Howard J. Stock

Community banks’ investment programs booked a modest improvement in the third quarter.

While wealth management firms have increased communications in the wake of the financial crisis, their clients complain they don’t understand what they’re being given.

While lavish recruitment packages are becoming the norm for Wall Street, all that glitters is not gold.

Variable annuities outsell fixed, but overall sales figures are uninspiring.

Single-premium policy sales jump, spurred by low rates on fixed annuities, plus simplified products and better automated processing.

Deutsche Bank’s fund arm goes the extra mile to promote its funds, a Corporate Insight study finds.

The CEO admitted the bank was “sub-optimized in wealth brokerage and retirement,” but said it was aiming to change that through organic growth.

The North Carolina-based company becomes the third bank to sell a guaranteed income option as part of its institutional plan offering.

Advisor Michael Leanza says that “active-passive” capital preservation with upside potential is turning his wealthy clients into advocates.

The average immediate annuity premium is $107,000, and what’s more, 90% of policyholders purchase additional riders that either keep payments flowing to heirs, or that return the balance of the contract to heirs, if the contract holder dies unexpectedly early, according to LIMRA research.

An Aite Group study shows BofA Merrill Lynch is actively finding fixes to issues with its split-level brokerage model.

Most variable annuity buyers pay extra for guaranteed living benefit riders despite weaker features and higher costs.

Client segmentation and scheduled marketing campaigns are key to efficient communications, Dan Kraus says.

Equity funds finally stem the bleeding after months of outflows, ICI finds.

Automating client communications has doubled Ross Marino’s production while halving his time at work.

The unilateral market crash has half of high-net-worth clients wondering whether they’re not better off self-directing.

Fixed annuities give way to variable annuity and mutual fund sales, but September was nothing to write home about.

While just about every financial services firm is gung ho about social media’s potential as a marketing tool, Aite says that few have any cohesive strategy, or any proof it’ll work.

CUNA’s Salomone and Hunter follow former boss Dowden to Invest.

The economy won’t be back on its feet for years, the fund manager predicts, adding that regularly rebalanced diversified portfolios are investors’ best bet.