Practice

Mary Jo White was sworn in as SEC chairman and led a meeting where the agency approved rules requiring brokers and investment advisors to adopt identity-theft prevention programs.

Mary Jo White was sworn in this morning as the 31st Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A top executive with Fidelity urged congressional action to stave off what he described as "a looming retirement crisis," appealing to lawmakers to pressure the Department of Labor to avoid an expansive redefinition of fiduciary responsibilities for advisors, among other things.

The Financial Services Institute is heralding the advance of legislation in Florida that would significantly ease the registration process for advisors representing firms headquartered in other states.

“We have found that people in Gen Y not only said they are highly disciplined, they really are more highly disciplined than people in older generations,” Bill Taylor, vice president of financial planning at Northwestern Mutual, said in an interview. “It might be because they’ve seen their parents hurt badly when stocks fell in 2008, because of the decline of defined benefit plans, or just because young people have access to more information today.”

Putnam Investments has added three new DCIO Investment Specialists to bolster its sales effort in the 401(k) market.

Russell Investments has appointed Andrew Scherer as director of defined contribution, intermediary distribution for the firm’s U.S. advisor-sold business, which sells mutual funds and other multi-asset products to DC recordkeeping platforms, retirement plan sponsors and retirement plan advisors.

The suitability of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds climbed on FINRA’s Enforcement hit list in 2012, according to Partners Deborah Heilizer and Brian Rubin and Associate Andrew McCormick of law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan’s, in their annual review of the regulatory agency’s disciplinary actions.

An elevator speech is a quick way to explain the unique benefit you deliver to clients, but Steve Wershing says most advisors frequently provide just a rambling, somewhat fuzzy description of their practice. He says an effective elevator speech is succinct and highlights the difference from other advisors, but that's only part of the reason for learning one.

Delivering easily accessible, multimedia resources that are broken into small packages is key to engaging and educating individuals, according to new research.