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WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. $500,000 for failing to establish and maintain written supervisory procedures to ensure that its representatives considered customers’ state income-tax benefits in their suitability analyses of 529 college saving plans.

Charles Schwab has launched the Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF and Schwab U.S. REIT ETF, bringing Schwab’s total fixed income and equity ETF offerings to a total of 13.

The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., investment advisory firm bought Weiss Capital Management Inc, an independent registered investment advisory firm.

At $1.917 trillion, the industry is just shy of its peak level, reached in the second quarter of 2008.

Redemptions since Dec. 2 total $15.76 billion.

The FDIC is targeting directors and executives of another failed bank, but this time the agency has a guilty plea to back its claims of mismanagement.

U.S. Bancorp no longer plans to bide its time as competitors figure out how to recoup fee income regulated away by the Durbin amendment. Now it'll be piling on with everyone else.

For all those bears out there it’s time to turn those frowns upside down.

With stocks up for the seventh consecutive week, Bob Doll, BlackRock chief equity strategist, sees no reason to expect a plunge.

Four came from UBS, two from independent shop Ingalls & Snyder, one from Chase Investment Services.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined BNY Mellon $24 million and has banned a former manager of institutional trading at Mellon Securities from associating with any broker-dealer firm after carrying out what it called an “eight-year best execution fraud.”

On Wednesday The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and the Association of Small Foundations announced a new white paper titled “The Best of Both Worlds: Using Private Foundations and Donor-Advised Funds” to inform donors and advisors about how these two giving vehicles complement each other.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management is now offering its private banking clients Cash Management Access Accounts that will allow them to manage banking and self-directed investments in one place.

Wells Fargo’s fourth quarter revenue rose to $3 billion for its wealth, brokerage and retirement business, a 15% gain compared to 2009.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. $500,000 for failing to establish and maintain written supervisory procedures to ensure that its representatives considered customers’ state income-tax benefits in their suitability analyses of 529 college saving plans.

Most regulations already cover financial planning activities, but designations need another look.

At Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management’s Capital Market Outlook breakfast in New York City on Wednesday, Larry Adam announced a positive outlook for equities, anticipating that the S&P 500 would reach 1400 by the end of 2011. The only thing that could derail Adam’s positive outlook would be a lack of confidence.

Low interest rates and a market skepticism keep annuities down in 2010, but 2011 looks brighter.

Estate tax reform in 2010 was marked by significant disagreement from both the House and Senate on whether any changes should be temporary or permanent.

Eileen Rominger joins the securities regulator after spending the past 11 years working as the global CIO for Goldman Sachs Asset Management (