Readers of this publication know the costs of an investment product reduce the net return and consider cost as an important criterion for selecting investments to make up client portfolios. But how do advisors define costs, and how important is cost reduction compared to other portfolio objectives?

Financial journalism has a problem. Apart from a few writers such as Michael Lewis, it is essentially bought and paid for by the financial industry itself – especially, investment management.

The performance of PE funds has been disappointing. New research explains why this happened: Instead of driving operational efficiencies (as PE investors typically claim they do), those funds relied heavily on increasing the debt burden for the companies they bought.

Argentina’s leading presidential candidate, Javier Milei, has some unorthodox ideas about policy (he wants to abolish central banks), politics (he is libertarian) and pets (he has five cloned dogs). One of his proposals, however, is simple common sense: dollarizing Argentina’s economy.

European banks are rightly being criticized for failing to pass on interest-rate increases to customers. But is it any wonder they’re so unafraid of losing business? Compared to their US counterparts, European financial institutions often face less competition from alternative cash-like investments.

All around the world, bond traders are finally coming to the realization that the rock-bottom yields of recent history might be gone for good.

The fresh boom in stock options that expire within 24 hours has grabbed all the attention on Wall Street trading desks — spurring a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warning that the activity is fueling the recent market selloff.

Ether-futures ETFs could be coming to the US soon, but the cryptocurrency market doesn’t seem to care.

How good are you at motivating your staff? Are they growing and learning? Are they consistently progressing?

It’s curious: Even as America’s economic trends are improving, Americans’ economic anxieties are worsening — including those of many who have no apparent reason to be worried. Not only are there are polls and statistics that illustrate the point, but there are also anecdotes, lots of anecdotes.

Signs of slowing price pressures and wage growth have generated a lot of excitement about a soft landing for the US economy, where inflation glides back toward 2% without a painful recession.

Federal Reserve officials at their policy meeting in July largely remained concerned that inflation would fail to recede and that further interest-rate increases would be needed. At the same time, cracks in that consensus were also becoming more apparent.

Look closely at the contours of Tuesday’s tumble in the S&P 500 and fingerprints of a new market force come into focus.

Former Bridgewater Associates LP executive Bob Elliott is expanding his firm’s ETF lineup with a variety of hedge fund-like strategies.

What if I told you that CPI is effectively at 2% now? Would the Fed's policy stance remain the same?

Here are two suggestions that can save you money or time, especially if content marketing is part of your strategy.

How do you cultivate a successful referral program?

I’ll outline content ideas to help your top sellers, C-suite leaders, or founders emerge as thought leaders.

Here are the top five mistakes advisors make in client meetings.

I’ll share some of the insights my team has gathered in 2023.

In a year of unpleasant surprises from China's economy, here's a development we should have foreseen: The central bank lowered interest rates. With growth disappointing and prices declining, Tuesday's easing from the People's Bank of China ought to have been a no-brainer.

It is a radical suggestion, no doubt, but some analysts predict that AI might enable the US economy to achieve an annual growth rate of 30%.

Investors are the least pessimistic on stocks since February of last year, before the Federal Reserve began one of the most aggressive tightening cycles in decades, according to Bank of America Corp.’s latest global survey of fund managers.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Western Asset Management are among those saying this month’s jump in bond yields represents a buying opportunity, given central banks are getting close to the end of their rate-hike cycles.

Do you like your mechanic? Do you like your doctor?

The largest exchange-traded fund focused on high-flying stocks has been losing its edge.

Advisors are using tax-managed products for tax-sensitive clients. In this interview, we learn how tax-managed products maximize the after-tax returns for investors to help them get to their goals with greater certainty.

The Agg is supposed to be to bonds what the S&P 500 Index is to equities. But it is an insufficient gauge for measuring the bond universe.

Where have all the publicly held companies gone? As companies increasingly choose to remain private, new opportunities emerge for investors.

Investors have access to multiple personalized indexing products, a key benefit of which is to allow for tax-loss harvesting (TLH). I analyze when TLH works and how helpful it is to returns.

Investors are bailing out of the biggest exchange-traded fund devoted to Treasuries at the fastest pace since markets were hammered during the early months of the pandemic.

Is unlimited paid time off good for a company's stock price? Most investors think so, according to the latest Markets Live Pulse survey.

The craze for fast-expiring options is ramping to unprecedented heights in a stock market that has lately been given to severe intraday moves. It’s probably not a coincidence.

Here are useful tips and advice for business owners and leaders like you who are dealing with resilience and risk management after the pandemic.

By the end of the five-year deal that the United Parcel Service and its drivers just agreed to, full-time drivers will make about $170,000 a year, counting healthcare coverage and other benefits. That’s up from $145,000 currently.

The fraction of enterprise value of large US companies represented by tangible assets — things like real estate and inventory — has fallen from 50% to 20% over the past 15 years.

Unpacking the details of last week’s consumer price index report, the news was good: Inflationary pressure continues to slowly subside, while an economic “soft landing” — in which the Federal Reserve is able to stabilize prices without causing a recession — is starting to look more realistic.

Some couples may have what can be termed "faux" financial intimacy, where there is no tension or conflict because they avoid talking about money.

I’ve written previously about how positive (“green”) ESG metrics have increased the prices of stocks, reducing their expected returns. New research examines a similar effect in bonds, where a “greenium” (lower yield on green bonds versus non-green equivalents) reduces returns for investors.

When adjusting for more realistic assumptions and considering the fact that the insurance company can change return caps and that inflation is both an unknown and deep risk, an FIA, along with most annuities, is not on the efficient frontier in either accumulation or decumulation phases.

IUL is a popular investment, thanks to aggressive marketing. Before your clients succumb to high-pressure sales tactics, here’s a cautionary tale based on another lifetime purchase decision – buying an engagement ring.

One of the scarier financial factoids making the rounds this year is that local and regional banks hold 70% of US commercial real estate debt.

Here are the essential steps to accelerate recovery from growth and move into the next phase.

Bankers are warning that tougher capital rules being proposed by the Federal Reserve and other US regulators will push more risks out of well-regulated lenders and into markets.

The old playbook of selling emerging-market bonds when Treasury yields spike is being upended by the positive dynamics favoring developing-nation debt.

Across Wall Street, there’s growing relief that the Federal Reserve — at long last — may be done raising interest rates. But that doesn’t mean turbulence in the bond market will soon become a thing of the past.

Bitcoin ETF candidates got another dose of disappointment when US regulators on Friday punted on making a decision on such a product. But the next time they hear from them might be just a few weeks away.

It has been nearly two years since corporate America reopened, and employers are still struggling to get people back into the office. Just ask Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, who has been pushing for in-office work, yet 30% of his workers remain hybrid and he continues to face pushback.

All of a sudden, the short-volatility trade is back on Wall Street as billions of dollars pour into options-selling ETFs like never before.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say that a number of key green sectors remain meaningfully underpriced.