Matt Ackermann

As of May 31, 885 exchange-traded funds in the United States had $748 billion in assets, down 5.5% from a month earlier.

Fund managers say that worries about the euro have declined as the oil spill in the Gulf has hampered energy stock.

Robert L. Reynolds, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said he thinks there are a range of opportunities for Putnam to develop products for Boomers “as they age and the need for lifetime income solutions becomes more evident.”

The San Francisco discount brokerage firm reported that its daily average client trades in May increased 14% from a year earlier and 17% from a month earlier.

According to a survey by TD Ameritrade Institutional, 68% of independent advisors increased their roster of clients over the last six months, up 13% from the previous quarter.

Acquisition is expected to enhance Fiserv’s footprint in the managed account business and with wealth managers, registered investment advisors and insurance companies.

The comapnies announced Friday an agreement to jointly develop, sell and support managed investment account services, using GlobalBridge’s unified managed account technology.

Advisor Alliance, will allow Merrill Lynch advisors to sell recordkeeping and retirement plan administration services to small business owners.

A team of wealth managers, led by a former UBS portfolio manager, have joined HighTower, an open-source, advisor-owned financial services company.

In an effort to expand operations in Latin America, Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management announced Monday it hired four executives to serve ultra wealthy individuals in Venezuela and Colombia.

The Lansing, Mich., based company said the office in the Nashville suburb would employ 400 people.

The SEC alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday that Bonnie Jean Hoxie, an administrative assistant to a “high-level” Disney executive, and her boyfriend, Yonni Sebbag, sent anonymous letters in March to more than 20 hedge funds offering to provide results of Disney’s second quarter earnings.

Company plans to build ties with RIAs and breakaway brokers nationally.

Despite a significant decline in sales in the past years, advisors and industry executives remain upbeat about annuities because the products are expected to protect principal and provide retirement income.

The fund family, which will include a proprietary family of Canadian funds, is an effort to bring the investment capabilities of MFS Investment Management, Sun Life’s Boston-based asset management arm, to Canadian retail investors.

The panel ruled in favor of Mesirow, but panel chairman Richard Belmonte wrote a one-sentence dissenting opinion, in which he said the award “is grossly contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence and the applicable Illinois law.”

According to monthly data assets held in U.S. exchange-traded funds rose 2.9% from a month earlier to $830 billion.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Bank of New York Mellon Corp. unit and two of its executives alleging they “deliberately” mislead clients about investments tied to Bernard L. Madoff.

The company, which needed a hefty government bailout, reported a profit of $1.45 billion as a result of fewer writedowns in the quarter.

The Boston-based company launched the suite of services to help advisors meet regulatory requirements