Economy

Largest independent broker-dealer increases assets under management and adds advisors, but revenues don't keep pace.

The firm has focused on making sure that its advisors in impacted areas are able to continue functioning normally.

Updated to include information about LPL. While the Northeast hunkered down yesterday waiting for Hurricane Sandy, it was pretty much business as usual for bank advisors—or at least for their clients.

As Hurricane Sandy moves in on the Northeast, firms such as Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott implement contingency plans to help advisors and clients.

As Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in the U.S., wealth management operations of major financial firms including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo have shut down certain offices to prepare for the storm, while keeping their advisors in touch with clients remotely.

UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, will cut as many as 10,000 jobs companywide as the trading business shrinks, a person with knowledge of the plan said.

Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are among Wall Street firms planning to shift operations to other cities and have staff work from home as Hurricane Sandy’s arrival in New York forces evacuations.

Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network has added four practices. With these advisors its independent brokerage arm, FiNet, has over 1,100 owners and advisors in more than 540 practices, with over $55.5 billion in assets under management.

Two investment teams from Merrill Lyncch have joined RBC's Leadwood, Kan., office.

The firm hopes that Karein Heintz can help grow its presence in the twin cities.

Picked up in a renewed focus on recruiting, Mark Teed joins Raymond James in Massachusetts.

A three-decade industry vet, David Upin, joins as senior vice president in Minneapolis.

At Raymond James, costs from the Morgan Keegan integration caused profits to decline in the fourth quarter.

Although profits fell firm-wide, Ameriprise Financial’s Advice and Wealth Management segment posted a number of improvements across the board in the third quarter.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s decision to provide some of former employee Greg Smith’s performance reviews to the media may scare staff at the firm about the privacy of their own reviews, Smith said.

Brown Advisory, a Baltimore-based independent investment management firm, hired Christopher Bartlett as a partner in its Baltimore office.

Morgan Keegan & Co., the brokerage firm acquired by Raymond James Financial Inc., was ordered by a federal appeals court to pay a group of 18 investors a $9.2 million arbitration award.

Almost one in two consumers (47%) say they keep the majority of their assets with banks, up from 44% in 2011. Self-directed firms and full-service brokers, in contrast, had only 28% and 15% of the market, respectively.

The hybrid RIA firm says it chose LPL after a 'Bachelor'-style bakeoff.

Orion’s accounting and performance review software provides SWS advisors with performance dashboard.