Financial planning

Wealthy clients are more likely to be sued, but excess personal liability insurance doesn't have to cost a fortune.

Not every present a taxable one, according to the IRS.

Raymond James managed to straddle both the RIA and employee channels, placing second in both.

You don’t have to act like Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross to close a sale. But you do have to know a little something about human nature and psychology. Here’s a preview of an upcoming story in our April issue called “The Art of the Close” by Rick Rummage.

What was supposed to be the day of its greatest celebration became the day of its greatest humiliation. Here's a blow-by-blow recap of how and why everything went so terribly awry and, perhaps, signs that the company designed for "making markets better" is righting itself.

Want to see your revenue leap within 30 days? Focus on the clients who produce most of your revenue. In our upcoming issue of BIC, you can read consultant Todd Colbeck’s advice on how to segment your book of business to do just that. Meanwhile, here is a high-level overview.

For bank reps looking to advance their careers, there’s no better news than a promotion or a job offer that’s too good to refuse. Here’s a sampling of bank reps who were either promoted or moved to new organizations to assume roles of greater responsibility in recent weeks.

Here's an interactive slide show about how to deal with the numerous it-takes-money-to-make-money types of paradoxes you run into when trying to start up your own RIA firm.

Here's how advisors, brokers and firms can measure their return on investment in social media.

Here is a succinct list of ingredients for advisors and brokers who want to get seriously involved in social media.

If you’re getting serious about social media, here’s the regulatory landscape, as of March 2012.

Here's an interactive slide show detailing some favorite (mainly fixed-income) techniques seven planners are using to boost returns in client portfolios:

Given uncertainty around soon-to-expire tax cuts, what can advisors do now? Here's an interactive slide show in which five planners discuss some top tax strategies.

Wall Street Horizon said it will send dates and date changes “within 1,000 milliseconds” of announcement. Deutsche Boerse units extend pooling market to short-term funding. New York Portfolio Clearing launched a Portfolio Risk Interactive Margin Estimator. Credit Suisse releases a “calendar roll” algorithm for fixed-income trading. LCH.Clearnet gets a “nonobjection” to its foreign exchange clearing plan.

The consolidated audit trail of orders placed and matched on the nation’s stock markets should cost a ‘fraction’ of what the SEC has estimated, according to a financial data expert and author speaking at TradeTech 2012 conference in New York.

It’s an advisor’s dream: Having customers as devoted and loyal as the adoring fans at a Lady Gaga concert. The customers would follow the advisor from bank to bank or even to a different channel in the same way that rock star groupies follow their favorite performers. Building that kind of loyalty, of course, isn’t easy. It takes time and perseverance. Rick Rummage, founder and CEO of the career-consulting firm The Rummage Group, has five tips for advisors who want to build a strong following among their customers. Here’s how they can achieve the advisor equivalent of rock star status.

Bill Gross and his team of bond specialists at Pacific Investment Management Company built the Total Return Fund into the world’s largest mutual fund, with more than a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Can he (and they) repeat the trick, with a Total Return exchange-traded fund?

It can be challenging - but enjoyable - advising those who are used to giving advice themselves.

Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 worst-performing Dow component stocks for February 2012.

Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 best-performing Dow component stocks for February 2012.