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Get ready to connect with far-flung colleagues: The FPA’s much-awaited new social networking site is live and picking up speed. Several thousand members worldwide are already connecting online, forming groups and developing their own self-directed platforms within the 24,000 member-strong organization.

Having made changes to the fund’s investment capacity, the $6.6 billion Eaton Vance Macro Absolute Return Fund is reopened to additional investments.

The Department of Labor on Monday issued final rules on investment advice in 401(k) plans, largely in line with its initial definition of advice.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is warning financial firms that following the spirit of the law is just as important as the letter of the law.

A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of global fund managers makes it abundantly clear that just about everyone is sure Greece will default on its foreign debt obligations. And while this isn’t good news, the view from top money managers is that this eventuality has already been priced into the market and most are more optimistic about the global economy than they were last month.

Announcing changes that will likely affect wealth managers helping clients with tax planning, the IRS said earlier this week that many tax benefits for the 2012 tax year will increase due to inflation adjustments.

Putnam Investments is addressing the need for customized retirement income withdrawal strategies through the launch of the Putnam Retirement Income Lifestyle Funds, a suite of three income-oriented mutual funds, and a Retirement Income Analysis Tool.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has designated the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as the agency to develop and maintain the system for hedge fund advisors to receive new registration forms for hedge fund advisers, for a filing fee of $150.

Last week, the Financial Stability Oversight Council voted to proceed with rule-making that provides regulators with greater authority to oversee financial companies that are not banks but have more than $50 billion in assets and $20 billion in debt.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. has appointed Rafael Febres-Cordero managing director and head of its international wealth management business, in a push to expand its international business. Febres-Cordero is a 20-year veteran of the financial services industry and spent the past 14 years at Fidelity Investments in a variety of positions, including as managing director of Fidelity's private equity division, Devonshire Investors. He was also managing director, Southern Europe & Latin America at Fidelity Investments International.

At the start of October, the Investment Company Institute announced it was going global.

The mere mention of variable annuities is enough to set off a heated discussion among financial advisors. Below are excerpts from our discussion boards about our coverage of a report from the Insured Retirement Institute.

Readers react to this week's exclusive interview with Wells Fargo's Rich Lowrie, the financial planner who helped craft GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan.

Independent and insurance brokers/dealers are the strongest sales channels for variable annuities, according to a report from the Insured Retirement Institute.

Blue chips ended the week up 1.41% to 11808.79. It was the fourth week in a row that stocks finished higher.

FPA has launched the International Value Strategy portfolio, with plans to roll out a mutual fund version in the near future.

HighTower Advisors has snapped up Morgan Stanley Smith Barney branch manager Ann T. Rieder in the latest acquisition for its targeted national hiring spree.

With deleveraging debt now the modus operandi of the U.S. economy, the “tailwind of economic growth has been taken away,” said Curtis V. Arledge, vice chairman and chief executive officer of investment management at BNY Mellon. But the picture isn't entirely bleak. The decline in growth is creating a “bull market in [financial] advice,” Arledge said.

It’s a brave new world for investors, according to Natixis Global Asset Management President and CEO, U.S. and Asia, John Hailer. Amid the market volatility that has spiked this year, investors need alternative investments that are uncorrelated to the markets in order to build what Hailer calls “durable portfolios.”

"Simple Truths" From a Man Who Isn't an Academic