Industry

The Schwab IMPACT 2012 Conference opened Tuesday in Chicago. The annual gathering of independent investment advisors, now in its 21st year, will go on through Friday bringing together the industry’s best and brightest advisors.

Robert Hagstrom has joined Legg Mason Investment Counsel as Chief Investment Strategist, responsible for communicating Legg Mason Investment Counsel’s strategies and market views.

Bank of America Corp.’s commercial customers are already reacting to the “fiscal cliff” looming over the U.S. budget by putting off purchases, Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan said.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, grappling with a market slump that is putting trading earnings under pressure, said “sometimes cycles can last a very long time.”

Principal Global Investor has named Mihail Dobrinov head of the emerging market equities team, responsible for the management of $9.3 billion in assets, including portfolio management of the $1.62 billion Principal International Emerging Markets fund and $1.8 billion in Asian regional mandates.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to exit the South Korean asset management business amid sluggish global stock markets, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

Level Four Group, a Plano, Texas, based advisory firm with close to $1 billion in assets under management has moved from Lincoln Financial to LPL in a bid to grow by using the LPL platform and name to increase its stable of advisors.

Parametric Portfolio Associates, a Seattle-based subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corp., has agreed to acquire the business of The Clifton Group Investment Management Company, a Minneapolis-based provider of futures- and options-based overlay services and custom risk management products to institutional investors.

Glenmede, a privately-held wealth management firm with $21 billion assets under management, has hired Timothy Fisk as vice president and wealth advisor, and Jeffrey Coron as director of Institutional and Intermediary Distribution.

ING U.S.’s Retirement business has hired Sam Ghazaleh as head of Investor Channel Sales for its Individual Retirement Markets, the company’s retail business that provides personal retirement, investment and income guidance and product solutions to pre-retirees, retirees and the rollover markets.