Practice

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s new data on 401(k) plan sponsor clients and plan participants shows that new loan issuance transactions are at record lows, while hardship withdrawals and total distribution amounts are at record highs.

Advisors take note: It’s not a company’s size but rather the demographic makeup of its workforce that influences whether it sponsors a retirement plan.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board would for the first time require broker-dealers to disclose to state and local governments that they are not fiduciaries and would prohibit underwriters from telling issuers not to hire financial advisors, under revised rule changes it filed Thursday.

Growth in its information technology and services business accounted for 11% of the $105 million increase in net revenue that NYSE Euronext reported for its third quarter.

The waves of financial regulations that are being introduced around the world "represent some of the biggest changes in financial services in 70 years." Here's what's changed and what you and your firm can do now to meet these new regulatory requirements.

Lincoln Financial Group has introduced Lincoln Alliance, a mutual fund retirement solution designed for small-to-mid-sized retirement plans with assets of $2 million or more.

Raymond James is partnering with Actiance to provide financial advisors access to compliant social media tools, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the firm is offering advisors optional marketing support with access to a library of pre-approved content and tools to measure engagement.

Be they young or be they old, people across America are worried about their financial prospects in retirement and the economic direction of the nation, according to a survey of Gen X, Gen Y and Baby Boomers by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

Seventy-five percent of U.S. companies that suspended their 401(k) matching contributions between January 2008 and January 2010 have restored the retirement savings perk in the past year, according to an analysis by professional services firm Towers Watson.

Three-quarters of 260 employers that suspended 401(k) matches due to the recession have restored them, Towers Watson said in a report Wednesday. Of these companies, 74% have brought these matches back to the levels they were before the recession, and only 23% have brought them back at a lower level.