Lorie Konish

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management have hauled in a total of 11 new advisors from competing firms including UBS, Oppenheimer, Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch.

While all eyes were on Bank of America’s stock price last year, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch retirement and employee financial benefit plan businesses quietly thrived by pulling in $19 billion in new financial benefit plan assets.

The European debt crisis will likely continue to cast a shadow on the markets in the coming year, with a full solution to those problems unlikely to emerge in 2012, according to a panel of investment executives from BlackRock, Lord Abbett and Pacific Investment Management Company.

As new reports surface that both Stifel Financial and Raymond James could be in the running to buy Regions Financial’s brokerage firm, industry analysts are eyeing exactly how a possible deal could shape up.

When Merrill Lynch unveiled its new compensation plans for this year, it made for what one analyst calls new marching orders for its financial advisors when it comes to new client accounts. That's because those new compensation grids raise the minimum target for new client accounts from $100,000 to $250,000.

Raymond James & Associates has hired two financial advisors from Wells Fargo to open its first office Richmond, Va., office for its employee broker-dealer business.

Investing in 2012 may very well prove to be the year of “risky business” because of the possible rewards and punishments, according to Prudential Annuities Chief Market Strategist Quincy Krosby.

New reports that Regions Financial Corp has ended its discussions to sell its Morgan Keegan brokerage unit to Stifel Financial Corp. continue to point to an uncertain outcome for both Regions and Morgan Keegan.

Mary Sotak and Scott Snyder join Wells Fargo from First Internet Securities Network.

Morgan Keegan’s brokerage force has stayed in wait-and-see mode as parent firm Regions Financial looks to sell that business, but that could all change if uncertainty about the firm’s future persists or if a new deal presents unfavorable terms, experts say.

A FINRA arbitration panel slapped a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch financial advisor – now with U.S. Bancorp Investments – with an injunction that will prohibit him from soliciting his former clients until October 2012.

New York investment firm Aegis Capital has hired Peter Hirsh from Janney Montgomery Scott to serve as managing director of investments in its latest bid to expand its wealth management force.

UBS Wealth Management Americas has lured seven financial advisors to its firm who previously had $1.175 billion in assets under management.

The team includes Robert Krebs, Brian Pennell, Jennifer Duffy and Sandra Peters, who now operate under the name Blue Ocean Wealth Advisors.

When Bank of America Merrill Lynch financial advisor Jay Fields had to do a couple of swaps on Monday morning from one security to another, he said the process was seamless thanks to a new portfolio management and trading platform.

Raymond James’s three new advisor hires join from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and UBS.

Michael Duckworth is a private wealth advisor whose team works with 83 families who have someone in their family with a meaningful to severe disability. So, when Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced the launch of a new calculator tool aimed at helping professionals like him with special needs clients, he felt it was tool whose time has come.

Barclays Wealth has added five investment representatives in New York, bringing the firm to 50 total new advisors hired in the Americas this year.

Robert W. Baird & Co. has expanded its wealth management force in Texas with the hiring of two teams from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Wells Fargo Advisors overseeing $343 million in client assets.

A new Wells Fargo retirement study focusing on affluent Americans reveals that women are much less confident than men when it comes to their retirement savings.