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Wells Fargo Advisors has hired Morgan Stanley Smith Barney financial advisor Mark Wieland to its Washington Crossing, Pa. office.

The new tool ranks the safety of 44 countries' bonds, with Norway topping the list thanks to its low debt and comparatively fewer risks from abroad while the U.S. checked in at No. 15.

In a panel discussion at the Insured Retirement Institute’s (IRI) regulatory conference on Tuesday officials from the Departments of Labor and Treasury discussed increasing access to guaranteed lifetime income products and the proposed rule on the definition of a fiduciary that would regulate retirement savings programs and professionals.

Two former employees at ICAP’s mortgage backed securities desk sought more than $75 million from their former employer.

The new cost basis reporting rules, which got under way in January, remind this blogger of her big water excursions -- scanty as they were -- mainly because of the potentially heart-racing chops that lie ahead for advisors and clients. There are several new reporting forms to help investors and their brokers conform to the new cost-basis reporting rules, but they are complex and did not come with instructions.

Brinker Capital this week became the latest independent investment management firm to add a suite of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its defined contribution retirement plan offering, adding seven new ETFs that range from defensive fixed-income funds to aggressive equity-based funds.

One popular approach to retirement investing has long been bond ladders, but this tried and true method has always had a few drawbacks. One is inflation risk. Another is the difficulty of creating a diversified portfolio because of the minimum price for buying bonds.

Most consumers don’t read the prospectus they receive when they purchase a variable annuity and a new report released by the Insured Retirement Institute on Monday found that 94% of consumers would prefer to receive a shorter, printed summary prospectus online or upon request.

Data giant Thomson Reuters has teamed up with real-time systems monitoring provider ITRS to allow financial firms to keep track of the performance and speed of Thomson Reuters’ market data platforms.

Courting high frequency traders, the London Stock Exchange is allowing non-members a direct connection to its electronic order books with some exchange controls.