Practice

Financial Planning senior editor Donna Mitchell says financial advisors are particularly skilled at helping their clients define how their financial lives are -- and should be -- structured. If only they were able to do the same for their practices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a San Francisco-area investment advisor with fraud for allegedly lying to clients about how brokerage commission rebates were being used and then providing phony documents to cover up the so-called “soft-dollars” scam during an SEC examination.

Merrill Lynch said it rolled out an enhanced set of algorithmic trading tools that allow market participants to tune settings on strategies down to each order that is to be executed.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services has reorganized into four industry-focused service teams serving: Taft-Hartley, technology, finance and professional services, and manufacturing, materials and retail. Each of these teams will have its own relationship managers, communications consultants, investment specialists and ERISA consultants.

The twin needs for organic growth and expense reduction are driving insurance technology investment, new research from IVANS, Inc. indicates.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services has reorganized into four industry-focused service teams serving: Taft-Hartley, technology, finance and professional services, and manufacturing, materials and retail. Each of these teams will have its own relationship managers, communications consultants, investment specialists and ERISA consultants.

Now that the Department of Labor is back at the drawing board trying to determine what should constitute a fiduciary under 1975 ERISA amendments, the industry wants to make at least one point clear: investors should have good choices, regardless of the business model their advisors use.

The advocacy organization representing independent broker-dealers and independent financial advisors will press its policy priorities to lawmakers on Capitol Hill as part of a two-day summit in the nation's capital.

Advisor Software, a provider of wealth management applications for financial advisors, announced that its goalGetter financial planning application for the iPad is now available for free download from Apple’s App Store.

Wall Street firms shouldn't think about complying with the Internal Revenue Service's new rules requiring them to calculate the cost of investors' accounts only as a burdensome operational cost. Instead, they should think of following the new cost-basis reporting rules as a potentially profitable means of retaining and attracing new clients, says a report just issued by research firm Celent.