Wealth Manager Web June 2007

Cover Story

• The Perils of Entropy

  By Stephen Phillip Brown

  Consider the mind-boggling possibilities of compound interest: If the Lenape tribe of Native Americans had invested the 60-guilder ($24) proceeds from their sale of Manhattan...

• OTC Derivatives

  By Neil A. O'Hara

  Financial advisors can no longer ignore OTC derivatives, even if they want to. Almost all hedge funds use them, and derivatives have spread into mutual...

• Real (Estate) Returns

  By Stan Luxenburg

  Stan Luxenberg Real estate funds have enjoyed a remarkable run. During the five years ending in February, the funds returned 23.7 percent annually, outdoing every other...

• Volatility Vortex

  By Patrick Chitwood

  The popularity of the standard deviation in investing dates back to 1973 and the publication of Burton Malkiel's legendary book, A Random Walk Down Wall...

• Weights and Bands

  By James Picerno

  Rebalancing, asset allocation and diversification within asset classes are the holy trinity of enlightened investment strategy. Of the three, rebalancing arguably has lagged as a...

• One Size Fits All

  By James Picerno

  As benchmarks go, it's hard to beat the consumer price index for real-world impact. CPI's fingerprints show up on bond prices, cost-of-living increases for Social...

• School Daze

  By Robert Margolis

  here is this misguided notion that economics is just what they do at M.I.T. We say, 'not at all.'" Robert Duvall is optimistic, but acknowledges...

• The European Way

  By Janice Fioravante

  Back in the 60s, residents of the United Kingdom may have had the value-added tax (VAT) to thank for the creation of the miniskirt. It...

• The Electronic Annuity

  By Richard J. Koreto

  Technology has long been the driving force in getting rid of the middleman: Remove the salesperson and buy clothes from an online store. Remove the...

• The Stealth Tax

  By Julian Block

  It looks simple. For 2007, there are just six tax brackets: 10, 15, 25, 28, 33 and 35 percent. But these seemingly simple--even acceptable--numbers can...

• Split Decisions

  By Gregory Taggart

  It's not often that a complex IRS ruling actually clears the air, but in the case of split-dollar arrangements, that's exactly what happened. It's been...

• Not on Your Life

  By Gregory Taggart

  To some, stranger-originated life insurance is a cutting-edge idea. Others see it as a practice that cuts both ways--into your affluent client's savings and his...

• Have a Nice Day

  By Laurie A. Helgoe

  Remember when "Have a nice day!" actually meant something? The greeting and its symbol, the bright yellow smiley face, came out of the 1970s Evangelism...

• Deep Roots

  By Ed McCarthy, CFP

  Kaycee Krysty and Rich Simmonds co-founded Seattle-based wealth management firm Tyee Asset Strategies in 1995, and the firm grew rapidly over the ensuing five years....

• Advice for the Advisor

  By Drew Mccoy

  Operating a wealth advice practice is both a satisfying and rewarding pursuit, but one sometimes fraught with enormous complexity. Every day wealth advisors are faced...

• Family Practitioner

  By Marie Swift

  After 30 years in the financial services business, Carl F. von dem Bussche says he's attended the "school of hard knocks," "been around the block,"...

• What's Next?

  By Daniel Moisand

  March 30, 2007. I was at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver attending a town hall meeting conducted by the CFP Board on its latest...