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Financial planners and investment advisors are moving broadly and quickly to adopt the Windows 7 operating system for their personal computers as well as the Apple iPad for their personal use, according to preliminary results of the 2010 Software Survey released Sunday at the Financial Planning Association's annual conference by Financial Planning magazine and virtual office consultant Joel Bruckenstein.

Some parts of the fixed-income market are hard to track with a traditional ETF.

Auto enrollment, escalation and target-date features in 401(k) plans are effective in boosting savings substantially, especially for lower-income workers, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association.

TD Ameritrade is lifting the trading commissions on 101 exchange-traded funds indefinitely. Investors must hold the ETFs for at least 30 days, however; otherwise they will be charged the standard $9.99 fee.

Vanguard Group removed AllianceBernstein as manager of the Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund, replacing it with Wellington Management and Delaware Investments. William Blair will continue to run one-third of the fund.

While hedge funds that have sought non-traditional investors have gone the ’40 Act route through funds-of-funds structures, they should consider separately managed accounts, according to a report from Pershing and Greenwich Associates based on detailed interviews with 41 hedge fund and investment managers and 27 institutional investors.

How a portfolio sage and fundamental index founder bet right on the market and still lost money.

Asset manager will continue to recruit more advisors in the Dallas area.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been selected to launch and manage a new advisor-sold 529 college savings program in Connecticut, the state’s treasurer announced Wednesday.

The Omaha, Neb., broker-dealer retools its independent platform for the bank channel.

While annuity sales are down for the first half of the year overall, second-quarter sales go a long way to closing the gap.

Mutual of Omaha is holding 401(k) sales seminars, or boot camps, for advisers to 401(k) plans over the next year. The first six cities where the seminars will be held are Lansing, Mich., Pittsburgh, Orlando, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. Following the seminars, participants will receive a year’s worth of educational e-newsletters, and access to webinars and tools.

BlackRock hired Chris Leavy as CIO For U.S. Fundamental Equity

Despite the fact that the numbers of financial services executives have been slashed by the financial market downturn, Robin Judson sees enough demand for hedge fund, private equity and investment banking know-how to launch her own recruiting firm.

The new director of advisor services for Scottrade Advisor Services, will not be making any drastic changes to the asset custodian business that the St. Louis discount retail brokerage launched five years ago.

UBS Wealth Management Americas announced on Thursday it hired a pair of New Jersey advisors from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

CHET Advisor is the first advisor-sold 529 plan sponsored by the state. TIAA-CREF will continue to run the Connecticut Higher Education Trust, a direct-sold 529 college savings plan first launched in 1998.

To help investors take advantage of opportunities created by shifting financial trends, Russell Investments has launched the Russell Global Infrastructure Fund and the Russell Global Credit Strategies Fund and added the two to the Russell LifePoints Funds Target Portfolio Series and the Russell Core Model Strategies.

Municipal market participants should not expect the Treasury Department to simply rubber-stamp the existing tax-exempt bond rules for issue price when it comes to Build America Bonds, a Treasury official told bond lawyers at a recent meeting.

Driving the optimism are portfolio gains over the past year for 44% of investors, Scottrade found.