Wealth management

Fidelity Investments is now offering a free version of its WealthCentral customer relationship and portfolio management platform for the iPad.

It's time to think about accelerating clients’ income for 2012 in anticipation of higher taxes for 2013 and beyond, according to the founder of one of the nation’s largest RIAs.

Spending on hardware, software and communications all is expected to grow by more than 5% this year, in the latest Gartner forecasts. Is this the year that not just trading firms, but companies of all stripes get bullish on technology spending, again? Here's a snapshot look at the consulting firm's prognostication.

Equity funds saw outflows of $9.4 billion for the week of Jan. 4, 2012, according to numbers released by the Investment Company Institute.

How investors go about making decisions in uncertain and volatile markets can have long-lasting implications, especially when bias and emotion enter in. The field of behavioral finance has shown that human beings can’t be presumed to take the most logical, rational approach to investing. So if not logic, just what is affecting our decisions? A recent report from Robert W. Baird & Co.’s Private Wealth Management Research team outlines psychological and social factors that affect how we make financial decisions. Be aware of these factors to help you avoid some psychological pitfalls that regularly affect professional and amateur investors alike. Source: Robert W. Baird & Co.’s Private Wealth Management Research

A date is set for the exchange-traded equivalent of the world's largest mutual fund to get going.

Zephyr Associates, a financial analytics software provider to financial advisors, is seeing a steady increase in the percentage of RIA firms among its clients.

Cetera Financial Group has agreed to buy Genworth Financial Investment Services, an independent broker-dealer with almost 2,000 independent advisors specializing in integrating wealth management services with tax and accounting services.

Among the 27.2% of IMCA members who are independent, 14.2% are RIAs, 7.7% are dually registered and almost 85% of IMCA advisors and consultant provide fee-only or fee-based advice.

2011 may be remembered for its Walls Street thrills and spills, but the merger and acquisition deals made a huge mark on Main Street and the RIA business. Here are 10 unions that reshaped the RIA landscape.

2011 may be remembered for its Walls Street thrills and spills, but the merger and acquisition deals made a huge mark on Main Street and the RIA business. National aggregator and private equity firms accounted for a vast majority of the top deals. Here’s a look at 10 of the most significant deals in the RIA sector in the past year.

It took years for the great civil right activist’s final wishes to finally be honored, something that legacy expert attorneys Andy and Danielle Mayoras say could have been resolved much sooner had she done a better job – or had better advice and professional assistance – with her estate planning.

Service providers are always looking for ways to serve RIAs, including managing client assets, even if it means buying other firms to gain the expertise.

Web Exclusive: The woman who runs the nation's largest RIA firm, Maria Elena Lagomasino, doesn't have much faith in the non-fiduciary side of her industry. In fact, she says an unfortunate number of planners at large banks and brokerage houses run their businesses to benefit themselves as much – or more than – their clients.

Web Exclusive: It took Oxford Financial CEO Jeffrey Thomasson years to figure out how to recruit and hire the best people. Now, the nation’s second-largest RIA has it down to a science – and the firm is thriving like never before.

The operators of the Chicago Board Options Exchange said its futures exchange achieved record volume in 2011, based on its fear index.

Web Exclusive: The nation’s third-largest RIA now has more than $10 billion in assets under management due in large part to its comprehensive approach to managing and maximizing clients’ investments with the taxman in mind.

There is strength in numbers, and practices across the country are banking on size to position themselves for success.

You never know what to expect. But events of 2011 gave plenty of clues for what lies ahead in 2012, as trading firms and exchanges speed up and beef up.

Understand the three levels of happiness and be ready to connect them with their financial-planning equivalents.