Larry Barrett

Tablets have fundamentally changed the way financial advisors do their work and there’s every reason to believe they will continue to be the dominant tool of choice in the advisory community for years to come.

FINRA and the SEC issued a joint risk alert and regulatory notice Wednesday, advising broker-dealers to make sure they’re mindful of what’s going on within their branch offices and even offering some tips to ensure they remain in compliance.

Some 60 UBS Wealth Management Americas financial advisors will kickoff a three-month test drive this week of an iPad application designed to make it easier to interact with clients and access research reports — all in the hope of generating more assets under management.

Most advisors don’t have a disaster recovery plan. We all like to think it won’t happen to us when we think of the big ones -- tornado or hurricane -- but all firms and advisors need to be prepared for anything that can cause an interruption to our business and serving our clients. Here's what you need to know to get started.

Asset management firms recorded average profitability of 28% through 2010 and the first half of 2011, according to a new McKinsey report, and independent asset managers will control two-thirds of all assets under management by 2015. Here are five business imperatives successful wealth management firms will need to heed over the next three years.

Prudential Retirement has launched a website dedicated to assisting plan sponsors and advisors help Americans put aside the money they’ll need for retirement and guarantee a sustainable source of income throughout its duration.

The Financial Planning Association this week elected Michael Branham as its new president-elect and added three new board members.

A new research study found that when people were shown age-progressed images of themselves depicting what they’d look like at 65, working-age adults were willing to allocate almost 33% more of their paychecks to their retirement accounts than those who didn't get a sneak peek at their future faces.

FINRA has fined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney $1 million and ordered another $371,000 in restitution and interest to customers for excessive markups and markdowns charged to customers on corporate and municipal bond transactions as well as other supervision violations.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services named John Grotts as the managing director for its San Francisco office where the 30-year insurance industry veteran will oversee client service, market relations, employee development and recruitment and sales.

Seventy-five percent of U.S. companies that suspended their 401(k) matching contributions between January 2008 and January 2010 have restored the retirement savings perk in the past year, according to an analysis by professional services firm Towers Watson.

Investment banking and brokerage firm Stephens Inc. has named John Baumgartner managing director and co-head of equity capital markets.

A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of global fund managers released this week makes it abundantly clear that just about everyone is sure Greece will default on its foreign debt obligations. However, the view from top money managers is that this eventuality has already been priced into the market and most are more optimistic about the global economy than they were last month.

American workers are becoming more and more pessimistic about their retirement prospects, according to a new survey by Sun Life Financial, but those who have invested in annuities or hold long-term care insurance are decidedly more confident.

State Street Global Advisors this week launched its High Quality Green Bond strategy, giving investors a way to direct fixed-income investments to global climate solutions.

BigFoot Investments has launched a cloud-based investment strategy software portfolio that streamlines trading, data delivery and client correspondence for RIAs and registered reps via their PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Wells Fargo Securities has named Cronin McTigue as the new head of liquid products sales and trading in its fixed income group.

FINRA this week issued an investor alert urging the roughly 30% of American workers who are not contributing enough to their 401(k) plans to receive a full employer match to step up their contributions in order to meet their eventual retirement needs.

Trust and customer service are the most important reasons why clients opt to work with registered investment advisors, according to TD Ameritrade’s latest RIA survey.

Citigroup is giving its wealth management business a makeover, announcing this week that instead of referring its bank customers to independent advisors it will expand its own retail brokerage and wealth advisory services.