Financial advisors can use shared experiences to connect with clients on a personal level and build better relationships, writes John Pojeta of The PT Services Group. He offers three ways to better connect with clients: learn more about them, encourage team members to form personal relationships with them and celebrate client anniversaries.

The timing of a stock market drop can greatly affect a retirement portfolio, with losses earlier in retirement being particularly harmful, writes advisor David Nicholas. To mitigate the effects of a market downturn, he advises relying less on stocks for income in retirement and segmenting money into three "buckets" -- one for liquidity, one for income and one for growth.

Creating and building a successful career that stands up to an uncertain future requires the ability to adapt and be resilient, writes business psychology and productivity coach Barbara Kay. She outlines three key disciplines worth cultivating so you can navigate a landscape that is constantly changing.

Quantitative strategists say data analytics plays a crucial role in improving the quality of the information used to make environmental, social and governance investment decisions. Current techniques used by quants allow them to plug informational gaps, process large volumes of poorly ordered data and put together a portfolio that is more closely tuned to the investor's ESG goals.

Moves by Europe's major banks to reduce their exposure to international trade financing has brought opportunities for asset managers to enter the market. The new crop of investors is drawn to the sector in search of better yield prospects. according to Dimitri Kouchnirenko of trade-finance exchange Incomlend.

All of the major Democratic presidential candidates have proposed ways to address paying for long-term care. Among their ideas are tax credits for caregivers, a public long-term-care insurance program and a home care benefit included in a Medicare for All plan.

Hedge fund assets rose by $80 billion during Q4 to reach a record $3.32 trillion, data from Hedge Fund Research shows – despite net outflows of roughly $13.6 billion over the same period. "The hedge fund industry concluded a historic decade of growth, which began in the aftermath of the financial crisis and saw total capital double in size, as the strongest performance in a decade propelled industry capital to a new milestone," said HFR president Kenneth J. Heinz in a statement.

Research from PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg and the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry tip global pension fund assets to hit $61.1 trillion during 2025, up from $42.2 trillion two years ago, with some 27% of that total made up of alternatives. "[Pension funds] are going beyond their borders in search for growth -- either through direct investments or, increasingly, using alternative investment funds," said PwC Luxembourg asset and wealth-management chief Oliver Weber.

A Bloomberg analysis of data from almost 3,000 funds has found that female or other minority hedge fund leaders return roughly 6.6% over three years, against 3.9% for their white male counterparts. The performance gap was most pronounced in the case of macro and event-driven strategies.

The European Forum of Securities Associations has urged the European Commission to take urgent steps to prioritize what it says are a number of pressing shortcomings with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II in its upcoming review of the regime. "[T]here are some areas of [MiFID II] which need recalibration in order to deliver the intended policy outcome and to avoid unintended harm to the market, liquidity and investor choice," the EFSA said.