SEC to RIAs: WelcomeJul 24, 2007,By John Churchill In keeping with regulators trying to be more proactive and less reactive, the SEC is cozying up to newly registered investment advisers. Have you received a “welcome letter?”... Ex-Merrill Broker Wins $1.6 Million in Rare Arbitration AwardJul 23, 2007,By Kevin Burke An NASD arbitration panel awarded a former Merrill Lynch broker $1.6 million for wrongful termination and defamation, claims he had filed against his former employer. The award included compensatory damages of $400,000 plus interest and punitive damages of $1.2 million. Awards of that size are a rarity in arbitration cases brought by employees against brokerage firms. ... SIFMA Says Keep the 12b-1 Fees, Ad InfinitumJul 20, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo The securities industry is fighting tooth and nail to save 12b-1 fees. Exactly one month after the June 19 SEC roundtable convened to discuss the fate of 12b-1 fees, the securities industry’s lobby group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), released its comment letter today. The letter says that 12b-1 fees are a necessary part of doing business, and that abolishing them will harm investors and stunt industry competition.... Merrill Reports Strong Revenues, Adds 270 AdvisorsJul 18, 2007,By Kevin Burke Merrill Lynch’s retail brokerage arm turned in another strong quarter, as fee-based revenue continued to climb to record levels. Merrill Lynch Global Private Client saw its revenues increase by 13 percent to $3.3 billion from $2.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. The pretax profit margin for the entire Global Wealth Management division was 27.9 percent, up from 23.7 percent in the prior-year period, driven by the impact of the investment in BlackRock and prudent expense controls.... Can’t We All Just Get Along? FPA says FINRA Won’t Do for NYSE/NASDJul 18, 2007,By Halah Touryalai Seems like NASD and NYSE regulation can’t catch a break. First it was Muslims, now it’s the Financial Planning Association that is unhappy with the merged regulatory bodies’ potential new name.... Bear’s Cayne: Cheating At Golf?Jul 16, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo You’ve probably heard about Bear Stearns’ CEO Jimmy Cayne’s numerous golf outings in June—while his company’s hedge funds were tanking. You might have also heard that he tends to score in the high 90s, so it might not surprise you to hear that the Hollywood Country Club in Deal, N.J., is investigating Cayne’s victory at a Jul. 4 golf tournament. ... Drink Pepsi, Raise The DeadJul 13, 2007,By John Churchill The regulatory body composed of the NYSE Regulation and the NASD Regulation, known for the past 5 weeks as SIRA, is getting another name.... With Wuffli Out, What Next for UBS? A Wealth Management Surge in the USAJul 10, 2007,By John Churchill Peter Wuffli was replaced as CEO of UBS last week after the firm realized millions of dollars in losses in an internal hedge fund, according to published reports. Marcel Roehner, who was previously deputy CEO and head of global wealth management and business banking, replaced him. ... Wachovia Securities to Make New Home in St. LouisJun 28, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo St. Louis will officially be home to the new Wachovia Securities, after Federal Antitrust regulators approved Wachovia Corp.’s acquisition of A.G. Edwards on Monday. Wachovia says the proxy detailing the ins and outs of the deal for shareholder approval should be ready within the next week.... EEOC Goes After Merrill in Discrimination SuitJun 27, 2007,By Halah Touryalai Merrill Lynch was hit by yet another discrimination suit yesterday. This time the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces laws regarding workplace discrimination, is heading the complaint on behalf of former employee Majid Borumand, a Muslim from Iran. ... Court Okays 120 Days to Move Fee-based Brokerage AccountsJun 27, 2007,By John Churchill Broker-dealers got the breathing room they hoped for on Monday with regards to complying with the recent court ruling that outlaws fee-based brokerage accounts. A federal court granted an SEC-requested 120 day stay, until October 1st, for firms to do away with their fee-based brokerage accounts per a federal court ruling on March 30th banning the accounts. (Read Registered Rep.’s May cover story about the pain of the new reality.)... Sub-Prime Collapse Bombs Into Brokerage Industry; Indie Brokerage Can’t Meet Margin CallsJun 22, 2007,By John Churchill The sub-prime lending meltdown could be spreading. It’s one thing for Bear Stearns to have to arrange a $3.2 billion bailout of one of its hedge funds, but, for the brokerage industry, the problem just hit closer to home. ... New Name, New Agenda for NASD/NYSE EntityJun 21, 2007,By John Churchill Mary Schapiro unveiled yesterday the new name it has selected for the new NASD/NYSE regulatory combo: SIRA, which stands for Securities Industry Regulatory Authority, but sounds a little bit more like some ugly winged creature out of Dungeons & Dragons. Taken together with the SIA’s recent merger-induced name change to SIFMA (which sounds more like an affliction) securities industry organizations are on an acronym-picking roll. Not.... Smith Barney Golden Handcuffs Hard to CrackJun 21, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo A New Jersey Appellate Court ruled in favor of Smith Barney’s deferred compensation plan on June 15, reversing