employee Benefits Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald Associates.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Return Preparer Office said it is sending letters to 3,000 tax preparers who failed to use a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number.

Most advisors continue to check in with phone and email messages and continue to do some work even while on vacation. Dave Grant shares the steps he took to completely cut himself off from work for a family vacation.

What do you think? Is the younger generation breaking down the barriers and being more honest about their thoughts and feelings about money?

Sheryl Garrett says privately held firm or group, such as Vanguard or NAPFA, or a major benefactor, would be ideal match for her low-fee firm.

Many advisors are eager to find new clients, but not sure where to start. Dave Grant says prospective clients can turn up anywhere.

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision last month striking down the Defense of Marriage Act may have solved the estate tax problems of the lead plaintiff, Edith Windsor, but it still is leaving a lot of uncertainty among same-sex couples, particularly those in states that do not recognize same-sex marriage.

Advisors have some more competition brewing in the still-nascent online planning world.

A 33-year financial services industry veteran from Southern California has been elected to serve as 2014 Chair-elect of the CFP Board of Standards’ Board of Directors.

Learning about the thinking patterns that you employ whenever you encounter difficult or challenging events is the first step in making life-altering changes in your thinking. Here are five examples of distorted thinking habits that advisors commonly face.