Biography
Stephen Horan, CFA, CIPM, is managing director and co-lead of education at CFA Institute. Prior to joining CFA Institute, he was a principal of Alesco Advisors LLC, a financial analyst and forensic economist in private practice, and a professor of finance at St. Bonaventure University. Horan co-authored The New Wealth Management: A Financial Advisor’s Guide to Managing and Investing Client Assets, a how-to guide for financial advisers; edited the volume Private Wealth: Wealth Management in Practice, a practitioner’s guide to wealth management; and has published three editions of the Forbes/CFA Institute Stock Market Course, a comprehensive guide to personal investing and wealth management. He is also the author of dozens of articles in leading peer-reviewed journals and has written for the CFA Program curriculum. Horan is a frequent columnist in Financial Times and an associate editor for the Financial Services Review and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Wealth Management. He holds a BBA in finance with a minor in mathematics from St. Bonaventure University and a PhD in finance with a minor in economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Topical Expertise: Private Wealth Management
Campbell Harvey discusses the limitations of quantitative easing in today’s macroeconomic environment. His analysis has implications for the role of commodities, specifically gold, in a diversified portfolio.
With interest rates so low, and a Fed determined to keep them low for a prolonged period, does it make sense to allocate money to fixed income securities right now?
Although target-date retirement funds are a ubiquitous retirement planning tool, their glide paths vary considerably from one provider to the next. Moreover, the glide paths themselves tend to change over time. Thomas M. Idzorek, CFA, discusses the problems associated with benchmarking these instruments and outlines a glide path stability score.
Developing a flow of steady referrals that help an adviser to grow his or her practice is a perpetual challenge. Julie Littlechild, president and founder of Advisor Impact, discusses how enhancing client engagement can support referrals and how to increase the likelihood that your clients become your most ardent advocates.
We’ve all heard the old adage that diversification is the only free lunch in investing, but Paul Bouchey, CFA, debunked that notion at the CFA Institute Wealth Management 2012 conference in Miami. To be clear, Bouchey did not challenge the notion that we can reduce risk without sacrificing return through diversification. He did, however, call out another free lunch — volatility harvesting.
Latin America creates an interesting set of investment opportunities in light of its potential for economic growth and the development of its financial markets. Melvin Escudero discusses some of the elements that will be critical for Latin America's continued growth in the future.