Practice

In a thorough overview, management consultant McKinsey describes how businesses can promote creativity among employees. The authors, Marla Capozzi, a senior expert in McKinsey’s Boston office; Renée Dye, in Atlanta; and Amy Howe in Los Angeles, provide some dramatic examples that could spark ideas for your financial planning practice.

When individuals are faced with too many options they become paralyzed and don’t make the best decisions– even when it comes to 401(k) options, according to a new study co-authored by Columbia Business School and University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

To me, the most interesting event of the year, so far in the financial planning space, is the Schwab organization's new Independent Branch Services initiative. The gist of it is that Schwab's retail division is looking for experienced advisors to come in and transform their practices into Schwab branch offices on a franchise basis.

A surge in the markets didn't translate into more jobs for advisors in 2010. Count on that to change.

U.S. retirement assets rose 3% from year-end 2010 to $18.1 trillion as of March 31, the Investment Company Institute said.

American Express Co. has added a cardholder perk designed to make spending on its cards worthwhile for a broad swath of small business owners: advertising credits on Facebook.

The world’s top foreign exchange dealers are working on an industry-wide initiative to reduce the risk of a Flash Crash hitting the global currency markets.

The London Stock Exchange late Wednesday pulled out of its $3.5 billion merger with Canada’s TMX Group leaving the door open for a possible hostile takeover from Maple Group.

Successful retirement preparation is driven by three variables: consistent saving and investing, access to financial advice and access to workplace retirement plans, according to a survey by Putnam Investments released on Wednesday.

In a recent survey of nearly 3,300 working Americans to determine current levels of retirement preparedness, Putnam Investments identified three key variables that boost workers’ retirement savings, regardless of their income: consistent, long-term saving, access to financial advice and workplace savings plans.