Larry Barrett

Bank of America executives are mulling a restructuring plan that would lop off as many as 40,000 jobs in its first phase, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing sources familiar with the discussions.

First Republic Bank has hired Matt Krusko as a managing director and wealth advisor for its investment management, trust and brokerage unit in New York.

Genworth Financial Wealth Management appointed former Citibank and Charles Schwab executive Myra Rothfeld as its chief marketing officer.

Carson Wealth Management Group, an independent investment and wealth management firm based in Omaha, Neb., has named Brett Carson as its new director of research and brought on Aaron Foster as a financial analyst.

BNY Mellon Asset Management tapped Christopher Sheldon as its new chief investment officer of The Dreyfus Corporation, the New York-based asset management and distribution firm overseeing more than $400 billion in mutual funds and separately managed accounts.

Financial advisors looking for new and more effective ways to interact with their Baby Boomer clients -- or find new ones -- should be inspired by a new Pew Research Center report that found social networking participation among this highly coveted group surged more than 60% in the past year.

CUNA Mutual Group this week launched a new online retirement guidance platform called RetireOnTarget to help more than 140,000 credit union employees manage their 401(k) accounts and make more informed retirement planning decisions.

Ascent Investment Partners, a fixed-income investment management firm, this week appointed Brian Tournier as its new director of research where he’ll oversee the firm’s credit research and monitoring endeavors and review existing and prospective investments.

Chief financial officers navigating their firms through these uncertain and troubling economic times already have plenty to worry about. How these executives manage risk and enhance their corporate value through sustainability will play an increasingly larger role in how investors view their firms and their respective stocks going forward.

UBS on Tuesday said it will eliminate 3,500 jobs over the next two years in a cost-cutting move.

As if the stock market's wild vacillations in the past few weeks weren't evidence enough that few have a firm hold on the U.S. economy's near- and long-term outlook, Fannie Mae this week issued an analysis that says the likelihood of a dreaded double-dip recession is now a 50/50 proposition.

QFS Asset Management, a hedge fund that provides clients with currency, global macro, fixed income and volatility management strategies, this week named Jim Conklin as its new director of research.

Bank of America will lay off at least 3,500 employees in the next few months.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased 0.5% in July to 115.8, suggesting that the economy is poised for "modest" growth through the end of the year.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors this week said John Ryan will succeed Neil Milner as its new president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2012.

This is the snippet for an IBIS test story.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services will acquire Securities America, the embattled, independent broker-dealer subsidiary of Ameriprise, for an initial payment of $150 million in cash, according to a company statement released Wednesday morning.

The Retirement Income Industry Association this week announced that Duncan Williams, a graduate instructor in the personal financial planning division at Texas Tech University, and his advisor, Michael Finke, an associate professor and coordinator at the university, will receive the first Academic Thought Leadership Award at the association's Fall Conference & Awards Gala in Boston in October.

Jefferies Group named Thomas Fetzer as the new managing director of its global industrials group where he'll be responsible for coverage of capital goods clients across German and throughout Central Europe.

Charles Schwab grew its total client assets under management to more than $1.65 trillion, bringing in a total of $9.9 billion in net new assets in July alone.