Search

The article focuses on the significance of consulting the best adviser before giving out investment advice in the U.S. It is noted that some investment brokers are compelled to follow fiduciary standard at a higher level. Investors are recommended to consider the confusing different credentials of the brokers.

The article focuses on the growing number of roboadvisers that are getting professional help from human financial planners. It reports the decision of roboadviser Betterment to add human advisers to reduce the costs of its advice packages and services, as well as its partnership with online insurance brokerage PolicyGenius to help sell more of its investment accounts. It provides information on the personal Advisor Services from Vanguard and digital services from Schwab and from Ellevest.

The article informs that new rules by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would help ensure investors get best advice from investment advisors and mentions to pick an independent, fee-only adviser to act as a fiduciary.

The article reports that U.S. regulators are seeking to delay the deadline for financial advisers to comply with a rule that would require them to act in their customer's best interest.

The article presents suggestions for consumers for shopping for financial advice and investments including fiduciary rule, immediate changes in current accounts or when opening new ones and application of rules to existing retirement investments.

The article reports that the U.S. Labor Department plans to support the fiduciary rule that would require financial advisers to prioritize interests of their customer, after a review prompted a delay in its implementation in June 9, 2017.

The article reports on the debate regarding the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios free investment service program to be introduced by businessman Charles Schwab for investor who seek thrifty advice.

And though a recent federal appeals court ruling has provided some hope to gays and lesbians that their unions could potentially be recognized by the federal government, nothing has changed just yet. That means that same-sex couples, including those who live in states that recognize their unions, should take extra care when setting up their financial life with a partner or spouse. You can find some basic tool kits and resources on Web sites like Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign. But if you want more tailored advice, you should try to seek out a professional who is well-versed in these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some big retirement plans offer investors the chance to hire an independent adviser that can help them choose their investments. But your plan provider will soon be able to offer the advice itself, as long as it meets rules issued recently by the Department of Labor. Before the new regulations, which are effective Dec. 27, 401(k), individual retirement plan providers were required to hire an independent adviser to provide advice. That's because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the law known as Erisa that governs retirement plans, prohibited advisers from recommending investments if they were paid for other services like administering the plans in the first place. This was to avoid conflicts of interest where the administrator would put its own mutual funds on the menu and push them on participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What would you do if your financial planner prescribed the following advice? Save and invest diligently for 30 years, then cross your fingers and pray your investments will double over the last decade before you retire. You might as well go to Las Vegas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

YOU probably get an annual physical. Your doctor will ask about your concerns, take your blood pressure and 30 minutes later you're out of the paper gown and off to work -- maybe with a new prescription for Lipitor. A similar annual checkup takes place in another type of practitioner's office: financial planners. But instead of analyzing your good and bad cholesterol levels, a planner may evaluate your good debts (mortgage) and bad debts (credit card). And instead of testing your reflexes, they may look at your savings and assess your ability to respond to a financial emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most everyone needs financial advice. The big question is how much. There are tens of thousands of advisers out there, with varying levels of expertise, who charge varying fees for their services. And professional advice doesn't guarantee good returns. You need look no further for evidence than the market collapse of 2008-9, when most people lost money, even those with the supposedly ideal mix of investments, hand-picked by their financial planners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When wealthy investors are willing to hand over a sizable sum to a single money manager they heard about at the country club, certain first principles of investing bear repeating. That manager, Bernard L. Madoff, is accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of running a fraud scheme that may be the biggest in Wall Street history. But if it ends up in the record books, it will be because scores of people made outsize bets on his prowess without taking the time to fully understand what they were investing in. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]