J.D. Power’s best financial advisor firms; Morgan Stanley’s alts investment strategy; rethinking retirement subsidies to boost Social Security

PRACTICE AND CLIENT MANAGEMENT: Rising stock values lifted wealth management clients' grades for the largest firms in the industry, with a new winner of J.D. Power 's Full-Service Investor Satisfaction Study benefitting the most.

U.S. Bank jumped all the way to the top spot from No. 14 last year in the research and consulting firm's closely followed annual report card for the wealth management industry. See the rankings of the big financial advisor firms according to clients.

Read: U.S. Bank tops Edward Jones, Vanguard and UBS on J.D. Power's client survey; Equitable, TIAA and LPL get lowest scores

PORTFOLIO STRATEGIES: Alison Nest thinks some of 摩根士丹利 's clients could benefit from having as much as a quarter of their portfolios in private equity, private credit and similar investments.

Now one of her main goals as managing director and the head of alternative investments at the Wall Street giant's wealth management unit is to help investors find ways to move beyond standard stocks and bonds when appropriate. Nest noted that Morgan Stanley's global investment committee recommends that alts like private equity, credit and real estate make up anywhere from 10% to 25% of portfolios.

Read: Morgan Stanley alts head: Up to 25% of portfolios could be in private markets

TAX: The deadline to avoid automatic cuts to Social Security benefits in the next decade is shrinking. Rethinking the substantial tax subsidies for retirement savings could help address the program's pending insolvency, according to two economists.

Deferred tax payments on contributions to employer-sponsored plans, individual retirement accounts and other savings methods cost the federal government up to $185 billion a year. That money could instead be used to help ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, a study by Alicia H. Munnell , director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College , and Andrew Biggs , senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute , found earlier this year.

Read: Could cutting retirement tax incentives help fix Social Security insolvency?

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