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CFOs gave the strength of the U.S. economy an average score of 53 out of 100 — up from 49 a year ago and the highest recorded rating in the last six years, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 CFO Outlook survey.

Paul Volcker said he wasn’t involved with writing the final version of the rule that bears his name, staying abreast of developments from a distance as regulators crafted details of his curbs on trading by banks.

A big LPL practice with $3.7 billion in assets under management is picking up a $300 million Chicago-area firm.

Even as the SEC is contemplating an expansion of fiduciary rules to include broker-dealers who operate in the retail space, some advocates argue that the regulatory interpretation of the responsibilities under a fiduciary standard has strayed from common-law precedent and become dangerously diluted.

A new HighTower project tries to determine whether the aggregated opinions of advisors and staff can offer meaningful insight into portfolio allocations.

Data from this year's Financial Planning Tech Survey tells us what's been going on this past year, but it doesn't tell you what's going to happen next year. Here are a few modest technology predictions for 2014.

Funding long-term care is an increasingly important topic for planners to cover with clients, especially mass-affluent clients. "Even when you nail it down, the market changes on you and you have to re-evaluate," says advisor Bob Stowe.

“When they come to us for everything, we then truly are their lead advisor,” says Mike Ott, the new head of the unit.

The convicted Ponzi schemer, now serving a 150-year prison sentence, says in an interview with MarketWatch that his defrauded clients should have probed more.

David Sirianni, Oppenheimer Holdings' head municipal bond trader, was fined $100,000 and suspended for 60 days by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for overcharging customers.

Wells Fargo, which has set aside the least money for legal costs among the four biggest U.S. banks, will conduct an internal review of its ethics as the industry grapples with a surge in probes and lawsuits.

World economic growth will pick up next year, paced by improvements in the U.S. and the euro area, Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pimco, said in an interview.

Advisors who add corporate services such as deferred compensation, executive benefit programs and defined contribution or benefit plans to their menu of services, serve business owners and executives better. They also differentiate themselves and boost revenue.

NetVEST, which is returning to LPL, has approximately $200 million in client assets and specializes in establishing revocable and irrevocable trusts. The firm had been affiliated with Ameriprise for the past year; but had been with LPL for almost 20 years before that, however.

Many partnership agreements cover what will happen if one of the partners dies, but fail to address the possibility of one of the principals becoming disabled.

Quiet and peaceful Valley Forge-Pa. is not a place where one would expect to find one of the most successful financial businesses in history — a far cry from the hurry and shuffle of Wall Street. But Vanguard's home there speaks volumes about its ability to maintain its reputation as the lowest-cost provider of mutual funds and ETFs since John Bogle founded the company in 1974.

Goldman Sachs Group and Deutsche Bank AG are among five Wall Street firms in addition to JPMorgan Chase whose hiring practices in China are being probed by U.S. regulators, the New York Times reported.

PFA A/S, Denmark’s biggest commercial pension fund, said it won’t put more money into the nation’s mortgage-backed covered bonds as a regulatory onslaught prompts investors to shy away from the securities.

One of the most challenging things advisor Dave Grant faced when setting up his RIA was deciding on a CRM system.

For Jeffrey Thomasson, founder of Oxford Financial -- the largest firm on Financial Planning's 2013 RIA Leaders list -- smooth waters means it’s time to rock the boat.