Donna M. Mitchell

The old saying ‘sell in May and go away’ does not apply to daily investing life anymore, and many advisors know the reasons why.

Raymond James argued that the variable annuity transactions in the original case -- which actually turned an $800,000 profit for the clients -- should have been rescinded.

The new cost basis reporting rules, which got under way in January, remind this blogger of her big water excursions -- scanty as they were -- mainly because of the potentially heart-racing chops that lie ahead for advisors and clients. There are several new reporting forms to help investors and their brokers conform to the new cost-basis reporting rules, but they are complex and did not come with instructions.

Fidelity Family Office Services has formed a partnership with Foundation Source to offer back-office services to the asset custodian’s 140 single-family office clients.

Schwab Advisor Services figures that advisory groups classified in its Best-Managed Firms must be doing something right. These are the top 20% of its advisor clients in terms of productivity, profitability and revenue growth.

The SEC wants to exclude the value of a client’s primary residence and any debt secured by the property when calculating a household’s net worth. What took so long?

Overall, hedge funds had generally positive performance numbers since January. But May numbers, when isolated, told a much different story.

Two years after proposing rules to avert misuse of client assets on the scale of the Madoff ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed amendments that would strengthen oversight of broker-dealer audits.

Successful advisory firms make intelligent, strategic choices in hiring, compensating and developing employees.

The Hartford is betting that enhancements to its variable annuity suite will pull it ahead of competitors in the race to offer investors secure retirement income options.

Chris Paulitz, who spent more than a decade working as a spokesman and strategic advisor for both House and Senate leadership offices, hired as organization's director of communications and media relations.

Without admitting or denying the SEC’s charges, Wunderlich settled with the regulator for about $627,688 in penalties.

A massive majority of respondents, 80%, expect a return call within 12 hours, and a very small number, 17%, feel that returning a call the next day is good enough.

Vision2020 is the second iteration of Advisor Group’s platform for fee-based advisors.

The shareholders approved a $5.7 million package for Casady, which included an $800,000 salary, $2.2 million bonus and option awards of $2.6 million.

Fidelity fielded a study that found 75% of the broker-dealer and registered investment advisory firms are planning to hire up to 30% more employees over the next 12 months.

Still, a majority of class of 2011 respondents, 66%, who are graduating with debt say the value of college is equal to or worth more than the debt accumulated.

Ameriprise Financial announced in April that it would sell the unit.

The firm should have been more on the ball, from a supervisory standpoint, the claimants’ attorney said.

The vast majority of American employees are still under financial strain, even when the study looked at the least vulnerable demographic groups—men, those between ages 55 and 64, and workers who earned between $150,000 and $199,999 a year.