As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read practice management articles over the past 12 months. Tomorrow, we will highlight the 10 best articles you probably missed.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, policymakers have been cracking down on leverage at banks. As a result, banks cut back on any lending that didn’t seem profitable enough if it wasn’t juiced by leverage.
This year’s hottest derivatives trade, and perhaps also its most divisive, stole the limelight one final time for 2023 as market watchers cast zero-day options as the villains behind Wednesday’s rally-ending slump in US equities.
Treasuries rallied along with global bonds, sending benchmark yields to multi-month lows, as traders bet the world is entering a new, disinflationary period by wagering on more interest-rate cuts next year.
The end of one year and the start of another is always a good time to admit one’s mistakes. And I got something wrong — really wrong — about remote work.
If the prices of the magnificent seven outperformed their fundamentals, it will be much harder for a repeat performance in 2024.
The conflicts of interest facing independent advisors are far fewer, less complex, more transparent and better understood by retirement investors. This is what opponents of the DOL rule won’t acknowledge.
Our support team – assistants, ops and general relationship-management support – does not share in the overall comp of the firm.
The “addiction to prediction” can have detrimental effects, as it shifts focus from the financial health of companies to baseless forecasting, often leaving investors vulnerable to market volatilities.
When Porsche AG sold shares last year, the German sportscar maker hoped to follow in the gilded footsteps of Ferrari NV and achieve a valuation more in line with a luxury goods company rather than a metal-bashing automaker.
AI applications are only one piece of the client engagement puzzle. And they shouldn’t be your first stop for building digital engagement.
A profit warning in the week leading up to Christmas is never a good look. This year’s shock has been provided by Superdry Plc. With just a few shopping days to go until the holiday, investors should be braced for more bad news from other retailers.
An ETF startup is trying to launch a Bitcoin fund, but with what looks to be an environmentally friendly twist amid continued scrutiny the industry faces around its potentially harmful impacts.
Offering unsolicited advice has the highest potential to destroy the trust between you and your client.
Jonathan Hoffman, John Bonello and Jonathan Tipermas share more than just similar first names. They’re the driving force behind a gigantic wager on government debt that’s been giving regulators sleepless nights.
A stellar year on Wall Street is propelling the biggest rally since 2019 in the MSCI World Index of developed-market equities, pushing the gauge closer to its record high and leaving emerging-market peers trailing far behind.
This year’s run-up in technology stocks, and particularly chipmakers, has left many with price tags so lofty it may seem like now is the time for firms to split their shares.
Are you an experiencing a decline in the acquisition of new clients?
We are shrugging off geopolitical risks. Not only the latest war in Israel, but Russia and Ukraine. The market is still pricing in some Fed cuts next year.
Here are six crucial steps to build the ultimate intro meeting.
If a retirement income plan is entirely reliant on the accuracy of its CMAs, then success is more a matter of faith than any statistically verifiable fact.
Your bio significantly impacts how you're perceived online. It's worth revisiting and rewriting your bio every year.
The US Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, are betting that they can have the best of both worlds — that they’ll be able to defeat excessive inflation without forcing the economy into recession.
As your credit card is scanned one final time this holiday season, say thanks to prime numbers for keeping the checkout queues short and your money safe. Well, most of the time anyway.
The extraordinary hype around artificial intelligence this year touched the finance industry, too, but most banks have been rightly cautious about jumping directly onto the bandwagon. In such a tightly regulated business, the costs of getting it wrong could be extreme.
BlackRock’s Rick Rieder said that market expectations for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates in March are likely too early.
An unprecedented amount of cash flowed into the world’s largest and oldest exchange-traded fund last week, as stocks rallied to near-record highs after the Federal Reserve indicated it could cut interest rates next year.
A New York money manager has netted a 64% gain from a strategy riding the big plunge in volatility across the stock market in this expectations-busting year on Wall Street.
It’s a temptation many on Wall Street succumbed to recently when small-cap stocks notched two-decade lows versus the S&P 500 – only to rally sharply after the Federal Reserve’s dovish policy surprise last week.
Spending on essential intangibles that support health, happiness, family connection, and relationships is the wisest way to turn wealth into wellbeing.
While fixed COLAs with SPIAs may seem like an attractive way to address inflation in retirement, they actually increase inflation risk, not reduce it.
Because of the robust performance of the magnificent seven, portfolios are overweight to large-cap stocks, resulting in an underweight to small- and mid-cap stocks, as well as international equities.
Trying to outperform the market by timing exits (just before the bear awakens from its hibernation) and entries (as the bull enters the arena) is a fool’s errand.
Sometimes the real action is in the dog that didn’t bark. What is striking about the European Union’s pending regulations on artificial intelligence is what’s missing: There is no ban on open-source AI.
Investors were pleased about the Federal Reserve’s latest policy announcement — perhaps a touch more so than Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues might wish.
We analyze a case study for a wealthier couple with $5.5 million in investment assets and a larger retirement spending goal.
There are many ways a bank can lose money. Top of the list are credit and financial market losses but beneath, there’s a whole taxonomy of issues that industry insiders brand “operational risk.” These result from bad internal processes, people and systems or from external events.
The financial world is moving fast, as the Federal Reserve prepares to start cutting interest rates and stock indexes are at or near all-time highs.
Just one month after setting a 2024 target for the S&P 500, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists increased their forecast as the year-end rally shows no signs of abating.
A vehicle used to track longer-dated US government bonds surged into a bull market, as investors seek to end three years of pain on the Federal Reserve’s willingness to consider interest-rate cuts.
Jerome Powell didn't exactly say "mission accomplished" last week, but that's largely what the markets heard on Wednesday.
As markets staged a monster rally following the Federal Reserve’s shift toward loosening monetary policy, one corner of the financial system had reason to remain on edge.
A rally in this year’s laggards shows investors are now going “all-in” on expectations of a flurry of central bank rate cuts next year, according to Bank of America Corp.’s Michael Hartnett.
Analysts are growing increasingly doubtful that US consumer spending will hold up into next year, even as American shoppers continue to be surprisingly resilient despite lingering inflation and elevated borrowing costs.
The dollar will surprise by getting stronger next year as the US economy outperforms, according to some of the world’s biggest money managers.
A major change in automobile manufacturing could pave the way for a revolution in how cars are bought, fixed and resold. Gigacasting, which reduces the number of car panels, has the potential to lower prices but can complicate repairs and transfer costs to owners.
Stronger signaling from the Federal Reserve that interest rate cuts are on the menu in 2024 understandably sent both stocks and bonds soaring on Wednesday.
BlackRock Inc. bond chief Rick Rieder is expanding his footprint in the $7.8 trillion ETF industry with the launch of his second fund.
Top US regulators view artificial intelligence as a looming vulnerability for financial stability, underscoring Washington’s mounting concern over systemic dangers posed by the burgeoning technology.
In the past five years, US ETF market assets have more than doubled, over 1,000 new funds launched, and annual trading volumes jumped by around $11 trillion.
