For years, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has tracked American personal finance knowledge through a survey about saving habits and basic financial principles. FINRA recently released the results of its 2015 survey, which includes the fact that only 37% of those who took the survey could answer four of the five questions on a…
The light at the end of the tunnel is nearing for America’s summer interns. Full-time offers will be tendered, sighs of relief exhaled and paychecks cashed. Interns who receive offers will be bright-eyed with lofty visions of moonshot careers at their new place of employment. As these interns begin to accept the end of college…
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has had one of the most hectic campaigns in recent memory. He has made so many newsworthy remarks that it is hard to keep up. One day last week was particularly impressive as he made over 10 news-making assertions in under 24 hours. These included initially refusing to endorse House…
A new survey from Bankrate indicates that many Americans hold quite a low view of the stock market. In answering what was the best way to invest money unneeded for at least 10 years, real estate (25%) and cash (23%) took the top spots, followed by the stock market and gold (16% each) in a…
Millennials are nervous about investing. Recent surveys have shown that 70% of millennials keep their savings in cash rather than invest it in the stock market. But by not investing early on, these people in their 20s and early 30s miss out on the key advantage they have at a young age: time. Because your investment…
A new study in the Journal of Finance has found that conflicts of interest in 401(k) plans can lead to serious losses for individual investors. More specifically, the 2,500 funds surveyed were less likely to eliminate underperforming funds that were their own rather than another provider’s fund. This can be very costly to retirement savers….
Former NBA All-Star forward Antoine Walker possessed a varied skill-set that enabled him to play both inside and outside. A big man who also shot the three, Walker was notorious for his hilariously erratic shot selection and, later in his career, an aversion to running that led to lazy play. The quality of financial advice…
The White House’s report on conflicting financial advice estimates that there is a staggering $1.7 trillion invested in products that generate conflicts of interest for advisors—meaning products that advisors earn a commission for selling to clients—leading to a loss of 12% in a retirement account’s value over 30 years. To combat this, the Department of…
CNBC recently published a story on the growing popularity of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. According to the article, 81% of advisors surveyed said they used or recommended ETFs to their clients in 2015. We have been advocating ETFs as a secure, flexible investment for our clients since the days when they weren’t as popular. Here’s…
The world had its eyes on the United Kingdom on June 23, as returns from their national referendum on whether to withdraw from the European Union began to roll in. The ultimate victory of the “leave” camp sent shock waves through political and financial sectors, as investors saw the British pound crash to a 30-year…