Wealth Manager Web April 2009

Cover Story

• Attracting and Retaining Women: A 21st Century Challenge

  By Robin J. Scheman

  Flexible work arrangements," "on-ramping and relaunching" and a "nonlinear career path" have entered the lexicon of the present day workplace. But these descriptors are more...

• Uncertain Times

  By J. Gibson Watson III, CIMA, Envestnet

  Last year's market wreckage doubtlessly left most investor portfolios well short of 2008 return targets and many long-term investment plans way behind schedule. Indeed, except...

• Good Theory,Bad Practice

  By Ben Warwick, Quantitative Equity Strategies

  In the 1950s, two brilliant young economists, Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller, were asked to create a corporate finance curriculum at Carnegie Institute of Technology...

• Bonds Versus Bond Funds

  By Robert Huebscher

  The Barclay iShares Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG) returned 7.9% in 2008, far outpacing the performance of all equity indices. Moreover, this is not a temporary...

• The ETF Edge

  By Chuck Carlson, CFA

  Bear markets are bad for business. Portfolios decline, pinching fee income. Clients bail, putting further pressure on AUM and fees. And raising fresh assets is,...

• Small-Cap Dividends

  By Stan Luxenburg

  Some financial advisors have long overweighted small value funds, heeding research by Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago and Kenneth French of Dartmouth. In...

• Warning Flag

  By Kathleen McBride, AdvisorOne

  The WM Interview Robert L. Rodriguez was early to recognize problems in the credit markets, having gone to a "plain vanilla" stance years before the financial...

• Survival: The Family Way

  By Michael S. Fischer

  Your Partners Survival: The Family Way The family business model is proving to be robust, even during the current economy. A recently released report by Barclays Wealth...

• Insurer of Last Resort

  By James J. Green, AdvisorOne

  When the FDIC takes over a failing bank, it winds up selling off its assets (to see what's available, take a peek at www.fdic.gov/buying/index.html). The...

• Don't Quit on Me Now

  By Philip Palaveev, Fusion Advisor Network

  The higher you climb, the farther you fall. We went as a profession and an industry from the heights of income, valuation and prestige in...

• Finding the Right Balance

  By Brian Perry

  The global financial crisis of 2008 seemed to leave investors with nowhere to hide. Large cap, small cap and international stocks all declined. Emerging markets...

• Patching it Up

  By Julian Block

  Amidst all the partisan squabbling over the size of President Obama's economic stimulus package and the role of tax cuts therein, there was, at least,...

• 'My Fair Lady' of Means

  By Andrew McElwee

  "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" That was the question Professor Henry Higgins sang out to audiences in Lerner and Loewe's "My...

• Losing Your Concentration

  By Gavin Morrissey, JD, LLM, Commonwealth Financial, Gavin Morrissey, JD, LLM, Commonwealth Financial

  The virtues of diversification continue to be showcased by the volatile markets. Once simply considered an appropriate mix of stocks and bonds based on a...

• Living the Legacy

  By Holli Rivera

  Today's philanthropy is not your father's philanthropy. Just as modern entrepreneurs and wealthy individuals no longer wait for retirement to enjoy the fruits of their...

• To the Editor

  By Rick Kahler

  At the end of his most recent quarterly review, a client was leaving my office. His portfolio, like my own and those of nearly all...