Practice

Stephen Barbaro, co-portfolio manager of the Columbia Small Cap Value Fund I, is retiring at the end of the year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Your website is, first and foremost, about you and your services. That is why you ought to be the star of it. And the best way to do that is through high-quality video footage. Why? Because video persuades in a way that text copy can never do.

The horserace politics of the run-up to the November presidential election may be the order of the day, but just around the corner in Washington lurk what promise to be contentious debates over fiscal issues of major significance for financial advisors and their clients.

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.