Economy

Morgan Keegan & Co. is going to trial before a judge whose decision to throw out regulators’ claims the retail brokerage misled thousands of investors about the risks of auction-rate securities was reversed on appeal.

UBS Wealth Management Americas has snagged a Merrill Lynch team in Cincinnati with more than $1 billion in client assets under management.

National Advisors Trust has launched an upgraded version of AdvisorDesk, the firm’s proprietary multi-custodian technology platform.

Robert W. Baird & Co. has hired veteran financial advisor Baron C. Becker from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Portland, Maine.

Former UBS AG trader Kweku Adoboli was sentenced to seven years in jail for fraud in relation to a $2.3 billion loss, the largest from unauthorized trading in British history.

Former UBS AG trader Kweku Adoboli was found guilty of fraud in relation to a $2.3 billion loss, the largest from unauthorized trading in British history. He was cleared on four counts of false accounting.

J.W. Cole Financial, a Tampa, Fla., based independent broker-dealer, announced Monday that it plans to acquire Financial Advisers of America.

Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan said his company’s business model that serves people and corporations is a proven winner based on the firm’s market share.

“I’m more optimistic by everything I’ve read,” Moynihan said today in London during a Bloomberg Television interview. Lawmakers are taking the matter “very seriously,” he said.

Wells Fargo has extended its summer hiring spree with 24 new financial advisor hires managing a total of $2.2 billion in assets.

Alliant launched the investment program in 2009 and said it wanted to take the business to the next level.

More than half (55%) of Americans age 53 – 65 say they plan to continue working full-time as long as their health permits, up from 51% last year.

Securities America announced Thursday that managing partner of Kelley & Mullis Wealth Management, Michael Mullis, has become a registered representative with the independent broker-dealer firm.

Lisle Savings Bank, with over $516 million in assets, joins more than 150 other banks and credit unions, and more than 1,100 representatives nationwide also supported by Invest, a subsidiary of the independent broker-dealer network National Planning Holdings.

Wall Street firms must slash pay and headcount and shed almost a third of their trading-business assets to earn even half the returns they once made, according to Sanford C. Bernstein analysts.

The annual promotions, which take effect Jan. 1, come one day after New York-based Goldman Sachs named 70 people to its so-called partnership, the fewest since the firm became a public company in 1999. Partners, also called participating managing directors, receive a higher salary than managing directors and share in a special bonus pool.

The agreement will help the bank fill the service gap that was left after it sold its brokerage unit, Morgan Keegan, to Raymond James earlier this year.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. named 70 employees to join its so-called partnership, the fewest in the firm’s 13 years as a public company, as sluggish revenue growth pressures expenses.

Sovereign Investment Group, a Texas independent wealth management firm, announced Wednesday it hired Michael Koletar as a senior vice president of investments for its wealth management team.

Merrill Lynch has added industry veteran Daniel Sandlin from Morgan Stanley.