Feb 11, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
A former Citi broker doesn’t have to pay back the full amount owed on his sign-on bonus, a FINRA arbitration panel ruled this week. ...
Feb 10, 2010
By David A. Geracioti, VonAldo.com
The FT reports today that “overseas investors bought up Japanese equities at the fastest pace in three years in January as global asset managers rebalanced portfolios towards the country’s equity market from underweight positions.” For more, please go to VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David A. Geracioti...
Feb 9, 2010
By Kristen French
UBS’ U.S. wealth management division posted income of CHF $178 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, up 62 percent versus the year ago quarter. Clients continued to withdraw significant assets from the firm both in the U.S. and around the world, however. The wealth management Americas division saw outflows of 12 billion francs, over twice what analysts had been expecting. ...
Feb 8, 2010
By David A. Geracioti, VonAldo.com
At last week’s TD Ameritrade Institutional’s national conference last week, there was much discussion about China. Is China’s growing economic might good for the U.S.? For the world? Is China, giving its despotic government, something to fear? Can China wreak havoc with the U.S. economy, interest rates and the value of the dollar? For more, please go to VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David A. Geracioti....
Feb 6, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
UBS’s Wealth Management Americas division is aiming to bolster the Swiss bank’s brokerage, internally announcing significant management changes on top of a substantial reorganization: It consolidated three brokerage regions into two, and it named Jason Chandler as the new head of private wealth management, Registered Rep. learned exclusively on Friday....
Feb 4, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
The New York Attorney General’s office today charged Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis with fraud for failing to disclose material details about Merrill Lynch in its merger with the brokerage. The move takes the case one step further than the SEC did: The SEC charged only the bank itself rather than individual corporate officers. Financial services lawyers say there may be more bad news for Lewis down the line. ...
Feb 3, 2010
By Kristen French
Bank of America plans to add 2,000 new brokers in 2010, mostly trainees. One analyst says Merrill may want these hires to help with BofA’s cross-selling efforts. ...
Feb 2, 2010
By Kristen French
Fidelity announced the latest in a series of price cuts Tuesday. But the move has less to do with an ongoing price war between itself and Schwab than with the firm’s decision to eliminate discrepancies between pricing offered to its RIA clients and to its retail clients. ...
Feb 1, 2010
By Kristen French
Will the regulatory push for a uniform fiduciary standard die on the vine? Brokers may not be best equipped to predict regulatory outcomes, but most of them do not expect such a standard to be implemented, according to survey results released today by Aite Group. ...
Feb 1, 2010
By Anne Field
If you visit William Mundy at his Blue Bell, Pa. office, chances are good you’ll find him with his ear pressed to the phone, pitching his services to people he’s never met: That’s right, cold calling. ...
Jan 29, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Eager to raise cash and get out from under taxpayer loans, PNC Financial Services Group is looking to sell its custody and clearing division, PNC Global Investment Servicing to Bank of New York Mellon. ...
Jan 29, 2010
By Kristen French
The dismal morale among UBS brokers seems to be improving of late. A number of top financial advisors at the firm say that they are so far very pleased with the leadership of UBS Wealth Management CEO Bob McCann, and the team of people he has brought on board. ...
Jan 27, 2010
By David A. Geracioti, VonAldo.com
Thanks to Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, if your clients' money market funds are threatening to break the buck, the board of the fund may elect to suspend redemptions....
Jan 27, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Charles Goldman, the president who oversaw Fidelity Investments’ services for financial advisors, will leave at the end of March, the second top manager in a week to depart from the mutual fund giant. Also exiting Fidelity is the company’s President Rodger Lawson, the number two executive under Chairman and CEO Edward “Ned,” Johnson. Lawson leaves at the end of March as well....
Jan 26, 2010
By Brad Zigler
Fundamental index ETFs have been around for nearly five years now. Have they lived up to their claims that they avoid overpriced stocks? ...
Jan 25, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
LPL’s hybrid RIA platform got a strong start in its first full year in operation, and LPL says 2010 will be an even bigger year. ...
Jan 22, 2010
David A. Geracioti, VonAldo.com
A recent study says says it paid to use fundamental indexing in the decade of The Aughts. Rather than losing money, you would have earned a small return. ...
Jan 21, 2010
By Christina Mucciolo
Affluent investors rated Charles Schwab the number one “distributor” or brokerage firm, bumping Fidelity into second place, according to Cogent Research’s recently released 2010 Investor Brandscape report. ...
Jan 21, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
We present our annual Outstanding Advisor Awards each May, but we’re
always on the lookout for charitably inclined financial advisors....
Jan 20, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
Neither Morgan Stanley Smith Barney nor Bank of America ended 2009 with a bang in the earnings department. But their wealth management units were pockets of strength....
Jan 15, 2010
By David A. Geracioti, VonAldo.com
I don’t get it. I thought Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the government would earn -— as in profit —- from its TARP loans about $20 billion. So why all this nonsense about punitively taxing bankers’ bonuses and massive new taxes on big financial institutions to recoup taxpayer bailouts? For more, please go to VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David A. Geracioti...
Jan 14, 2010
By Kristen French
Wells Fargo financial advisors received their first paychecks last Friday under the firm’s new tax withholding system, which applies a flat rate of 25 percent to all. Many of the firm’s 12,000 financial advisors have grumbled to management about the switch, which will be in place until 2011 as the firm works to integrate legacy payroll systems from Wells Fargo and Wachovia. ...
Jan 13, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
On Monday, Citigroup filed a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against the firm over the terms of its financial advisor bonus pay agreements. The firm filed the motion with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. ...
Jan 13, 2010
David A. Geracioti, VonAldo.com
It’s earnings season, and consensus analysts’ estimates are predicting a 184.2 percent jump in earnings for the S&P 500 companyies in Q4 over a year ago. Obviously, Q4 earnings have an easy bogey, since Q4 2008 earnings were pathetic. The rebound in Q4 earnings will be driven by financial, analysts say. For more, go to VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David A. Geracioti...
Jan 12, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Nouriel Roubini told investment professionals at a New York conference that the United States can expect an “anemic” recovery in 2010....
