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Morgan Stanley financial advisor Michael Merlin, number 19 on the Top 40 Under 40 list, says that making listening to clients a priority gives him an advantage over other advisors.

In 2012, revenue from wealth management services reached $29.8 million, a 37.5% increase from 2011.

Professor John Grable touched a nerve when he suggested in Financial Planning’s current issue that a mandatory AUM tax on advisors could help make financial planning available to all American families. Actually, he touched a lot of nerves.

The Republican chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Dave Camp, R-Mich., released a draft document Thursday proposing a series of tax reforms for various types of financial derivatives and other financial products, building on work done by his committee over the past two years.

Tax-exempt money market funds continued their downward as they reported $2.44 billion of outflows, for the second week in a row of net outflows.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds, while still robust, have fallen for a second straight week, to $871 million from funds that report their flows weekly.

Morgan Stanley, the biggest financial brokerage, will spend $500 million to improve computer systems after flaws in a previous upgrade frustrated the staff.

Morgan Stanley gave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Gorman a compensation package for 2012 that’s 30% less than his 2011 award, excluding a new incentive package, a person familiar with the decision said.

What makes an online trader successful? Fidelity Investments surveyed its top trading customers, those with a 12-month portfolio performance of at least 20%, to find out the secrets to their investing success.

If confirmed by the Senate, veteran prosecutor Mary Jo White would assume responsibility for moving ahead with a number of initiatives that would reshape the regulatory landscape for advisors