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Half of all companies say they are likely to take such defensive actions as cutting capital spending and laying people off if the U.S. government defaults on its obligations, a survey of 305 finance and treasury executives by the Association for Financial Professionals found.

BlackRock plans to get active in active ETFs, its chairman and chief executive said this week.

Sharing too much and assuming that you always know what is best are among the surefire ways of pointing clients to the door.

Emerging Global has launched a suite of 11 emerging markets exchange-traded funds under the brand of GEMS (Global Emerging Market Sector) Funds. Three of the funds are rebranded and eight are brand new.

Hutchens Investment Management has merged with New Leaf Asset Management, with New Leaf executives Fletcher Cole and Carrie Bossi joining the Hutchens team.

While hedge funds-of-funds tout their diversification as a limit on risk, this is not the case, according to research by NYU Stern Finance Professor Stephen Brown and co-authors Greg Gregoriou and Razvan Pascalau of SUNY College at Plattsburgh School of Business and Economics. In extreme market conditions, the professors attest, a broadly diversified hedge fund-of-fund is actually more sensitive to risk than an average hedge fund.

BlackRock plans to get active in active ETFs, its chairman and chief executive said Wednesday.

Frank Williams Jr., who owns steel companies throughout the East Coast, took a controlling stake in Greater Atlantic Financial Corp., whose bank failed in late 2009. The shell has nothing to its name -- except for $30 million in operating losses.

The 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average are expected to increase their annual dividend payout by 12.66% from a year ago and 2.93% from the first quarter, according to a survey by Dow Jones Indexes.

Americans are showing resilience in the aftermath of the financial crisis, but their advisors report that they are not doing a good enough job of saving or living within their means, Principal Financial found in a survey of 632 advisors. Only 10% of the advisors surveyed said their clients are able to easily visualize their financial dreams.

Broker Suspended for Excessive Trading in Mutual FundsBy Tom Steinert-ThrelkeldAn Arizona broker has been suspended for excessive trading in mutual funds.William Bailey, formerly a broker with the NEXT Financial Group in Mesa, Ariz., has been put on the sidelines for two years by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for switching customers in and out of mutual funds, for average of two months per investment.Bailey also engaged in discretionary trading without receiving prior written approval from his customers, the independent regulator of brokers said.Bailey recommended 484 short-term switch transactions in seven customer accounts, in 2006 and 2007, FINRA said. He “repeatdly sold mutual funds less than one year after purchasing them, and purchased new mutual funds with the proceeds,’’ the regulator said.With the frequent switches, his customers held their mutual funds for only 60 days, on average. The seven customers ranged in age from 66 to 93 and “were all unsophisticated investors,’’ FINRA said.Bailey could not be immediately reached for comment.FINRA said the customers paid more than $147,000 in sales charges and trading fees. Bailey received more than $120,000 in commissions, from those payments.Bailey, the regulator said, frequently traded in his customers' accounts without first obtaining their permission and improperly completed customer account forms to make it appear the customers approved of the trading. “Bailey rapidly switched his elderly and unsophisticated customers in and out of mutual funds with high costs, providing a benefit to Bailey instead of to his customers,’’ said Brad Bennett, FINRA Executive Vice President and Chief of Enforcement, In settling the case, Bailey neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to its findings, FINRA said.An Arizona broker has been suspended for excessive trading in mutual funds.

Americans are showing resilience in the aftermath of the financial crisis, but their advisers report that they are not doing a good enough job of saving or living within their means, Principal Financial found in a survey of 632 advisers. Only 10% of the advisers surveyed said their clients are able to easily visualize their financial dreams.

The 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average are expected to increase their annual dividend payout by 12.66% from a year ago and 2.93% from the first quarter, according to a survey by Dow Jones Indexes.

DST Systems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ALPS for $250 million in cash. Once the deal closes, which is expected in the fourth quarter, ALPS will be marketed as “ALPS, a DST Company.”

If the financial industry were made up of nursery rhymes, Wells Fargo & Co. would be Little Jack Horner and Bank of America Corp. would be regarded as Pinocchio.

Knight Capital Group said its earnings dropped by two-thirds in the second quarter, hurt by lower volume and volatility in stock trading.

As money market funds hold approximately $1.3 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, nearly half of their total $2.7 trillion in assets, investors would probably be spooked in the event of a default by the U.S. government and rush to the exits to redeem their shares. That is the dire warning from Fitch Ratings.

When financial advisors are working with clients to figure out their retirement strategy, they need to factor in inflation into the mix. But the question is, how does one decide what inflation is likely to be years into the future when there are so many different ways to measure it even in the present?

Ryan O'Neal is at it again. He and Craig Nevius, a Hollywood producer who used to work closely with Farrah Fawcett, are in the midst of more legal fighting against one another.

Bond investors have been put on notice by rating agency Standard & Poor's that it is not just the U.S. sovereign debt rating that is in jeopardy because of the ongoing wrangling in Washington over raising -- or not raising -- the federal debt ceiling and, especially, whether or how lawmakers cut the government’s massive and ever-growing deficit.