Adviser designations by the numbers

Few topics are more divisive in the financial advice community than the use of alternative investments. It is right up there with active versus passive investing and buy-and-hold versus market timing.

But while some advisers will staunchly deny or ignore any potential benefits of alternatives, often using arguments related to fees, those who are open to the notion of alternative investments still frequently get stuck when it comes to deciding how and how much.

How much to allocate to alternatives is both an unanswerable question in general and one that absolutely needs to be addressed specifically for each client.