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Brokers and financial advisers looking to make more money and have more control over the type of clients they serve and the investments they recommend continued to flood the independent channel at a swift pace in 2010, according to a new Broker and Advisor Sentiment Index survey conducted on behalf of Fidelity Investments.

Lots of strong returns, but many investors are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Recent reports describe 2010 as the worst year for bank-sold annuities in the past decade, so the 4th quarter decline in the BHC Annuity Index comes as little surprise,” said Andrew Singer, the editor of the index.

if you want to get the most out of your staff and in turn increase the growth trajectory of your business, you would be wise to view them as essential to your success.

Corporate pension plans have about $2 trillion in assets, and $200 billion to $400 billion could be in play in the next several years.

Dynasty Financial has an ambitious plan to expand its advisor network to between 100 and 150 top-tier RIAs with total assets under management of around $50 billion over the next five years.

The stunning decline in property values across most of the country, a prolonged recession and plain-old negligence and shortsightedness on the part of American workers have all combined to make retirement more a fantasy than a reality for tens of millions of Baby Boomers who are will soon turn 65 years of age.

Optimism among small business owners fell in March, according to a survey by SurePayroll.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation said it named former Citigroup operations and technology chief Robert Druskin chairman of its board. Donald F. Donahue remains chief executive officer.

Equity funds net $1.2 billion.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s draft rule on gifts and gratuities could shut down muni advisers, the municipal market’s largest financial adviser is ­warning.

ProShares has launched two inverse Treasury exchange-traded funds, the ProShares UltraShort 3-7 Year Treasury ETF and the ProShares Short 7-10 Year Treasury ETF.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Germany Small-Cap ETF, which the firm says is the first exchange-traded fund dedicated solely to Germany. Van Eck also notes that Germany is Europe’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest economy. Germany’s GDP grew 3.6% in 2010.

Dreyfus has launched the Dreyfus Global Dynamic Bond Fund, a dynamically managed fund that seeks both capital appreciation and income by investing in bonds, currencies, derivatives and other instruments that provide exposure to these asset classes. The fund has no investment constraints and is not managed to a benchmark index. Rather, it seeks to deliver positive returns regardless of market moves.

AllianceBernstein, having expanded the diversification of its target-date funds earlier this year to mitigate the effects of inflation, has just issued a white paper discussing the importance of grappling with inflation risk.

Despite the warnings from financial planners, relatives and the media, nearly two-thirds of Baby Boomers surveyed said Social Security will be either an "extremely" or "very" important source of income when they retire.

The nation’s stock exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Wednesday filed a proposal with the SEC to establish a new “limit up-limit down” mechanism that would limit swings in stock prices, during periods of volatility.

The nation’s stock exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority filed a proposal to establish a new “limit up-limit down” mechanism that would limit swings in stock prices, during periods of volatility.

In a proposed new rule regulating the use of third-party service providers, the self-regulatory agency for broker dealers, says that outsourcing doesn’t relieve a broker-dealer from its regulatory obligations.