Wealth management

While many finance firms have developed their own applications, technology expert Bill Winterberg analyzes and ranks at the top eight asset and investment manager apps for advisors.

Legacy Wealth Planning announced Wednesday that it hired Mark Elston and his team of financial advisors.

What are the top financial planning schools nationally? Check out this list to see where the next generation of advisors are coming from (and who the next generation of clients may be working with).

Which banks shelled out the most for this election? Among the big name firms, here's a list of the top five donors based on data compiled by opensecrets.org, a nonprofit watchdog group that follows campaign donations. Click through to see where Wall Street's money has gone:

Sometimes, in order to lock in the $5 million estate planning tax exemption, clients gift away their “excess” assets. While gifting is good, and even better if you can avoid taxes by doing it, some clients give away too much, and are no longer able to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

The regulatory overhaul put in place by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 has dramatically reshaped the compliance landscape for investment advisors, with more small firms moving to oversight at the state level, while many large, private fund advisors now find themselves under the purview of the SEC, according to a new survey of advisors.

While disasters like Hurricane Sandy take away so much and leave but a trail of havoc behind it, the resilience of the people across the nation refuse to be trampled. Within moments, resilient individuals would begin to offer aid to their less fortunate fellows. And yet during this time, it can also be quite confusing for planners to advise clients on the best places to donate money.

“Advisors have been told that it’s the name of the firm on the business card that’s important to clients,” he said, “so their clients won’t follow them if they go independent. We have found that it’s the advisor-client relationship that’s important, not necessarily the name of the firm.

The legal challenges raised by clients who are beginning to lose their cognitive acuity or are suffering from dementia-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, can be significant for advisors. Here are some of the top tips for advisors working with clients with dementia.

TD Ameritrade Institutional drew a record 441 breakaway brokers to its platform for independent registered investment advisors in fiscal 2012, a 27% increase from a year earlier.

Research tells us that 90% of heirs will reject their parents’ advisors, and 70% of widows will change advisors after their husband’s death. Can you afford that level of loss?

Your website should tell prospective customers a number of things: services and philosophy, investment methodology, financial planning expertise ... and technological savvy.

Going into November with elections right around the corner, millionaire households listed what was worrying them most in planning for their financial futures.

Among the big deals this week: First Allied buys Legend from Waddell & Reed to form a firm with $28 billion under management.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management vice chairman Paul Hatch has said publicly that these reps-as-portfolio-manager programs are "a permanent change."

In a continued push to reform regulation for advisors, five independent financial firms have joined the Financial Services Institute.

Forget about fake scares: Advisor spends Halloween holed up at "secret" church to recharge laptop and reach out to clients.

As America grows older, advisors shift practices from accumulating wealth to generating income.

The president and CEO of Investor Protection Trust discusses issues facing seniors and the special problems for which advisors should watch, including protecting them against fraud.

10 tips to prevent the missteps that cannot always be repaired after the client's death.