The likelihood that the US will go into a recession in the next 12 months rose to 25% this month, compared with 20% in January, according to a Reuters poll of economists. Most of the respondents said they expect the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at its March meeting.

Mass.-based Charles River Laboratories International said in a securities filing that it will shut down its US pension plan over the next two years. The company plans to purchase a group annuity to assume any plan liabilities for participants who do not choose to accept a lump-sum distribution.

Nearly 78% of financial advisors surveyed by InvestmentNews said they believe sexual harassment is a problem in their industry. However, when asked if it was a problem at their own firms, 77% said no.

The value clients attach to working with an advisor may be based more in perception than reality, says Joe Duran of United Capital. He suggests four ways advisors can show their value to clients, including making clients feel cared about and understood, and communicating consistently.

Advisors should pay attention to how the adult children of their clients perceive them, says Amy Lienert, who began helping her mother with finances at the end of her father's life. She encouraged her mother to switch advisors after she noticed the current advisor was failing to tailor her advice.

Irrevocable non-grantor trusts have newfound value for high-net-worth clients in light of recent tax changes, write attorneys Robert Bloink and William Byrnes. They look at why ING trusts could be one of the biggest trends in estate planning this year.

Seniors are vulnerable to scammers because of their relative wealth and sometimes because of cognitive decline or isolation, writes elder law attorney Carolyn Rosenblatt, who offers ways advisers can help. Advisers can increase contact with aging clients and review their transactions more regularly, Rosenblatt writes.

A group of House and Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would permit people ages 50 and older to buy Medicare plans and obtain the same cost-sharing subsidies and tax credits offered through Affordable Care Act exchanges. Supporters of the measure said the legislation is a more acceptable and less disruptive alternative to proposals that would open Medicare to everyone.

Fund manager Mark Yusko draws a comparison between a surge on the US stock market and a temporary rise in 2001 that led to an incorrect assumption stocks had recovered from the dot-com crash. Yusko says that stocks are overvalued and that the market is due to lose as much as 50% in 2019 and 2020, while UBS investment executive Mark Haefele says, "Prudent investors should use the market reprieve to prepare their portfolios for the next period of market volatility."

One in every 20 webpage visits in 2018 was made by a hedge fund or sell-side researcher looking for an informational advantage, according to a report by Opimas Analysis. The researchers predict that web scraping by asset managers will increase from roughly 10.2 billion daily page visits this year to more than 17 billion in 2020 and cost firms over $1.8 billion.