Practice

The heart – and brains – of a Wall Street firm used to be the great sales trader, said Matthew Andresen, co-CEO of Headland Technologies. Now, that value increasingly is moving into machines.

San Francisco, Calif,-based Callan Associates, an investment consultant, has hired Benjamin Taylor as vice president, responsible for investment structure reviews, fee analyses and record keeping searches.

In addition to the emotional issues surrounding clients’ financial decision-making, most advisors’ skill sets are not aligned with the task ahead.

“Before allowing our reps to use social media, we needed a technology solution to handle our complex regulatory needs,” says Chad Oppedal, assistant director of compliance for the Principal Financial Group.

Matrix Financial Solutions has expanded the functionality of TrueOpen, its core mutual fund trading platform, to address growing demands from retirement plan providers and advisors.

Morningstar, Inc. has launched a new alternative investments center as part of several enhancements to MorningstarAdvisor.com, a free website that provides advisors with practice management information, investment trends, and industry insights.

SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro told a financial services subcommittee of the House of Representatives that the federal regulator intends to spend $100 million of its $1.6 billion requested budget for fiscal 2013 on information systems and another $50 million on modernizing the EDGAR stock information database and www.sec.gov, its public website.

Marketing expert Marie Swift says niche marketing cannot only help advisors attract significantly more business, but also provide richer opportunities for self-expression.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has hired Richard Gray as managing director and institutional client advisor, based in New York and focused primarily on corporate defined benefit plans and public fund retirement plan clients. This is a new position reporting to Andrea Lisher, East Team Lead for Institutional Advisory Sales at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Banks looking to boost their profits are missing the boat on a big opportunity: marketing investment and insurance products to mass-affluent households.