Practice

Despite a jump from 2008 lows, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 1500 companies saw little change in their pension plans funded status last year, a new study claims.

UBS Wealth Management Americas hired four advisors from Merrill with combined assets of $352 million. The new team will join the firm’s Jacksonville, Fla., office.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are warning investors to beware of stock scams that promise easy profits from cleanup efforts related to the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Selling covered put and call options can substantially boost your returns in an unstable market.

Bernstein Research settlement will cost $1.05 a share

The battle over the final regulatory reform will just be a prologue to the longer and much more complicated fight over how the legislation will be implemented.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Banks expect hybrid annuities that include long-term-care riders to be the next hot product on brokerage platforms as soon as product providers ramp up their offerings in this area, said Scott Stathis, Kehrer-LIMRA’s chief operating officer and managing director, speaking at the company’s Annuity Product Management Roundtable here.

BALTIMORE—The uncertainty and confusion around the fiduciary standard has jolted the financial services industry leading hundreds to pack the rooms at FINRA’s annual conference in Baltimore.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun mailing out questionnaires to 401(k) plan sponsors to assess compliance with retirement plan regulations.

BOSTON -- The Securities and Exchange Commission is about to get a lot bigger and tougher, once Congress approves significant funding increases in its financial reform legislation. The soon-to-be-bulked-up agency is also planning to restructure its resources to place heavy emphasis on inspections, examinations and prosecuting high-profile cases.