Wealth management

With trust harder to come by, advisors should lean on personalized services and product fluency.

They call it the “January Effect.” Whether it’s the by-product of those Wall Street guys reinvesting their year-end bonuses or individual investors jumping back into the market after selling for year-end tax reasons, the Dow Jones Industrial Average historically gets a nice little (and sometimes huge) bump during the first month of the year. This January was no exception. The Dow rallied up 415.35 points, or 3.4%, in January – the best January percentage gain since 1997. But for some stocks, the year didn’t get off to a very auspicious start. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of time left this year to rebound. Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 worst-performing Dow component stocks for January 2012:

They call it the “January Effect.” Whether it’s the by-product of those Wall Street guys reinvesting their legendary year-end bonuses or individual investors jumping back into the market after selling for year-end tax reasons, the Dow Jones Industrial Average historically gets a nice little (and sometimes huge) bump during the first month of the year. This January was no exception. The Dow rallied up 415.35 points, or 3.4%, this January – the best January percentage gain since 1997. Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 best-performing Dow component stocks for January 2012:

Fidelity Charitable, operator of the nation’s largest donor-advised fund program, said its donors set records in 2011 both in the amount of money contributed to the fund and in the amount that was taken out of the fund and granted to charities.

Legacy expert attorneys Andy and Danielle Mayoras say most of music diva Whitney Houston’s purported financial woes could have been averted had she and her family sought out and received professional financial and estate planning advice before things turned sour.

The assets of the nation’s mutual funds were flat in December, gaining $12.3 billion.

University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Marvin Zonis points out that several nations representing more than half of the world's GDP by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita could see a change atop their governments this year. This potentially massive shift in geo-political leadership will almost certainly impact economies, investments and investors around the globe. Here’s an interactive slide show featuring 10 countries and elections that Wall Street needs to be paying attention to this year: Source: World Bank/Professor Emeritus Marvin Zonis, University of Chicago

Direxion Funds said it is is making modifications to its line of “buy and hold” alternative strategies, effective February 1, 2012.

Michael Hamm has left a position as vice president at Cambridge Investment Research in Fairfield, Iowa, to become a senior vice president at The Legend Group in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Alex Murguia, managing principal of McLean Asset Management and CEO and founder of inStream Solutions, believes advisors should be aware of major changes underway in the planning profession—and should take proactive steps to safeguard their practices. Financial Planning talked to Murguia about his views on the outlook for RIA businesses.

Just a few days after Bob Oros left Trust Company of America as national sales manager, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services has confirmed he will start next week as executive vice president of RIA sales and relationship management.

New M&A data from Schwab seems to suggest that the RIA space is not consolidating as fast as some have predicted it would – though the final analysis depends on how you define consolidation.

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 institutions to assume roles of greater responsibility from Jan. 11 to Jan. 24 of this year.

Legacy expert attorneys Andy and Danielle Mayoras say it’s not too late to help your clients tackle an issue that should be among their most important resolutions in the New Year: estate planning.

The number and complexity of corporate events persist, even three years after the 2008 financial crisis. Here's a rundown, from Wolters Kluwers Financial Services.

Even as the company sets out on a second round of cost-cutting in Project New BAC, chief executive officer Brian Moynihan said the company considers Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management one of its core businesses – and will increase efforts to build it up.

Columbus, Ohio-based Beacon Hill Fund Services announced their first customer for its new Advisors Investment Trust product. The product enables multiple unaffiliated registered investment advisors to co-exist in the same registered investment company.

The Seattle-based broker-dealer is winding down. Its legal entity will retain its liability and assets, and D.A. Davidson will not take on its bond inventory.

It’s the end of the week, you’re online and you’re just looking for something to make you laugh for a couple minutes. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Yes, the links have been pilfered straight from YouTube and you may have seen one or two of these before. But at least now they're all in one convenient location and also include links to some relevant news to help justify (sort of) all the guffaws. Without further adieu, here are five videos that should make any financial advisor chuckle.

Bank of America’s Global Wealth and Investment Management business saw its 2011 fourth quarter net income decline 22% compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 as lower transactional activity offset higher net interest income and asset management fees.