Wealth management

Before choosing an advisor, Ed Slott believes every client should ask these 10 important questions. (And some top advisors weigh in with their best answers.)

In a bullish sign for the planning industry., Financial Planning's Retirement Advisor Confidence Index - a monthly barometer of business conditions for wealth managers - rose in October.

The Salentica Advisor Desk with the Schwab OpenView Gateway is a platform for independent investment advisors to access real-time information on their clients' financial holdings through the Salentica CRM solution.

Advisors are helping gay and lesbian clients face the unique barriers to achieving their financial goals.

It's a reminder that advisors need to ensure their clients don't venture into the muddy waters of the prohibited-transaction rules.

In light of looming changes in industry regulations and advances in current technology, advisors need to act now when it comes to making data and document management electronic, Timothy Welsh of Nexus Strategy, said at FPA Experience in San Antonio on Sunday.

Stanzak, the principal and owner of Financial Empowerment, in Bloomington, Minn., will begin her term on Jan. 1, 2014, when she succeeds Michael Branham, FPA's 2013 president.

Fort Pitt Capital Group has a split personality. As an RIA, the Pittsburgh firm has $1.2 billion under management. As a fund provider, its Fort Pitt Capital Total Return Fund is 10 years old, with a five-star Morningstar rating for 10-year performance.

The Financial Planning Association announced the winners of its top awards, which will be presented at its annual conference in Texas. The FPA honored David M. King, with its 2012 P. Kemp Fain, Jr. Award; retirement researcher Wade D. Pfau with the inaugural Montgomery-Warschauer Award; and 10 influencers in the profession with Heart of Financial Planning Awards. Check out more information on each of the honorees.

Many advisory firms turn to marketing to expand their practice, but few firms are able to develop an effective strategy. Here are five ways to leverage marketing for optimal growth, according to the 2012 FA Insights Study of Advisory Firms: Growth by Design.

"As breakaway brokers continue to seek the benefits of the independent RIA model and a large number of RIAs near retirement, we're seeing unprecedented opportunities to create mutually beneficial relationships between advisors," said Ben Welch, Ameritrade's director of advisor business development. "RIAConnect meets the increasing demand for a more effective way to connect firms and helps support advisor growth potential."

In an effort to give smaller RIAs access to a broader array of services, Ron Carson has launched Carson Institutional Advisory. The new platform includes a succession planning strategy as an added attraction.

TD Ameritrade announced Wednesday it will introduce access to a full range of competitively priced annuities to help independent registered investment advisors meet increasing client demand for retirement income solutions.

With all the buzz about building a social media presence, it's still all about getting in front of a prospect. The Linked-In introduction process outlined by Kevin Nichols of the North Carolina-based Oechsli Insitute prescribes six steps to identify a potential client through LinkedIn and then score that face-to-face meeting.

If Congress does not act and the current estate tax law expires, 14.7 million U.S. households could have a tax liability according to a report released by LIMRA, a worldwide association of insurance and financial services companies, on Tuesday.

After working under one of the most successful advisors in the financial planning industry, Matthew Halloran took time, studied, read, and reviewed all of the top financial advisors he worked with over the years and found ten things are the keys to being a top advisor.

For a startup firm, attracting $150 million in assets under management within nine months is impressive. The entire story, though, of PWM Advisory Group goes back more than a decade.

Growth is essential to the advisory industry, but not all growth is good. Rather than letting growth take advantage of you, it is time to strive for sustainability.

Washington Wealth Management added Domari Wealth Management, a breakaway team from Wells Fargo with $135 million in AUM and $1.4 million in revenue, to its newly formed Woodland Hills, Calif., office.

"Confidentiality is critical," says Mary Ann Buchanan, a 25-year industry veteran and founder of Purcellville, VA-based RIA Match. "[Advisors] need to be able to look around anonymously. They need to have the ability to stick their toe in the water and see who is out there. Names and addresses [collected from users] will never, ever be sold."