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MassMutual Retirement Services’ 2011 campaign to prompt 401(k) participants to save more has succeeded in boosting deferral rates by 4.34%. It also was aimed at getting those who were not saving into the game, and helping those with portfolios to revisit their allocations.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has hit Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services Inc. with an order to pay $1.69 million in restitution to more than 15,500 customers who were charged unfair commissions.

Data theft and misuse by employees has plagued Wall Street firms for years. Here’s what to do to protect yourself from threats inside your organization.

Financial Planning senior editor Donna Mitchell says financial advisors are particularly skilled at helping their clients define how their financial lives are -- and should be -- structured. If only they were able to do the same for their practices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a San Francisco-area investment advisor with fraud for allegedly lying to clients about how brokerage commission rebates were being used and then providing phony documents to cover up the so-called “soft-dollars” scam during an SEC examination.

Merrill Lynch said it rolled out an enhanced set of algorithmic trading tools that allow market participants to tune settings on strategies down to each order that is to be executed.

ConvergEx Group has launched a new division dedicated to the formation, performance and management of alternative mutual funds.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services has reorganized into four industry-focused service teams serving: Taft-Hartley, technology, finance and professional services, and manufacturing, materials and retail. Each of these teams will have its own relationship managers, communications consultants, investment specialists and ERISA consultants.

The twin needs for organic growth and expense reduction are driving insurance technology investment, new research from IVANS, Inc. indicates.

The Treasury Department and state regulators have insisted the enactment of Dodd-Frank effectively forces national banks to comply with more state consumer protection laws. So far, however, courts are not supporting such claims.

ConvergEx Group has launched a new division dedicated to the formation, performance and management of alternative mutual funds.

Long-term mutual funds had inflows of $386 million for the week ended Sept. 21, the Investment Company Institute said.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services has reorganized into four industry-focused service teams serving: Taft-Hartley, technology, finance and professional services, and manufacturing, materials and retail. Each of these teams will have its own relationship managers, communications consultants, investment specialists and ERISA consultants.

Now that the Department of Labor is back at the drawing board trying to determine what should constitute a fiduciary under 1975 ERISA amendments, the industry wants to make at least one point clear: investors should have good choices, regardless of the business model their advisors use.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services expanded its insurance brokerage footprint this week with the acquisition of ISU Stetson-Beemer Insurance, a commercial property, casualty and employees’ benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm based in Reno, Nevada.

The advocacy organization representing independent broker-dealers and independent financial advisors will press its policy priorities to lawmakers on Capitol Hill as part of a two-day summit in the nation's capital.

Advisor Software, a provider of wealth management applications for financial advisors, announced that its goalGetter financial planning application for the iPad is now available for free download from Apple’s App Store.

Cantor Fitzgerald named Jeffrey Lumby as its head of equity capital markets where he’ll be continue to oversee the firm’s Controlled Equity Offering product as well as a variety of equity linked origination and execution responsibilities on behalf of the firm’s clients.

Wall Street firms shouldn't think about complying with the Internal Revenue Service's new rules requiring them to calculate the cost of investors' accounts only as a burdensome operational cost. Instead, they should think of following the new cost-basis reporting rules as a potentially profitable means of retaining and attracing new clients, says a report just issued by research firm Celent.

Eighty-four percent of 401(k) sponsors surveyed by Mercer and the U.S. SIF Foundation (formerly known as the Social Investment Forum Foundation) believe that sustainable and socially responsible investing (SRI) funds will either hold steady or grow in the next five years.