The world according to advisors

This month on RIABiz, advisors seemed consumed by three topics: the 401(k) market, portfolio management and technology.

The past month saw upheaval in the markets and on Capitol Hill – and that seemed to be reflected at RIABiz, where readers bounced from one topic to another, giving several fairly equal weight. Asset custodian stories and those about breakaways consistently grabbed many readers, too.

Two 401(k) stories were among the 10 most read between April 10 and May 10. In years past, when profits were easily found, RIAs shunned the 401(k) market as complicated. Now they are looking at it with fresh eyes.

Stories that offered ideas about making 401(k) management easier found ready readers, including:RIAs are starting to create their own 401(k) companies as alternatives to John Hancock and The Principal, and one about an RIA offering from Fidelity:Fidelity brings its 401(k) muscle to RIAs with new product. The Department of Labor is considering changes to 401(k) regulations, adding to the growing sense RIAs have that the defined contribution market is their for the taking.

Life-changing software or hardware

Maybe the energy of springtime gave advisors and service providers the wherewithal to push ahead on technology improvements. Or maybe the release of the Apple iPad just put everyone in the mood to look for that life-changing software or hardware. Whatever the reason, a story about TD Ameritrade’s Veo hit the top 10, and and a review of Morningstar’s web-based portfolio management system was also a top performer.

Meanwhile, Bill Winterberg’s column about the benefits and the shortcomings of the iPad had an average reader time of more than nine minutes, making it the single story on the site that readers spent the most time with this month.

As advisors grew increasingly uneasy about the market (last Thursday’s events perhaps proving that advisors were right to feel that way) they seemed to find some solace in two guest columns about portfolio management — Rob Isbitts’ Ten investment ideas that still don’t work, and The Yale model of investing is not dead.

By far the issue that struck the most passionate chord with readers was the fiduciary fight being waged on Capitol Hill. Readers tended to curl up and comment more on those stories. The stats on stories such as our regulatory wires, Ron Rhoades’ piece taking readers inside the legal issues in the Goldman Sachs hearings and David Bellaire’s answering column prove to us, again, that RIABiz readers are serious, with a real appetite for analysis.

RIABiz, India edition?

My favorite part of the traffic numbers on RIABiz is the map of the world that shows where our readers come from. This month, I noticed that the country that sends the third-highest number of readers after the United States and Canada is India. The United Kingdom and Australia trail that developing economy. I was surprised. A little research suggested that perhaps I shouldn’t have been.

India, it turns out, is the home of a thriving wealth management community, supported by new entrepreneurial wealth and a common-law system. The Financial Planning Association has a sister organization in India. I found a lively web zine devoted to wealth managers.

Charles Lowenhaupt, chief executive of St. Louis-based Lowenhaupt Global Advisors, a 100-year-old firm in the single-family-office business, says he believe the investment advisor community is thriving there.

“We work with families around the world helping them build, run and improve their family offices. In that role, we have relationships with Indian families and their advisors,” he wrote in an e-mail. “It’s a very fertile place for RIA activity.”

Sean Cunniff, research director of the brokerage and wealth management service of TowerGroup of Needham, Mass, says there may be a bigger reason why there is significant interest in RIAs from Indian readers.

“The real answer is that there is a huge population of technology people who cover the RIA industry in the United States,” he says. “I about guarantee there are people in India who serve Schwab, Fidelity and Pershing who want to know what to build and serve. I know because they’re calling me and asking me questions.”