Donna M. Mitchell

When SunTrust Banks acquired CSI Capital Management in May, the deal underscored a realization spreading across the banking sector: buying RIA firms is a reliable channel for growth.

Joel E. Chitiea, Paul E. Artof and Jason R. Artof, who garnered a combined $1.6 million in commissions, left Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in May to form Artiea Capital Management.

First Allied’s move away from Advanced Equities Financial Corp., in a deal with Lovell Minnick Partners announced Monday, is well-timed good news, according to some industry insiders.

Advisor Group names Jerry Murphy as president and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based FSC Securities, the company announced on Monday.

Securities America is making generous efforts, in some cases, to keep its advisor force intact after Ladenburg Thalmann agreed to purchase Ameriprise's independent broker-deal unit for an initial payment of $150 million.

First Allied Securities, one of the industry’s largest independent broker-dealers, is spinning off from its parent, Chicago-based Advanced Equities.

Securities America’s senior management will remain intact after the firm comes under the Ladenburg Thalmann umbrella. What will the future bring for advisors and clients?

African-American financial advisors just need to look at The Washington Group, headed by managing partner Leo Tucker, to appreciate the realities and the upside potential of their chosen careers.

Daniel Kern, a former Charles Schwab portfolio manager, has left the company to preside over Advisor Partners, a firm that provides investment and wealth management platform solutions to advisors.

In January, the GAO issued a study that took a pass on regulating the financial planning profession, saying it did not have enough information to form one. Perhaps they will think differently after the summer is over, after TD Ameritrade Institutional wraps up a high-level study on advisor oversight.

As the financial markets hit investors with gale-force market dips, most advisors are telling their clients to drop anchor. And, at least in the short term, most investors heeded that advice as the Dow Jones Industrial average closed up more than 400 points Tuesday, just one day after losing more than 600 points, the sixth-largest, single-day decline in history.

Envestnet will buy FundQuest, a Boston-based TAMP specialist, for $24.4 million in cash, a deal the firm said will allow it to offer more efficient and integrated wealth management services to its clients.

Former Special Agent Daniel D. Roberts will lead investigations into various forms of insurance fraud, including arson schemes for Rehmann’s governmental investigations and compliance for the firm’s corporate investigative services.

The global economy is trudging through an austere recovery. Lawmakers in the U.S. have just wrangled an uneasy compromise about the debt ceiling and the equity markets are a constant source of surprise to investors. Sounds like the right time for you to walk away from the practice for a couple of months.

Sharing too much and assuming that you always know what is best are among the surefire ways of pointing clients to the door.

When business development professionals come aboard and start bringing new clients into the fold, don’t let them down with processes that fall short.

While investors feel that some cautionary fences have gone up around the industry and some are more confident about working with financial advisors, the Dodd-Frank Act has not delivered substantial changes to the financial advisory industry since President Obama signed it into law almost a year ago.

American workers lapsed into investing inertia after the market collapsed in 2008, but standing still actually benefited many and helped their workplace retirement plan balances rebound by 31% between 2007 and 2010, Vanguard said this week.

The New York-based independent broker-dealer wanted something homegrown and less convoluted compared with some of the other social media systems it had explored.

Last year was a good one for registered investment advisors, according to the 2011 RIA Benchmarking Study from Charles Schwab, the largest focused solely on RIAs.