Matt may think it’s all about Zecco. I think it’s all about advisers.

Zecco? Really Matt? Honestly, for investors who are holding big accounts at Zecco, Schwab isn’t likely to be an issue in any case. Zecco, for those who don’t know the firm, is a super-low-discount broker, offering everything from bargain basement foreign exchange trading to $5 options. A few ETFs are unlikely to even be on the radar of Zecco customers.

I think the real target for Schwab’s new ETFs is the money Schwab’s existing customers have in ETFs.

Schwab’s huge. They custody $1.3 trillion for their 5.3 million customers, and process over 300,000 trades each and every day. Perhaps most importantly, Schwab acts as the back end for over 6,000 independent advisers in their adviser services business.

It’s a mistake to think that Schwab, as a broker, is in the transaction business. Fundamentally, they’re in the banking business. Schwab makes 35-40

The nature of the financial adviser marketplace has changed. And that means that some investors should probably change their financial advisers.

A decade ago, the task of most mainstream financial advisers was relatively simple. They formed relationships with clients, developed a straightforward wealth-building plan, invested their clients’ money in a portfolio of mutual funds and tried to make sure that their clients didn’t do anything stupid while the market did the work.

To me, that last piece was always the most valuable. Having someone or something in between you and your money is often a good idea. A good adviser can dissuade you from acting on impulse, either rushing to buy the “next big thing” or rushing to sell something that has under-performed. In both cases, it usually saves you money in the long run.

For most advisers, however, the task of actually managing money was secondary. The best portfolios are almost always

The Harry Dent exchange-traded fund from AdvisorShares is overpriced and doesn’t fit into the way most investors use ETFs, Heather. It’s also one of the more interesting ETFs to come along in a while.

We’ve covered the debut of the Dent Tactical ETF (NYSEArca: DENT) closely on IndexUniverse.com. We wrote about the launch here, and ran an in-depth interview with Harry Dent, one of the fund’s portfolio managers, here.

The idea is simple: Two well-known market forecasters, Harry Dent Jr. and Rodney Johnson, will actively manage a portfolio by “identifying, through proprietary economic and demographic analysis, the overall trend of the U.S. and global economies and how consumer spending patterns may change based on this analysis.”

That sounds like a fairly normal active strategy. What makes DENT interesting is that the two managers will implement their strategy using ETFs. DENT, in other words, is an ETF-of-ETFs.

That’s interesting because it solves one

The most important investment decision you’ll ever make is almost always overlooked by the average investor, says Simon Mellon of Bonner & Partners Family Office.

Most individual investors are obsessed with finding “rock star” stock picks or mega yielding bonds. They completely ignore the balancing act needed for long term wealth generation. Anyone can pick a winning horse once in a while but can they do it every day? Probably not, and that’s why gambling is a loser’s game.

For some reason, mention asset allocation or portfolio management and most investors’ eyes glaze over. It’s as if you’ve just asked them to understand the latest Goldman Sachs program trade.

At its heart, the process is as simple as a simple “Know Thy Self” combined with a little discipline. Every time a financial adviser takes on a client they are required to know that clients needs and capabilities. If you treat yourself like your

The full transcript of John Bogle’s recent webinar examining exchange-traded funds and the outlook for America’s investors.

As part of the festivities surrounding the 2009 Journal of Indexes editorial board meeting, IndexUniverse.com hosted a live webinar with Vanguard founder and index industry legend John Bogle.

During the one-hour presentation, Mr. Bogle unveiled new research regarding how successful (or not) investors are when trading exchange-traded funds, and took a big picture look at the state of American finance.

Moderated by JoI editor and IndexUniverse.com publisher Jim Wiandt, the webinar features an extensive audience Q&A session. A full transcript follows below.

Jim Wiandt, editor, Journal of Indexes (Wiandt): Good morning everyone, and welcome to a very special event that we have here today. We are actually at the NASDAQ market site and we have the Journal of Indexes editorial board meeting today.

We have

Author: BusinessTalkAdded: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:32:09 -0800Duration: 267

InvestTalk is a weekday program that looks at new and relevant investment topics each weekday, and answers questions about financial and retirement planning, money management as well as general concerns about the stock market with financial adviser, ...