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Bill McNabb, chief executive officer of the Vanguard Group, has 130 billion reasons to smile this holiday season.

From veteran advisors battling to keep clients away from financial danger, to some of the top schools grooming the next generation of advisors, 2012 has been a year of both growth and opportunity for the financial advisory sector.

For the week ended Dec. 12, investors pulled an estimated $6.57 billion from mutual funds, their biggest weekly withdrawal this year.

One of the keys to attracting referrals is to be remarkable.

After a round of changes this year in the financial advice industry, some big players found themselves in diminished circumstances by year’s end. Here’s a look at some of the people, organizations and ideas that ended the year in a downturn.

With the financial advice industry going through a period of change, we took a look at the past year to see how the players shook out. Here’s a look at some of the people, organizations and ideas that ended the year in a sweeter position than they began it.

It has named two industry veterans to key positions within Ascent Private Capital Management, the bank’s wealth advisory business for ultra-high-net-worth clients.

AdvisorShares is currently prepping to launch an alternative income exchange-traded fund in early 2013.

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management today said it plans to close 13 ETFs, which represent less than 1% of Invesco PowerShares’ total assets.

Gemini Fund Services and Arrow Investment Advisors today unveiled their exchange-traded fund initiative, the Northern Lights ETF Trust (NLET), which will bring “innovative” ETFs to market.

Americans held $5 trillion in all employer-based DC retirement plans on September 30, of which $3.5 trillion was held in 401(k) plans, according to data from the Investment Company Institute.

A looming presidential election and fiscal cliff were not enough to dissuade employees from taking positive savings actions in their 401(k)s, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s latest quarterly numbers for its retirement and benefit plan services business.

“Many banks are just going through the motions, tweeting about things that are irrelevant to their followers,” Ron Shevlin, an analyst with independent research firm Aite Group, writes in a recent report.

The old-school model of hiring an investment consultant to dispense advice to sponsors of pension funds and endowments about prospective investment managers is passing away.

With over 1,000 broker-dealers to choose from, how does an advisor navigate the choices, know where to go, and know where to be looking in the first place?

Belinda Sherman has been promoted to president of The Huntington Investment Company, reporting to Steven Short, director of Huntington Wealth Advisors.

Investors’ penchant for income and total return and a return to equities will fuel the next wave of exchange-traded fund product innovation in 2013, according to State Street Global Advisors latest ETF report.

Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by market value, bought a stake in Rock Creek Group LP to provide more hedge-fund offerings to clients amid a push to double the asset-management unit within seven years.

For employees at the biggest Wall Street banks, 2012 brought a humbling post-crisis reality of job cuts, lower pay and tarnished reputations. For investors, it was a happier story.

SEC Chairman Elisse Walter may hire as her top lawyer a former enforcement director from the main U.S. derivatives regulator.