Investment Advisor November 2009
Cover Story
Reassessing Risk
When people win, they like risk. When they lose, they hate it. If only it were easier to translate that knowledge into an investment strategy...
Features
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People & Pay
Investment Advisor readers can purchase a specially priced copy of the complete FA Insight Study by visiting www.fainsight.com. Click on "Order" and enter the discount...
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Tried and True
For someone trying to understand the business of providing investment advice to individuals, data that paints a broad, accurate picture of the overall business is...
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Small World
Over the last several years, the world's capital markets have undergone tremendous expansion, diversification, and integration. Accompanying these changes has been a movement away from...
Beginnings
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Asset Allocation
Behind the Numbers, with Gail Dudack Taking a contrary position to a lot of the people she speaks with, the principal of the Dudack Research Group...
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The Private Venture Investment Process
One of the few commonalities among the thousands of VCs and angel investors is the consensus that the process of identifying an attractive private venture...
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The ETF Advisor: Precious Metal ETFs
What makes precious metals funds so attractive is that they offer investors the ability to gain unleveraged exposure to gold and other precious metals without...
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At FPA Annual Gathering, Celebration and Resolve
At its annual gathering, the Financial Planning Association celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of the profession, complete with a new history of the...
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On the Sidelines for Some Time
One of the main signs that investors remain skeptical about the economic recovery is that plenty of money remains on the sidelines. A new survey...
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Advisors Need to Think More Broadly, Act More Creatively
One of the several takeaways from Rydex|SGI's 10th annual AdvisorBenchmarking study of RIAs is that advisors "need to think more broadly and more creatively" in...
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Merrill's Big Plans
Help, and the "importance of culture at this organization," are what Sallie Krawcheck spoke of on October 5th at her first press conference as president...
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FPA's Barry Is Optimistic
"If we ask for a meeting, we get a meeting," says Dan Barry, the Financial Planning Association's director of government relations, in discussing the largest...
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GroupThink
? The Financial Services Institute (FSI) issued a statement on October 6 urging the House Financial Services Committee to apply a new universal standard of...
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Changes
? The Investment Company Institute's Board of Governors has elected Edward Bernard, vice chairman of T. Rowe Price Group, to serve as chairman of the...
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Upgrades
Laserfiche, the document management company, introduced PhotoDocs, a new document capture system, at the Financial Planning Association's National Conference in Anaheim. PhotoDocs, bundled with Laserfiche...
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Numerology: Fewer Assets, More Advisors
Total assets managed by investment advisors shrank in 2008 for the first time since 2003, but despite a nearly 20% drop in assets, the number...
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Danger & Opportunity: Healthcare, Financial Services Reform Making Headway
Two of the Obama Administration's top priorities to accomplish by year-end--healthcare and financial services reform--are well on their way to fruition. The Senate Finance Committee passed...
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Danger & Opportunity: Crafting a Better Target Date Fund
Striving to help investors pull in higher retirement incomes, Putnam Investments has revamped its existing line of target date funds by integrating target absolute return...
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Editor's Note: At Least One Booming Market
As I write this note on October 14, there remains some skepticism that the recession is over and that we have entered a true recovery,...
Columns
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The Affluentialist: Reading Your Clients
Last month we looked at a recent study that examined how advisors' regular relationship with clients is not devoted to just pure financial matters. Advisors...
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The Green Advisor: SRI & Green Investing Grow Up
"Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has for decades remained on the fringe of strategic money management, routinely battling the perception that prioritizing an ethical or social...
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Formulas for Success: Cash Flow Cachet
"When your outflow exceeds your inflow, then your upkeep will be your downfall." That pithy phrase was often repeated by a former partner of mine...
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Clark at Large: The Times They Are a Changin'
Back in the frothy run up to the dot.com crash in the late '90s, I had the temerity to tell a group of financial planners...
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The Fast Track: The M Word Cometh
Traditionally, Independent advisors don't market. This has always bothered business consultants, who have used periodic market downturns to proclaim that now (whenever "now" was) is...
Conclusions
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Retirement Planning: Congress to Tackle Pension Funding, Investment Advice
Congressional action on two key areas of retirement planning--defined benefit (DB) funding and investment advice--are expected to come by year-end, which is good news to...
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Hispanics Need Advice
It's no secret that the Hispanic community in the United States is the fastest growing segment of the population. Yet Hispanics in America are also...
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Retirement News
A new 33-country survey by global consulting firm Mercer of organizations that sponsor defined contribution (DC) retirement plans reveals widespread adoption of automatic enrollment and...
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B/D Briefing: Citi Brokers Switch to Fees
It hasn't taken long for Debbie McWhinney to make her mark at Citigroup. On October 5, Citi Personal Wealth Management announced that the brokers who...
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Hybrids on the Rise
The September issue of The Cerulli Edge--U.S. Asset Management Edition, from the Boston-based research firm Cerulli Associates, found that asset managers have reacted to the...
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B/D News
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently approved new exchange rules for breaking stock trades that deviate so substantially from current market prices that they are...
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Insurance Update: Bonds. Death Bonds.
September's financial news seemed more suitable for Halloween, with headlines about the "macabre" subject of "death bonds" cropping up everywhere from mainstream media to the...
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Expert's Corner: Bringing Structure to Discussions
Using a structured approach to discussing important issues in your firm can dramatically improve your decision making process. It typically results in better input from...
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The Soapbox: The Financial Planning Coalition Barks Back
Bob Clark's October column, "The Dog That Didn't Bark," provides an inaccurate and misleading review of the Financial Planning Coalition's goals for reregulation of the...
Sidebar Stories
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A Short History of Gold
Since the dawn of civilization, gold, silver, and other precious metals have been regarded by investors worldwide as a unique store of value. Gold coins...
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Lessons From an Experienced Advisor
Dick Vodra, a wealth manager with Spire Investment Partners in McLean, Virginia, doesn't use a questionnaire to develop a risk profile for clients. Instead, he...
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One B/D's Take on Assessing Risk
Kol Birke, a financial behavior specialist with the independent broker/dealer Commonwealth Financial Network, suggests that advisors develop a risk score for clients after discussing four...
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What the Future Will Bring
What worries these advisors? What gives them cause for hope? Bob Len is troubled by some regulations, particularly those that stand in the way of globalization,...
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Why Adopt Global Standards, Anyway?
Over the last decade, the world's accounting standard-setters have been working on "converging" local and global accounting standards. Central to these efforts has been the...
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An Emotional Competence Inventory
Emotional Intelligence rests on an individual's ability to employ their emotional competencies that fall into four clusters: Self-Awareness o Emotional Awareness: Recognizing one's emotions and their effects o...
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SEC Sets Out Strategic Plan
The Securities and Exchange Commission published for public comment in October its Draft Strategic Plan outlining the Commission's strategic goals for fiscal years 2010 through...
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Marketing Is Everyone's Job
To harness young advisors' energy and motivation to help with marketing, and maximize their contributions to their firms, firm owners who employ NexGen advisors should...
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Still Time
In delivering a short history of the SRI movement, Steve Schueth, president of First Affirmative Financial Network in Colorado Springs, Colorado, explains that SRI originally...
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