As the popularity of mutual funds waned in response to a variety of factors, most notably perhaps the end of a product life cycle, Separately Managed Accounts caught fire. Spurred on by rapidly lowering investment minimums, assets in SMAs were closing in on $500 billion as 2003 came to a close. Barron’s took my advice to cover this emerging trend and hired me to write a primer on SMAs.
In the wake of the “global settlement” — the April 2003 agreement among 10 investment banking firms and the Securities and Exchange Commission — brokers, advisors and investors soon will find lots more independent research reports on their desks.
In the early summber of 2003, investors were seeing something they hadn’t for a very long time: stock market gains. Changes in the tax laws regarding capital gains, and a desire not to repeat the past leads to that most uncommon of Wall Street cries: Se
First Merit Financial reconfigures itself to offer a wealth management solution
Think the markets are rational? Think again. The burgeoning field of behavioral finance is debunking several myths about how investors behave and what this means for equities.