Articles

Welcome to our research center! We've put together a library of information on important financial topics that we believe you'll find helpful. Simply click on one of the categories below or browse our full collection of articles.

Investing

What Is a Closed-End Fund?

With closed-end funds, investors pool their money together to purchase a professionally managed portfolio of stocks and/or bonds.

Investing

What Is a Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is a collection of stocks, bonds, and other securities with certain benefits and risks.

Investing

What Is a Stock Index?

Stock market indexes can be useful benchmarks for gauging the performance of an investment portfolio over time.

Investing

What Do Bond Ratings Mean?

Bond ratings gauge a bond issuer’s financial ability to repay its promised principal and interest payments.

Investing

What Is a Bond?

A bond is simply evidence of a debt from a government entity or a corporation and represents a long-term IOU.

Investing

What Types of Bonds Are Available?

Bonds are issued by many entities and share many characteristics, each type of bond has certain benefits and risks.

Investing

What Is Diversification?

An important element to successful investing is to manage investment risk while maintaining the potential for growth.

Investing

What Are Zero-Coupon Bonds?

Zero-coupon bonds represent a type of bond that does not pay interest during the life of the bond.

Investing

What Is Stock?

Before investing in stocks, it is important to understand some of the basics and the risks involved in owning stocks.

Investing

How Are Mutual Funds Taxed?

Mutual fund taxes can be cumbersome, but there are ways to help mitigate the amount of taxes you may owe.

Investing

How Are Growth and Value Stocks Different?

The labels growth and value reflect different approaches that can be used when making investment decisions.

Investing

How Are Annuities Taxed?

One attractive feature of an annuity is tax-deferral but qualified and non-qualified annuities are taxed differently.