Zeke Faux

"My expectation is that a lot of firms are going to continue installing a best-interest standard, regardless," said Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association.

Black employees at the firm say lucrative client accounts were often steered toward financial advisers who weren’t black.

William Heinzerling, who has led Stifel’s fixed-income business since 2009, is leaving the firm, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Deutsche Bank plans to sell its U.S. private-client brokerage unit, according to people briefed on the matter.

“Small investors will be forced to leave the brokerage firms,” Ron Kruszewski says, adding that the plan will “increase costs and reduce choices for the smallest investors."

Barclays may fetch $150 million to $250 million for its U.S. wealth unit, according to analysts at Credit Suisse Group.

A Stifel-Sterne Agee merger would dwarf other moves made last year.

Money managers and brokers shunned Barclays Plc’s dark pool, and Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins pledged an urgent inquiry, after the bank was accused of lying to clients about high-frequency trading on the venue.

Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. were fined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority over sales of loan funds.

Royal Bank of Canada was ordered to pay more than $800,000 to a U.S. couple over their losses on investments including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. preferred stock.

As selling stocks gets tougher, the number of brokers has dropped 12 percent since 2008 to about 363,000 last year. Edward Jones is finding success by sticking to its old ways.

Edward Jones uses “questionable telemarketing” tactics to recruit customers, according to New Hampshire regulators.

Eight former Morgan Keegan & Co. mutual-fund directors agreed to settle U.S. regulatory claims that they allowed assets backed by subprime mortgages to be overvalued as the housing market collapsed in 2007.

Raphael Zagury, Bank of America Corp.’s head of creating derivative investments for wealthy clients at Merrill Lynch, said he resigned.

Jeffrey Rubin, a Florida broker, was barred from the securities industry after more than 30 National Football League players including Terrell Owens lost at least $40 million on an Alabama casino project that went bankrupt.

Morgan Stanley, the biggest financial brokerage, will spend $500 million to improve computer systems after flaws in a previous upgrade frustrated the staff.

Wall Street brokers who are lured to new firms with signing bonuses of at least $50,000 would be required to tell their clients under a rule proposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

David Lerner was banned from the securities industry for a year and his firm ordered to pay $12 million for misleading investors into buying real estate investment trusts, regulators said. Lerner, whose David Lerner Associates Inc. has underwritten about $7 billion of its Apple REITs, was also fined $250,000, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said today in a statement.

Barclays Plc recruited a team for its wealth and investment management division from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney that includes former New York Jets wide receiver Wayne Chrebet.