Investments

Quiet and peaceful Valley Forge-Pa. is not a place where one would expect to find one of the most successful financial businesses in history — a far cry from the hurry and shuffle of Wall Street. But Vanguard's home there speaks volumes about its ability to maintain its reputation as the lowest-cost provider of mutual funds and ETFs since John Bogle founded the company in 1974.

PFA A/S, Denmark’s biggest commercial pension fund, said it won’t put more money into the nation’s mortgage-backed covered bonds as a regulatory onslaught prompts investors to shy away from the securities.

Real estate is currently making a comeback, but do REITs make sense for mass-affluent clients?

Are clients, carried away with market returns of the last two years and tired of low rates, willing to take on more risk than they should?

The independent broker-dealer got into hot water over unsuitable fund sales, according to FINRA.

Former Bear Stearns managing director Roberto “Bobby” Ruiz was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison for his role in a massive El Paso County corruption case that led to numerous convictions of public officials.

CEO Laurence D. Fink, who last year said he would invest 100% of his personal wealth in equities, said pension funds won't meet their liabilities unless they put more money in stocks.

As is typical in periods when there’s the prospect of higher inflation, investment interest in collectibles is growing, and art prices in particular having been setting records. But do these represent safe vehicles for protecting your clients’ assets?

Sixty percent of CFOs believe the state of the U.S. economy will remain stagnant or worsen during the next six months, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton.

Instead of simply screening out trouble areas, impact investing refers more broadly to the alignment of clients' values with their portfolios. Here are seven smart strategies.

When Illinois lawmakers report to the capital in Springfield today for another attempt at fixing the nation’s worst-funded state pension system, the gathering will have a ring of familiarity.

The U.S. Treasury Department has signed intergovernmental agreements with the Cayman Islands and Costa Rica in an effort to combat offshore tax evasion as part of the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

McGraw Hill Financial’s Standard & Poor’s unit said the U.S. government has broadened the securities covered in its fraud lawsuit against the ratings company so that the case would be unmanageable at trial.

Traditional immediate annuities are now known as income annuities, and consumers are making sure of substantial future cash flows by paying well in advance.

Long-term municipal bond volume continued to trail last year’s pace as issuers sold 31.3% less in November than they did during the same period last year.

After holdings of U.S. debt surged to a record $1.89 trillion in 2012, lenders from Citigroup to Bank of America and Wells Fargo are culling for the first time in six years and amassing dollars.

Networking, marketing and educating female clients were popular topics at the Women Advisors Forum in Newport Beach, Calif., on Nov. 14. Here are some of the things we heard from top female advisors and other professionals during the one-day event

Assets have nearly doubled for direct-investing platforms, but wirehouses still reign.

Planners may soon have one more investment option to counsel clients about.

Clients tend to focus on the best investments they didn't invest in last year. Here's how to break them of the habit.