a lower court’s decision that said the firm’s Capital Appreciation Plan (CAP) violated New Jersey wage laws. The decision is another notch in Smith Barney’s belt, whose CAP plan has often been the target of broker lawsuits, though the firm rarely loses.... Fund Fees Sink to Lowest Level in 25 Years, but Why?Jun 20, 2007,By Kevin Burke Individual investors are paying less to own mutual fund shares, as fees and expenses have hit their lowest level in more than 25 years, according to research published Tuesday by the Investment Company Institute. In 2006, fund shareholders, on average, paid 107 basis points or 1.07 percent of assets in fees and expenses, including loads, which is four basis points lower than in 2005. Expense ratios on equity funds declined a combined 7 basis points during 2005 and 2006, the ICI says. If that rate of decline were to be sustained, stock fund investors would save roughly $4.6 billion a year.... Investment Banks Win Major Antitrust VictoryJun 19, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo The Supreme Court ruled in favor of 17 major investment banks today in an antitrust lawsuit filed by investors who claimed the banks manipulated the IPO market in the dot-com boom years between 1997 and 2000. According to Securities news law blog, SECLaw.com, in a seven to one vote, the court gave the banks “broad implied immunity from antitrust lawsuits, ruling that antitrust laws do not apply to the syndication and marketing techniques used in IPOs.”... Wachovia Extends Olive Branch to A.G. Edwards Reps. Will They Accept?Jun 15, 2007,By Kevin Burke Just 15 days after it announced it was buying A.G. Edwards, Wachovia Securities has announced its retention package for A.G. Edwards reps. ... Merrill Requests End to Discovery in Racial Discrimination SuitJun 15, 2007,By Halah Touryalai Registered Rep. reported Thursday that a judge ruled in favor of Merrill Lynch, which had requested an end to the discovery phase in a racial discrimination suit filed against the firm. Merrill does not want to have to hand over any more new documents to plaintiffs lawyers. However, the magazine made an error: The judge in the case has referred the decision to a magistrate judge and a ruling has yet to be made.... Pilgrim Baxter’s PaybackJun 14, 2007,By Kevin Burke Justice tends to be far from swift when it comes to market-timing fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced this week that it is returning ill-gotten gains to Pilgrim Baxter (investment advisor to the PBHG fund family) shareholders, three and half years after the fund company was engulfed in a trading scandal. Not only has it taken a long time, but investors are getting their money back in bits and pieces. ... Hedge WarsJun 14, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo What’s funnier than a hedge fund manager getting worked up over a garden hedge? Well, probably a lot of things. But in any case, James Chanos, head of short-selling hedge fund Kynikos Associates, is at war with his East Hampton neighbor Mark Spilker, managing director of Goldman Sachs, after the latter hired a work crew to tear down a hedge on Chanos’ property so he could widen his own path to the beach, according to an entry on the The New York Times’ financial news blog, DealBook. ... Retirement Plan Participants Want Financial PlanningJun 12, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo The subject of workplace water-cooler conversations could become increasingly financial in nature. That’s because, when it comes to retirement planning, employees with 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans want more financial planning, and they aren’t getting it through their retirement plans, says Spectrum Group in a report released today called, “Financial Planning at the Workplace.”... Wal-Mart offers online brokerage servicesJun 11, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo To an almost comic degree, Wal-Mart has an insatiable appetite for expanding the reach of the products and services it offers, and now, behold, the behemoth has ventured on to your turf: financial advice. Meet Wal-Mart Easy Investing by Sharebuilder.... Wachovia Accelerates Hiring in Private BankJun 8, 2007,By Christina Mucciolo Under plans to expand its private banking presence, Wachovia Securities said on Thursday it would hire about 300 private bankers over the next three years, more than doubling its number of private banking relationship managers, according to a release.... CFP Board Approves Tighter Code of EthicsMay 31, 2007
Today the Board of Directors of the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards Inc. (CFP Board), which controls the CFP designation, approved a second round of revisions to its code of ethics that were proposed in March, essentially strengthening the duty of care CFP certificants must use with regards to their clients. ... Wachovia Buys A.G. Edwards for $6.8 Billion, Creating New Rival to Merrill, Smith BarneyMay 31, 2007,By Kevin Burke Wachovia just launched itself into the big leagues. In a blockbuster deal this morning, Wachovia Corp. announced that it will acquire A.G. Edwards for roughly $6.8 billion in cash and stock to create a firm with $1.1 trillion in client assets under management and nearly 15,000 financial advisors. That puts Wachovia among the top three competitors in retail brokerage--in terms of both assets and advisors--and retail banking....
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