In theory, financial professionals are relatively distinct: A broker-dealer conducts transactions in securities on behalf of itself and others; and an investment adviser provides advice to others regarding securities. Different laws regulate each type of professional, but boundaries have blurred. This report examines current business practices and investor understanding of each type.

A journey through the Index Revolution from the man who started it all Stay the Course is the story the Vanguard Group as told by its founder, legendary investor John C. Bogle. This engrossing book traces the history of Vanguard—the largest mutual fund organization on earth. Offering the world’s first index mutual fund in 1976, John Bogle led Vanguard from a $1.4 billion firm with a staff of 28 to a global company of 16,000 employees and with more than $5 trillion in assets under management. An engaging blend of company history, investment perspective, and personal memoir, this book provides a fascinating look into the mind of an extraordinary man and the company he created. John Bogle continues to be an inspiring and trusted figure to millions of individual investors the world over. His creative innovation, personal integrity, and stubborn determination infuse every aspect of the company he founded. This accessible and engaging book will help you: Explore the history of some of Vanguard’s most important mutual funds, including First Index Investment Trust, Wellington Fund, and Windsor Fund Understand how the Vanguard Group gave rise to the Index Revolution and transformed the lives of millions of individual investors Gain insight on John Bogle’s views on values such as perseverance, caring, commitment, integrity, and fairness Investigate a wide range of investing topics through the lens of one of the most prominent figures in the history of modern finance The Vanguard Group and John Bogle are inextricably linked—it would be impossible to tell one story without the other. Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution weaves these stories together taking you on a journey through the history of one revolutionary company and one remarkable man. Investors, wealth managers, financial advisors, business leaders, and those who enjoy a good story, will find this book as informative and unique as its author.

Another retirement crisis is looming as one-third of private-sector, typically poor and unsophisticated workers, probably have little to no pension security. The fifty states have decided to enact reforms, but they are unwilling to assume any liability. Effective reform should ensure a target, guaranteed, inflation/standard-of-living-indexed retirement income through death. The book proposes a four-step reform process that articulates roles, responsibilities, and sequencing of steps to effectively address the looming retirement crisis. Current reform models potentially expose participants to costly, risky, error-prone, and illiquid alternatives, which could transfer wealth from poor citizens to rich asset managers and from short-lived poor and minority citizens to rich and majority populations. Retirement planning presents a wealth of complex challenges associated with saving, investing, and decumulation. To address these challenges, Muralidhar provides an innovative Flex MMM reform model that reflects the goals of numerous stakeholders, including, states, employers, employees, asset managers, and regulators, by showing steps the federal and state governments could take to alleviate the guesswork and insecurity involved in the retirement saving process. Muralidhar also demonstrates that the lynchpin for retirement security globally is an innovative new retirement bond (called SeLFIES ) he has jointly developed with Robert C. Merton that governments could easily issue to achieve multiple goals.

Investment Adviser Regulation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Compliance and the Law gives you the thorough regulatory guidance you need to understand the rules currently governing investment advisers while ensuring you keep pace with the tougher rules to come. This straightforward, easy-to-read compliance resource shows you how to file and update the pivotal Form ADV and draft compliant advisory contracts.

How institutions and individuals can address complex social, financial, and environmental problems on a systemic level—and invest in a more secure future. Investment today has evolved from the basic, conventional approach of the past. Investors have come to recognize the importance of sustainable investment and are more frequently considering environmental and social factors in their decisions. Yet the complexity of the times forces us to recognize and transition to a third stage of investment practice: system-level investing. In this paradigm-shifting book, William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg show how system-level investors support and enhance the health and stability of the social, financial, and environmental systems on which they depend for long-term returns. They preserve and strengthen these fundamental systems while still generating competitive or otherwise acceptable performance. This book is for those investors who believe in that transition. They may be institutions, large or small, concerned about the long-term stability of the environment and society. They may be individual investors who want their children and grandchildren to inherit a just and sustainable world. Whoever they may be, Burckart and Lydenberg show them the what, why, and how of system-level investment in this book: what it means to manage system-level risks and rewards, why it is imperative to do so now, and how to integrate this new way of thinking into their current practice. “Burckart and Lydenberg are the Wayne Gretzkys of investing: Showing us not where investing is, but where it’s going.” —Jon Lukomnik, Managing Partner, Sinclair Capital; Senior Fellow, High Meadows Institute