by
Dorothy Hinchcliff
Schwab announced today that it helped a record number of brokers go independent in 2009.
Five senior enforcement officials at the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority will be leaving as the regulator streamlines management.
by
Ray Fazzi
Apparently benefiting from Wall Street's troubles, Fidelity Investments
said today it helped a record number of brokers go independent in 2009.
Estimates suggest the burden the tax would place on mutual
fund investors would, while real, be smaller than other controversial
fees investors have paid for years.
by
Jeff Schlegel
Emerging Information Systems, Inc. (EISI) announced the official launch
of Profiles Professional 9.2 and Profiles Forecaster 4.2.
Goldman Sachs' CEO tells Congress he supports a fiduciary standard for brokers who provide advice to retail investors.
HighTower Advisors, a hybrid investment advisory and broker-dealer that
launched late in 2008, says it got a $100 million cash infusion from a
consortium of incumbent and new investors.
The markets may have bounced back, but the outlook for many financial advisors remains decidedly bleak.
Wells Fargo & Co. is offering many of its brokers a reward for bringing in more assets from new and existing clients.
A new rule requiring some RIAs to undergo annual surprise audits may help stem the kind of malfeasance con artist Bernard Madoff has come to represent. But many RIAs won't be subject to them.
by David Lawrence
Advisors may find this time-management strategy to be more effective than others.
by
Eric Rasmussen
Broker-dealers try to find their bearings in 2010 as their antagonists push back.
A confidentiality order in an arbitration case in which a branch manager won a victory is considered unusual.
The number of financial advisors leaving major brokerages has
essentially slowed to a halt along with recruitment at these firms,
and the virtual
freeze could be just beginning.
More hedge funds and other investors are gambling on the potential for
profits in certain auction-rate securities, more than a year-and-a-half
after the market failed en masse.
A brokerage company's former CEO has been suspended for improper marketing of private placements, the first settlement in a crackdown by Finra on sales practices involving these securities.
A provision in landmark financial industry legislation recently passed
by the U.S. House could lead to ongoing confusion
about whether advisors are acting as fiduciaries.
by
Jeff Schlegel
A class-action lawsuit in South Carolina
alleges that Charles Schwab & Co. is liable for its role in a Ponzi
scheme because it was the broker-dealer for the victims of the scheme.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is launching a pricing plan for fee-based
accounts in April that will charge clients based on the level of
service provided rather than the product.
