The SEC charged a financial advisor with stealing $1.2 million in a Ponzi-like scheme so he could remodel his home

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Charles Ponzi

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A financial advisor stole $1.2 million in a Ponzi-like scheme so that he could remodel his home (Financial Planning)

A former Edward Jones advisor, Bernard M. Parker, told 22 clients that they were investing in tax liens, but actually used their funds to remodel his home, pay off bills, and allegedly make interest payments to other investors, reports Andrew Welsch.

"Parker, 54, hatched his scheme in 2008, creating a company called Parker Financial Services, according to the SEC. Parker was the owner and only employee of this eponymously-named firm, which he kept hidden from his employer," reports Welsch. Edward Jones was not named in the complaint filed by the SEC, and their clients are being compensated for their losses.

India is not China (Charles Schwab)

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India has dethroned China as the fastest growing economy. Although some may assume that India will face the same issues as China, there are key differences between the two.

Perhaps most interestingly, China's biggest risk "comes mainly from outside the country" - since it heavily depends on global demand. But on the flip side, "India's biggest risk may come from inside the country. India's economy is much more dependent on consumer spending than on demand for exports. The drop in oil prices has helped narrow India's consumer-driven trade gap. This means that India's biggest threat now may be the weather. The World Bank estimates that 47% of jobs in India are in agriculture. India has seen two back-to-back years of drought, further bad weather could mean job and income losses that could weaken consumer spending growth," writes Jeffrey Kleintop.

Female breadwinners could use advisors to help communicate with their partners (InvestmentNews)

A new study by the Family Wealth Advisory Council found that over 70% of female bread winners could use the help of advisors to communicate with their partners about wealth management, reports Kathleen Burns Kingsbury. The difficulty comes from the fact that modern couples do not always let traditional gender roles define their financial relationships anymore.

When meeting with these clients, Kingsbury suggests that advisors 1) need to be aware of their own personal biases in couple relationships, 2) encourage more listening, and less talking, and 3)maybe even use "creative tools such as a deck of money mindset cards" to make the conversations more fun.

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There are "2 Chinas" (Advisor Perspectives)

There are "two Chinas" argue Stuart Rae and Hayden Briscoe of AllianceBernstein. The "old" China is represented by the Li Keqiang Index, named after China's premier. It uses 3 indicators: railway cargo volume, electricity consumption, and bank loans. The index was useful for a while, as it reflected an economy that relied on heavy industry and state-run banks.

Rae and Briscoe note that "the Li Keqiang Index-which tends to be volatile, given its narrow base- is significantly underperforming GDP. Meanwhile the 'new economy' sectors favored by government policy, such as consumption and services, remain relatively resilient, as reflected in the overall GDP trend."

"While it would be wrong to paint China's prospects in the rosiest colors, we think it's just as wrong to see the country as nothing but doom and gloom. What's necessary, in our view, is a balanced and holistic perspective: an understanding of China as a country in economic transition and which, for the foreseeable future, consists of two economies, old and new," they add.

The number of advisors in the US is up for the first time in nine years (Think Advisor)

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The number of advisors in the US grew by 1.1% in 2014, according to report by Cerulli Associates. This is the first time since 2005 that the number of advisors in the US increased. The number of advisors decreased by 12.7% from 2005 to 2013.

"Cerulli predicted that the upward momentum would continue over the next three years. It cautioned, however, that the looming succession cliff would reverse positive growth by 2020," reports Michael S. Fischer.

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