Financial planning

While liquid alternative assets grew double-digits last year within the wirehouse segment, the asset class has also seemingly hit a wall.

Within the past month, a number of mutual fund shops have embarked on branding campaigns.

The National Advisors Trust of South Dakota will give National Advisors-affiliated RIAs and their clients access to some of the most flexible trust and tax statutes in the nation.

In a keynote address kicking off the Insured Retirement Institute's Government, Legal and Regulatory conference, Atkins, now the CEO of Patomak Global Partners, offered a round critique of the Dodd-Frank Act and the myriad rulemaking proceedings that it set in motion.

Less than a week after landing another Morgan Stanley advisor, Raymond James has lured a Midwestern group with over $240 million in assets under management from Morgan Stanley to its independent-broker dealer.

A total of 36 firms managed to increase their revenue last year. Check out the firms that moved the needle in 2012.

Now is a good time to buy contemporary art, even though prices have never been higher, the Dallas-based collector Howard Rachofsky says as he digests his bratwurst.

Sessions at the 25th annual Morningstar Investment Conference covered a range of topics from actively managed ETFs, closed-end funds and alternatives to strategies to boost retirement income and solutions to the “yield conundrum.” Here is a baker's dozen of the smartest things we heard at the conference.

The U.S. exchange-traded funds market is primed to double up on its current $1.5 trillion in assets to the tune of more than $3.5 trillion in assets over the next five years, according to iShares’ latest forecast.

Advisors may soon see lower fees for liquid alternative asset funds – hedge fund mutual funds – thanks to the push by hedge fund managers to market these plans more aggressively into the defined contribution space, according to panelists at last week's 25th annual Morningstar Investment Conference.

Scottrade emerged as the top-rated firm in J.D. Power & Associates 2013 U.S. Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study, but overall investor satisfaction with self-directed firms declined from last year.

The amount of money investors have withdrawn from municipal bond mutual funds, at $1.61 billion for the week of June 12, continues to climb and break records for the year.

Ron O’Hanley, Fidelity Investment’s president of asset management and corporate services, laid out his take on a number of economic trends through a game of red light/green light led by Morningstar’s head of global research Scott Burns.

Networking and a hands-on approach to learning about investing, running the family business and entrepreneurship are the best ways to attract and retain next generation clients, according to the head of one of the industry’s most successful and longest-running Next Gen programs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved new FINRA rules that prevent mutual fund and hedge fund industry personnel from serving as public arbitrators, effective July 1.

BNY Mellon Investment Management has hired Andrew Provencher as Head of U.S. Retail Sales, a newly created role in which he will be responsible for leading all sales and relationship management through the Dreyfus platform focusing on national wirehouse firms, Registered Investment Advisors, independent broker-dealers and private banks.

After weeks of either net outflows or only modest inflows, tax-exempt money market funds recaptured $3.13 billion of net gains as total net assets grew to $260.97 billion in the week ended June 10, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

With the number of alternative strategies rising, how can advisors pick the winners from the losers?

Despite a challenging environment in the hunt for yield, three prominent money managers told advisors and investors that it is possible to do better than the historically low rates many have settled for.

Christian Widen has left his position as a director of Pershing Advisor Solutions to return to the rapidly growing firm where he began his career, Boston-based U.S. Wealth Management.