Lee Conrad

The business world is getting more global. Does that mean you should be following suit with your practice? Based on conversations I’ve had with some bank advisors over the months, and especially in the past few weeks, most would probably rebuff that idea. But I’m not so sure.

FINRA has fined Citigroup Global Markets $725,000 for failing to disclose conflicts of interest in its research reports and public appearances by analysts.

Citigroup announced that its Regional Consumer Banking division, which houses Citi Personal Wealth Management, posted net income of $1.45 billion on revenue of $8.2 billion. In the same period last year, net income was $1.3 billion on revenue of $8.1 billion.

Equity funds saw outflows of $9.4 billion for the week of Jan. 4, 2012, according to numbers released by the Investment Company Institute.

PrimeVest Financial, one of the big third-party marketers in the bank channel, launched a website designed to help banks and credit unions staff up their advisory programs. It also will help individual advisors search for new career opportunities across the country.

Firstrust Financial Resources, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based community bank Firstrust Bank, hired advisor Lisa Hanson.

Investors pulled a net $37.97 billion out of mutual funds in November, according to the latest numbers released today by the Investment Company Institute. Most of the outflows throughout the month came from equity funds and most of the inflows were posted by money market and fixed-income funds.

Trying to increase your fee-based business, but not sure how to do it? Your clients probably aren’t asking for this arrangement, so how should you broach the subject? That’s just one of the topics we covered in our webinar earlier this week with three of our Top 50 bank advisors. And in case you missed it, you can find it here.

Fixed annuity sales fell 7% in the third quarter to $19 billion, according to Beacon Research’s Fixed Annuity Premium Study. For the year to date, sales fell slightly less than 1% to $58.3 billion.

Willie Keeler and Robert Frost knew the importance of “hitting ‘em where they ain’t and A Road Not Taken—Will your clients embrace the same ideas?

Cross selling is really important, but most banks still aren’t doing it very well.

For investment managers, the capabilities most in demand this year from retirement plans, endowments and foundations will be global and emerging markets investing, hedge funds, private equity and real assets, according to the 2011 Consultant Search Forecast.

Lots of strong returns, but many investors are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There are more choices than ever, but are these new products largely unnecessary?

Diversification is the best way to hedge against volatility, but now there are more ways to invest in volatility itself.

The new offering will integrate absolute return funds that seek positive returns over a three-year period with less volatility than traditional asset classes.

Nearly every day, I get a notice touting the launch of some new ETF. And at this point, most of them represent some fringe aspect of the investment world. Small-cap stocks from one certain country in the Middle East, say, or a fund from Africa that deals with water infrastructure. Sometimes, they are sliced so thinly that there are just a handful of companies in the underlying index. Useful perhaps, but probably only for a…

The new hires, which all came from wirehouses, continue Baird’s expansion into new markets.

Even if you outsource stock picking, or buy only mutual funds, somebody somewhere has to select stocks.

Sam Pyle and Shauywn Smith joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney from Merrill Lynch.