The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently released an investor alert entitled "Alternative Funds Are Not Your Typical Mutual Funds". FINRA defines Alternative (Alt) Funds as mutual funds that "seek to accomplish the fund's objectives through non-traditional investments and trading strategies."
These funds have garnered significant assets in recent years -- over $175 billion as of May 2013 -- as investors stretch beyond traditional stock and bond allocations for additional...
Last week, both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued investor alerts concerning pension and structured settlement income streams. The SEC's investor bulletin and FINRA's investor alert can be found online. We haven't discussed the potential problems surrounding pension or structured settlement income streams before, but these regulatory notices highlight some of the potential issues that we think are important for...