Practice

At focus11, LPL Financial's national conference held earlier this month, it was clear that social media was clearly more than just a casual "focus" for the 5,000-plus attendees. Along with several well attended sessions, LPL had a station on the exhibit floor dedicated to the topic that enjoyed constant advisor traffic.

The website of the Morningstar firm went down for an undisclosed period Tuesday, the same afternoon an earthquake rattled the East Coast from a site near Mineral, Virginia.

Broker-dealers don’t have to track every message sent through social media -- only ones that relate to business purposes. And unscripted interactions? They can be reported after they occur.

As the cost of college soars and many state institutions are charging as much as $36,000 a year for out-of-state students and private college costs approaching more than $50,000 a year, the percent of total costs families say they are able to cover themselves has fallen. Yet most advisors aren't recommending 529 college savings plans to their clients.

More than half of fee-based financial advisors plan to sell their businesses prior to retirement, according to Tiburon Strategic Advisors, in Tiburon, Calif. That means there is ample opportunity for other firms to quickly add scale through acquisitions. Here are six critical pieces of information every advisor or firm needs to know before making any deals.

Broker-dealers don’t have to track every message sent through social media -- only ones that relate to business purposes. And unscripted interactions? They can be reported after they occur.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the creation of an interim inspection program related to audits of brokers and dealers.

Parents are on track to cover only 16% of their children’s college education, Fidelity Investments’ 5th Annual College Savings Indicator study shows. In the study’s five-year history, this is the first year that the indicator’s steady decline has come to a halt, at 16%.

Russell Armstrong was the 47-year old husband of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" cast member Taylor Armstrong. Tragically, Russell committed suicide on Aug. 15, about one month after Taylor had filed for divorce. His untimely death and the subsequent squabbling by surviving relatives highlight the importance of estate planning whether you're famous or not.

The most highly attacked operating system in mobile computing is Android, from Google, according to a security technology unit of chipmaker Intel.