May 2009
Cover Story
Flash back a year. Who would have imagined that the five major broker/dealers would no longer exist in their former incarnations? ...
Features
Bruce Lev’s client lost $3 million in Bernard Madoff’s investment swindle. ...
Building Wealth
There’s an old market truism that says, “With great turmoil comes great opportunity.” We’re hearing it a lot lately. And investors willing and able to look beyond the short term should be paying attention....
With U.S. stocks down 20% in just the first two months of the year, even the most ardent bear must be shocked at the speed with which the market had been losing its mojo. ...
Looking at the recent history of junk bond spreads, advisors might easily conclude that they are in a bubble—prone to burst—earning investors returns of 20% or higher across a diversified asset class....
These are stressful times for investment advisors. Their clients suffered big losses in 2008, and many of them have lost faith in the system. ...
Signals
As a self-proclaimed “perpetual student,” Kirby Rosplock is clearly in the right position. The 34-year-old PhD leads the corporate research efforts at GenSpring Family Offices. ...
Columnists
As much optimism as I have about the future of the wealth management industry, I have an equal amount of pessimism that in trying to rebuild and re-grow our firms we will once again fail to protect them from future disasters. ...
In the 1990s, commodities as an attractive opportunity were blips on few people’s investment radar. However, at the new millennium, with bond yields low and the tech stock bubble having burst, commodities started to attract more attention. ...
Preserving Wealth
Amid today’s receding economic waters, such indecent exposure isn’t exclusive to those who risked wealth on supposedly can’t-lose investment opportunities. ...
No part of the Internal Revenue Code is more at play than the estate tax, a levy that is scheduled to expire in 2010 and restart in 2011—an improbable scenario. ...
Endowing Wealth
One of your high-net-worth clients—we’ll call her Jane—made her fortune as an independent business person. She began her retail business years ago with a small loan from her parents. ...
Entrepreneurship and invention have strongly contributed to America’s growth. Can that dynamic have a similar effect on this country’s entrenched social problems? ...