Subject Root Tag

The Bank Insurance and Securities Association is planning to rebrand in the future, according to Sam Guerrieri, the president-elect, who announced the new agenda for the organization now that it has teamed up with Smith Bucklin, a company that specializes in running organizations.

Most of Canada's largest financial services firms have and will continue to invest heavily in IT projects for the foreseeable future to garner more customers and stay ahead of the compliance and regulation curve.

Between the SEC's broad and unspecific recommendations to safeguard shareholders from unscrupulous advisors and the Department of Labor's recent attempts to redefine the conditions under which a financial advisor becomes a fiduciary, the financial advisors and broker-dealers providing the guidance and products investors need for retirement are huddling up to decide which regulations and rule changes they should support in the face of looming legislation.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Nothing that Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner or President Barack Obama can do will prevent the United States economy from coming apart, under the weight of public and private debt.

A total of 610 people came to the BISA conference, compared with 450 in 2010.

"No amount of government stimulus will prevent it,'' said forecaster Harry S. Dent Jr. That's because additional stimulus, driven by more federal borrowing, will have less and less effect on the economy, much like the dwindling effect of more cocaine on a crack addict, he said.

The fine, related to the sale of municipal securities, will require the firm to ensure it is complying with Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules.

As they say: The more things change, the more they stay the same. That goes for the American Bankers Association Wealth Management Conference in Miami.

Variable annuity assets in the U.S. reached an all-time record of $1.5 trillion in 2010, with fourth-quarter sales rises 18% year-over-year to $37.6 billion, the Insured Retirement Institute announced Monday.

Concerns about rising oil prices and an end to the stock market rally once quantitative easing ends has caused 40% of hedge fund managers to be bearish on U.S. equities, up from 26% in January, according to the TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Survey of Hedge Fund Managers. And only 26% are bullish, down from 37%.

NEW YORK-Unemployment may still be 9%. Single-family home starts may be down again. But the outlook from the corner office of fund managers is increasingly sunny.

Trust, but verify.

Fidelity Investments recently reported that the average 401(k) account balance it managed reached a 10-year high of $71,500 at the end of 2010, and for those who had consistently contributed to their plan, $183,100.

Putnam Investments has created a new leadership structure for its fixed income investment operations. D. William Kohli, Michael V. Salm and Paul D. Scanlon, are now co-heads the firm's fixed income team of over 60 investment professionals, who manage nearly $60 billion in assets.

Whether they call it "aggressive recruiting" or poaching, financial services companies across the board are predicting the practice will intensify in the coming year, forcing many of them to sweeten their offers and actively seek out skilled professionals both within and outside the industry.

Bank-owned life insurance assets reached a record $140.24 billion in the third quarter of 2010—a 4.8% increase from $133.87 billion in the third quarter of 2009, according to the Michael White/Meyer-Chatfield Bank- Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) Holdings Report.

Janus Capital has hired George Maris as portfolio manager of the Janus Worldwide Fund, reporting to Janus co-CIO Jonathan Coleman. Maris comes to the firm from Northern Trust, where he ran both retail and institutional money.

More than half of RIAs are ‘bullish’; large caps and ETFs are top investment choices

SunGard has launched a Wealth Management Regulatory and Risk Consulting Practice, part of its Wealth Management Global Services.

According to a company memo obtained Friday, Lynch has “decided to leave and pursue opportunities outside the firm.”