Apr 27, 2010
By Kristen French
Today’s Senate hearing with Goldman Sachs may increase the likelihood that a fiduciary standard for brokers will make it into Senator Christopher Dodd’s financial regulatory reform legislation. ...
Apr 27, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
Former Citigroup brokers, who wanted courts to dismiss debts the firm said they owed on loans awarded when they were hired, were turned down by a district court judge Friday. But they are planning to appeal that decision. ...
Apr 26, 2010
By Christina Mucciolo
Today Stifel Financial Corp., the St.Louis-based financial services holding company, said it is buying Thomas Weisel Partners Group, a San Francisco-based investment bank, in a deal valued at more than $300 million....
Apr 23, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
RIA principals are very interested in wirehouse advisors—interested in recruiting them, that is. But that takes some finesse. At this morning’s Schwab Advisor Services workshop for advisors in the New York area, RIA principals and consultants discussed strategies for wooing and hiring advisors from various different kinds of firms....
Apr 21, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Morgan Stanley on Wednesday reported higher-than-expected revenues and profits in the first quarter, lifted by its acquisition last spring of Smith Barney and by higher fixed income. ...
Apr 20, 2010
By Kristen French
Merrill Lynch plans to grow primarily by investing in current advisors and hiring rookies, said Merrill Lynch president of Global Wealth and Investment Management Sallie Krawcheck on Tuesday. Her words come as recruiting bonuses are at an all time high for top Wall Street talent. ...
Apr 19, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
“Advisors were at the end of their rope with the company, not that I hadn’t expected that,” UBS Americas chief Bob McCann told us. “But the group included good, talented people, who had just had it. They had had it!”...
Apr 16, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Profits were down last quarter at Merrill Lynch but the brokerage’s performance still helped to lift the fortunes of its new parent, Bank of America Corp. Advisor defections were flat from the end of 2009, but average production declined. ...
Apr 16, 2010
By Kristen French and Christina Mucciolo
LAST UPDATED : April 16, 4:57 p.m. The Securities Exchange Commission sued Goldman Sachs for fraud today in connection with the mortgage-backed collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) it packaged and sold to investors....
Apr 16, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
There are big changes ahead in investment products and channels, predicted Tiburon Strategic Advisors Managing Principal Charles “Chip” Roame on Wednesday at the Tiburon CEO Summit in New York City. Low-cost indexed securities will account for 25 percent of all investable assets in the next three to five years, up from 6 to 7 percent now, he said. Hedge funds will claim another 25 percent of the share, up from 9 to 10 percent currently, he added. ...
Apr 15, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
Mergers and acquisitions seem to be crawling back to the top of RIA principals’ to-do lists this year, as the first quarter’s numbers show record activity. What is your financial advisory practice worth?...
Apr 14, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
UBS's American retail advisory business is still losing client assets. But some see a turnaround this year....
Apr 13, 2010
By Nate Wendler
In recent months the chorus of skepticism regarding Chinese economic and stock market performance has reached a greater crescendo. But there are plenty of bulls left....
Apr 9, 2010
By Jennifer Popovec
I’ve been full of optimism when it comes to U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) --- and have been since December 2008. People called me crazy, but I was right. Here is my story....
Apr 8, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Providers of income securities for retirees and those close to retiring may have their work cut out for them, according to new findings by Cogent Research. ...
Apr 6, 2010
By Kristen French
Banking on a wave of mergers in 2010, the major custodian firms are in a race to offer the best M&A tools to their RIAs so that the assets of selling firms don’t walk out the door to a rival custodian. M&A in the RIA world had dried up but is starting to bounce back, say executives, as firms look for ways to cut costs and begin to grow again. Succession planning has also been a big issue in the financial advisory industry in the past few years, and will continue to be, as the average age in the industry is over 55. ...
Apr 5, 2010
By Stan Luxenberg
Worried that big budget deficits will lead to inflation, plenty of advisors have been recommending Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). But for all the virtues of TIPS, they can be volatile creatures. ...
Apr 2, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Forget high-tech. What financial advisors are looking for in computer work stations these days is smooth tech, the ability to simplify the complex and sometimes mind-numbing tasks that are part of their daily lives, according to executives at Morningstar and Thomson Reuters. ...
Apr 1, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
Deborah McWhinney's plan to turn Citi's bank brokers into fee-only investment advisors has triggered a mass exodus. But paring down the small bank brokerage unit or farming out wealth management entirely may be McWhinney's master plan....
Mar 30, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
The renewal plan for turning around the asset-gathering-challenged UBS Wealth Management Americas should be released within two weeks....
Mar 25, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Your clients may fear a huge tax bite after President Obama signed historic health care legislation into law this week....
Mar 22, 2010
By Christina Mucciolo
FINRA shut down Gunn Allen Financial Monday morning for failing to meet net capital requirements. The Tampa-based independent b/d, which has had a history of legal and regulatory trouble, was warned on Friday that it would have to cease operations if it didn’t shore up its capital over the weekend. ...
Mar 18, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
The Certified Financial Planner designation is about to become more challenging to obtain. The Board of Standards this month approved a new prerequisite for its two-day certification exam: a 45-hour capstone course on financial planning. But representatives of the three largest CFP education programs—The American College, the College for Financial Planning, and Kaplan University—balked at the proposal....
Mar 17, 2010
By Stan Luxenberg
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been carefully signaling that the Fed stands ready to raise interest rates this year if the economy continues to mend. For bond funds that could be bad news. ...
Mar 15, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
The much-anticipated revival plan for UBS Wealth Management Americas will cap off a series of recent organizational changes garnering support from an important constituency: advisors at
the beleaguered brokerage, Registered Rep. has learned.
...
