Dave Lindorff

Schwab Advisor Services this week introduced a new software application called LaserApp that lets advisors automatically load new client data onto 80 different Schwab forms.

Some may wonder how a watchdog with no head can do much watching, but that’s the current state of affairs as the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the administrations key financial reform programs coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, officially opens for business on July 21.

Too many investors and even their financial advisors are not paying enough attention to “what’s under the hood” of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have become so popular with investors in the past two or three years, according to S&P equity analyst Todd Rosenbluth.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is fining Philadelphia broker-dealer Janney Montgomery Scott LLC for “failing to establish and enforce policies and procedures to prevent the misuse of material non-public information, as required by law.”

After a period of booming sales in first quarter of 2011, annuity sales through banks have fallen off significantly, according to a new report by Kehrer-LIMRA, the banking industry research unit of LIMRA.

The tech team at Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services has come up with a new way to help prevent independent financial advisors from enjoying their vacations: a new smartphone app that allows them to open client accounts and do electronic trading for clients from anywhere.

Half an hour after Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced that only 18,000 new jobs were created in June, investors sold off their shares in disappointment. But the actual and final new-jobs figure won't be known for months, meaning the dispiriting figures could be off by as much as 100,000 jobs in either direction.

Late last year, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney warned investors that between 50 and 100 municipalities were headed for default and that the carnage would cost investors hundreds of billions of dollars. But at the midway point of 2011, that's hardly been the case.

Wealth management firms are risking losing clients to competitors, losing a chance to gain new business through client referrals and are missing opportunities to deepen relationships with existing high-net-worth investors, according to a new study by Aite Group, an independent Boston-based research and advisory firm focused on the financial services industry.

According to a new Barclay's Wealth report, emotional trading can cost even the most well-heeled investor about 20% in returns over a decade. Still many persist in making too many trades in the pursuit of huge returns.

Merger and acquisition activity remained robust in the second quarter with more than $631.4 billion worth of deals announced -- up 35% from the year-ago quarter -- but down significantly from the $769 billion in deals unveiled in the first quarter.

Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, have become increasingly popular among investors because they're more liquid and tax efficient than mutual funds and give them exposure to stocks, bonds and commodities they otherwise might not be able to access.

The wind is at the back of alternative energy and it has a sunny future that investors should prepare to capitalize on. That’s the word from Anna Davydova, portfolio manager of Fidelity Select Environment and Alternative Energy.

In a major sting operation by a joint task force involving the Securities and Exchange Commission’s South Florida Regional Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami and the FBI, an alleged scheme involving several penny stock promoters and several CEOs of microchip companies has been exposed, with fraud charges filed against the principals.

When it comes to sovereign risk ratings, it could be a case of "out of Greece and into the fire" as venerable credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's this week joined Moody’s in issuing a sobering warning that Italy could be the next European nation in line for a downgrade.

American investors are in risk-aversion mode and are not likely to get out of that funk until interest rates start rising. That’s the fundamental conclusion of Morningstar senior stock analyst Greggory Warren.

USAA, a financial institution and insurance provider serving military service people and their families, topped the latest J.D. Power & Associates' survey of self-directed investors' satisfaction while Merrill Edge, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's consumer brokerage unit, checked in last.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced a settlement with broker-dealer Raymond James Financial involving $350 million worth of auction rate securities which the regulatory agency claimed were marketed and misrepresented by the firm's reps as “safe, liquid alternatives” to money market funds and other highly liquid investment vehicles.

The wave of share buybacks by public companies, which took off in the first quarter of 2011 when companies bought back nearly $90 billion shares, is continuing with buybacks through June 3 totaling $263 billion, up from $164 billion by the same date last year.

While France has devised a plan to roll over Greece’s debts and the Greek parliament -- in the face of a national strike and major protests -- just passed austerity measures requested by the European Union, these early signs that worst of the Greek debt crisis is over doesn't mean investors can relax and assume all is well.