Investments

Federal workers lose big by pulling out of low-cost retirement plans; in ruling on California's bankruptcy, judge challenges sanctity of pensions; 5 things to remember when selling your business for retirement

President Obama has blasted the tactic as unpatriotic while the Treasury Department has announced steps aimed at limiting the tax benefits. But beyond the headlines and sound bites, how should advisors evaluate inversions when developing investment strategies for their clients?

The Social Security mistake even its reps are making; calculating required distributions from your retirement accounts; should you drink the annuity COLA?

Before advisors recommend the increasingly popular hedged investment strategy, they better know the basics.

The profitability of alts for investment managers and product originators promises that the deluge of alternative investment opportunities will continue.

Some research shows that alternatives have as much chance of hurting performance as helping. With so many new products available, how can advisors ensure that they're picking the right ones?

The strategy once known as SRI has rebranded and expanded. Here’s what you should know now about the universe of values-based strategies.

Recent mutual fund flows suggest more advisors are going across the pond when constructing their client portfolios.

Morningstar Inc. cut the rating of Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Total Return Fund, the world’s largest bond fund, to bronze from gold after co-founder Bill Gross’s exit.

The imaginary retirement-income crisis; what happens when your retirement is ambushed; retirement couples' dilemma: the $100,000 difference

Determining the “right” allocation to international equities for clients' portfolios isn’t easy and depends on who you ask.

Advisors have trusted the "Bond King" for years, but with Bill Gross's abrupt departure from PIMCO, the firm he founded 43 years ago, the playing field has changed. Here's what you need to know before the dust settles.

Bill Gross and the risks of 'star power' fund managers; retirement plans for small businesses; the Roth-IRA math for 50-somethings

New York is the capital of the art world, but brave investors may want to look farther afield for opportunities. Be very careful, advisors say.

Advisors should think carefully about finding the right macroeconomic numbers and statistics to share with clients.

When news accounts make clients jittery, advisors must help them strike a balance between bad news and the long view.

Alternative investments have been growing rapidly in popularity in recent years as new funds have been mushrooming and money has been flowing in. Andy Saperstein, Morgan Stanley’s head of investment products and services, explains the wirehouse’s history of working with alts and Morgan’s current approach to leveraging them in client portfolios.

Municipal managers say they're continuing to shield their clients' municipal assets from higher rates even though the timing of a rate hike remains uncertain and some are beginning to doubt rates will spike in the near term.

These funds may give clients access to well-priced properties in Asian and European real estate markets, plus a break from the U.S. interest rate cycle.

A study of how various asset classes fared during 15 years of low inflation offers some surprises.