Financial Advisors Jumping Ship Should Leave Their Small Clients Behind

AP

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Should You Abandon Smaller Clients When You Leave Your Firm? (Financial-Planning)

Should financial planners drop their smaller clients when they leave firms? Maybe. Clients with $100,000 or less in investible assets are over 100 times more likely to ditch their financial advisor than become a big client with that advisor, according to a report from research firm PriceMetrix. Still, smaller clients may just be younger clients — with potential for growth, according to some financial advisors.

The Winklevoss Twins Would Like To Help You Trade Bitcoins With Their Bitcoin ETF (Business Insider)

The Winklevii — famous for their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook — have created a trust that will give buyers exposure to Bitcoin, the elusive digital currency. From the SEC filing: "The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of a weighted average price of Bitcoins, less the Trust’s expenses. The Sponsor believes that, for many investors, the Shares will represent a cost-effective and convenient means to access exposure to Bitcoins."

One of Bitcoin's earliest developers, Martti Malmi, told Business Insider that the ETF "would make bitcoin investment easier for the big money and could improve bitcoin's liquidity and price stability in the long run. Increase of bitcoin's market cap would be obviously beneficial to the Winklevii, who reportedly own 1% of all the bitcoins in existence."

Malmi said it was "risky business, but worth a try."

Age Divides Baby Boomers' Outlook, Study Says (FA Mag) 

Boomers divide in two distinct groups based on their attitudes toward finances and retirement, according to a new study from the Insured Retirement Institute. The study placed created two groups — boomers between 61-66 and those between 50-55 — and found that older boomers were more optimistic. Having worked many years in a safer economy, 42% of older boomers believed they had enough savings to retire comfortably, while only a quarter of the young boomers were so enthused. Investment strategies should take this intra-generational divide into account, according to the study.

FORGET THE FED: Here's The Troubling Trend That's Really Behind Stock Market Volatility (FactSet)

"For Q2 2013, 87 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 21 companies have issued positive EPS guidance," said FactSet's John Butters.  "If 87 is the final number, it will mark the highest number of companies issuing negative EPS guidance for a quarter.

"The percentage of companies issuing negative EPS guidance is 81% (87 out of 108)," Butters added. "If this is the final percentage for the quarter, it will mark the highest percentage of companies issuing negative EPS guidance for a quarter."

8 ETFs That Are Absolutely Crushing It (Index Universe)

Three Japan ETFs have been crushing it lately: the MSCI Japan Investible Markets index (appreciated 22% over the past year), the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (returned more than 40%), and the db X-trackers MSCI Japan Hedged Equity Fund (rallied 50%). The funds did better than Index Universe's Japanese benchmark thanks to currency hedging (returns weren't hurt by a plummeting yen).

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