Portfolio

Bernie Clark will run Schwab's advisor services unit and Trish Cox its corporate brokerage services division.

Fidelity is offering a suite of 25 iShares exchange-traded funds to its online and wireless retail customers commission-free, and Fidelity has also reduced its online U.S. equity trade commissions to $7.95. for all of its customers.

The Labor and Treasury Departments have issued a request for information to determine whether annuities belong in 401(k)s. Specifically, the agencies want to know the benefits and the drawbacks to receiving retirement income in installments.

Affiliated Managers Group reported a fourth-quarter profit of $24.6 million, or 55 cents per share, reversing a loss of $83.7 million, or $2.12 a share, a year ago.

Most RIAs don’t see any lost competitive advantage if a fiduciary standard is required for everyone

The actively managed exchange-traded funds sector is increasingly going mainstream, and Grail Advisors is riding right along with it.

Some analysts said that its latest deal for a unit of PNC is clearly a defensive move to box out Northern Trust Corp. from becoming a top competitor in asset servicing.

The proposal would automatically deduct up to 3% of an employee’s salary straight from their paycheck and invest it in Roth IRAs, unless the employee chose to opt out, or chose to invest in a traditional IRA. This plan would be for employees who don’t have other types of pensions or retirement savings plans, about 80 million workers in all.

Among financial services firms well known to investors, affluent investors have the most favorable impression of Fidelity, Vanguard and American Funds. This is according to a Phoenix Marketing International survey of 850 investors age 35 to 64 with household income and investable assets, excluding workplace retirement plans, of at least $100,000 conducted this past November.

The Colorado bank's wealth management practice is operated like a boutique high-net-worth independent RIA.