As October rolls in, James Gorman is getting ready to take the helm at Morgan Stanley, with everyone talking about what his ascension will mean for wealth management at the firm and its joint venture with Smith Barney. Meanwhile, Wall Street also got its first visit from President Barack Obama, who had harsh words for the financial community and promised tough regulatory reforms.

Both events are striking because they show that Wall Street and the economy are still undergoing a great deal of change and upheaval.

There are many pundits and industry experts who say the recovery is here—although it looks quite anemic. Do your clients agree that the sun is beginning to rise after this brutal economic storm? And if the recovery is indeed in place, then where should your clients be putting their hard-won assets, which have taken such a beating in recent months?

Well, in our cover story "Hedge Funds: Are They Worth It?" writer Elizabeth Wine talks to a number of alternative investment specialists. Some of them extol the virtues of hedge funds while others, pointedly, do not. Indeed, hedge funds took their hits in last year's downturn, although they didn't suffer nearly as much as traditional investments.

But, hedge funds are just one type of investment. In fact, says one expert, the real purpose of using hedge funds is diversification. After all, another commentator, notes: "Hedge funds are not magic, but merely unconstrained active management."

Still, some clients now are wary of these investments, which they clamored for in the past, says one advisor. "They thought it was a privileged investment and that they'd get better performances," he tells Wine. Now, many of those same clients want no part of hedge funds. "People only want things that are public," he says.

Even so, Wine finds advocates who insist that the bottom of the hedge fund market has been reached, and detractors who are still complaining about high fees and have particularly harsh words for funds-of-funds.

That's why you should head to page 26 and read what both sides have to say and how they defend their positions.

If Gorman is firmly in place atop Morgan Stanley, then who will head the Americas arm of UBS Wealth Management and what is in its future? Will Robert McCann, who left Merrill Lynch a few months back and is now entangled with his former employer over a non-compete clause, take over at the UBS unit? In "UBS Weighs Options As the Suddenly Smallest Wirehouse," Associate Editor Helen Kearney gets the opinions of a number of consultants.

Some believe that the unit could be sold. Others disagree, saying the parent company doesn't want to abandon the U.S. market. She even talks to Jamie Price, the head of the UBS Wealth Management Group, who explains the loss of headcount and much more. So get to page 15 and see what else Price has to say about UBS.

There's much more in this issue including a provocative interview with John Brett, the senior vice president and chairman of the MetLife Broker-Dealer Group in Life Stories. On page 72, Brett argues for more regulation and criticizes an entire generation of advisors for their sense of entitlement and for not putting the needs of their clients first. It's an honest take on what's going on in our industry today.