Margarida Correia

Investors worldwide pulled $171 billion out of mutual funds in the third quarter of 2011, according to statistics released late Thursday by the Investment Company Institute.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management has added Timothy Barker as a family wealth advisor to its growing team of advisors to ultra high-net-worth families and family offices.

Fifth Third Securities Inc., a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, has promoted Mike Collins to area investment manager for the bank’s Northern Cincinnati and Western Ohio region.

KeyBank says it plans to retain the financial advisors of the 37 HSBC retail branches in upstate New York that it will acquire in a pending deal.

Bank holding companies earned a record $2.26 billion from the sale of annuities in the first three quarters of 2011, up from $1.84 billion, or 22.6%, from the year-ago period.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management has hired the former treasurer of Illinois, Alexi Giannoulias, to oversee business development for the Chicago wealth management office.

Bank of the West expands its wealth management universe with a new center for high-net-worth clients in the heart of Silicon Valley.

With rising life expectancies and reports of lackluster retirement savings, the risk is a growing concern for many Americans.

Advisors seeking better client communication tools are likely to have their wish come true because wealth management firms are expecting to increase their IT budgets by 5% to 10% this year.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services, a division of New York Life Investments, has launched a new client-satisfaction benchmarking tool for retirement plan advisors.

Fifth Third Securities, Inc., a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, has hired Gregory Scott Palmer as investment manager for the Greater Chicago area.

Eurozone worries contributed to a modest dip in investor confidence in December, according to a State Street analysis.

Union Bank has promoted bank veteran Terry Negendank to regional managing director of The Private Bank. He will oversee The Private Bank's wealth management endeavors across Northern California, including San Francisco, the East Bay, Marin, Sonoma and Sacramento.

Financial advisors will remember 2011 as “The Year of Volatility” or “The Year of Uncertainty,” according to a survey of 200 financial advisors polled this month by the SEI Advisor Network, an asset management and back-office administration service provider to financial advisors.

Stock mutual funds lost $5.49 billion for the week ended Wednesday, Dec. 14, according to the latest statistics from the Investment Company Institute.

Fifth Third Private Bank, a division of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, has hired wealth management executive Jeff Martin as its director of wealth planning. In the newly created position, Martin will lead a team that provides wealth-planning services for high-net-worth individuals and senior executives.

According to the latest statistics from the Investment Company Institute, an estimated $5.76 billion left domestic equity mutual funds the week ended Dec. 7, continuing a long streak of net investor redemptions. Since May 1, investors have been pulled nearly $135 billion from U.S. stock funds.

Equities and commodities are likely to perform better in 2012 than they did in 2011, according to Jack Malvey, chief global market strategist for BNY Mellon Asset Management.

Bank of the West has hired senior marketing executive Brian Katz to head up the Wealth Management Group’s newly created Banking and Sales Strategy unit.

Commodity and currency-based ETFs are gaining popularity as investors disappointed with poor returns on traditional investments like stocks and bonds look to diversify their holdings.