Practice

A top official with the Labor Department defended the controversial plan to expand the definition of "fiduciary" to cover people providing advice to retirement plans on a commission-based model, a proposal strongly opposed by industry groups representing independent broker-dealers and advisors.

When it comes to retirement income, clients are concerned about rising health costs, and they probably also should be concerned about long-term care, said a top executive of Merrill Lynch's Retirement Income Program, in a keynote address at the Retirement Income Industry Association's fall conference.

Investors appear to have switched gears from focusing on replenishing their balances from 2008’s market downturn to taking all of the responsible steps to prepare for retirement.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. has been fined $1 million for supervisory failures that allowed a Texas broker to run a Ponzi scheme.

Top economists who spoke here at the Insured Retirement Institute annual conference told attendees to brace for fundamental paradigm shifts as they wait for global and domestic economies to stabilize.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. has been fined $1 million for supervisory failures that allowed a Texas broker to run a Ponzi scheme.

Marketing expert Marie Swift details a strategy that works for financial advisors and allied professionals who are interested in serving families with significant wealth. And while this strategy works especially well for that demographic, the truly high-net-worth crowd, there are also applications for advisors who serve the middle-market millionaire and mass affluent.

Renaissance Capital has installed trade surveillance software from Redkite Financial Markets.

State Street said it acquired Complementa Investment-Controlling AG, a Swiss supplier of investment performance measurement and analytics services.

CME Group said it set new monthly records for clearing both interest rate swaps and credit default swaps.