Practice

After founding his own financial planning practice in 1983, Thomas Morrison has rolled up his firm, Morrison Financial Services, this year and joined St. Louis-based Benjamin F. Edwards as vice president-investments.

Investment advisory shop Arnerich Massena has promoted Scott Dunbar to managing director of advisory services.

Securities America has hired Denise Morrison as its new chief compliance officer.

Participation in 529 college savings plans has leveled off after years of growth, according to a Fidelity survey. Perhaps not coincidentally, the study found that most advisors do not "proactively suggest the 529 plan" to parents with youngsters.

The former CFO and Treasurer of Legg Mason's fixed income funds has been barred from the securities industry for altering books and records of one of the funds.

The agency's order initiating administrative proceedings alleges that Noah Myers, president of MiddleCove Capital, netted "ill-gotten gains" of about $460,000, while his clients lost more than $2 million from around October 2008 through February 2011, when an employee threatened to report the activity to the SEC.

Three former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney advisors have taken their business to Stifel Nicolaus to start an office in Madison, Connecticut.

A computer application deployed by the Charles Schwab Corporation that supported day trading online has flagged “cherry picking” of profitable trades by a Connecticut financial advisor

IRAs must be valued, for tax purposes, and imprecise valuations can be costly.

With a new head of research on board, Lipper announced a new set of initiatives for the second half of 2012 that involves building out research and analytical tools.