Financial planning

Assets in defined contribution plans flowed to target-date and international equity funds in 2012, according to a new tracking tool launched by the Defined Contribution Solutions group at Northern Trust.

To evolve and succeed, advisors have to make the transition from practitioners to business owners. As a result we've seen larger firms arising as advisors attempt to add scalability.

Tax-exempt money market funds' inflows slowed to $819.6 million in the week ended June 17 after a $3.13 billion surge the week before, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

To stay competitive in attracting the next generation of clients, advisors will need a strong digital presence. Social media is a big part of that, says UBS advisor Mitch Slater.

LPL Financial hired an ex-SEC official as its new general counsel as the firm continues to restructure its management team.

Seven financial advisors had their right to use the Certified Financial Planning certification marks permanently revoked in March as part of a series of public disciplinary actions announced by the CFP Board this week.

After seven years with another independent broker-dealer, an Omaha, Neb,. team has returned to Securities America.

A strong majority of advisors (86%) said they had acquired more clients than they lost in 2012, according to a new advisor survey from Russell Investments, with nearly a half saying they had brought on more than 10 households. And 87% said they were "optimistic" about acquiring new clients in 2013.

Investors pulled $13.34 billion from mutual funds for the week ended Wednesday, June 12, according to data from the Investment Company Institute.

The House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday approved a slew of bills that would slow the pace of regulatory proceedings to expand advisors' fiduciary responsibilities and relax registration requirements, among other measures.

A targeted examination letter probes firms for detailed information on their social media use as the regulator grows more serious about enforcement.

The mutual-fund industry, in what may be the last round of lobbying against tighter rules for money-market funds, rejected a scaled-back proposal to force only the riskiest funds to give up their stable $1 share price.

LPL Financial, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, has reached $50 billion in total RIA assets under custody, doubling its year-ago total.

The Securities and Exchange Commission would like to hear from advisors. That was the resounding message of a speech delivered Tuesday by Norm Champ, the director of the SEC's Division of Investment Management, the unit of the commission that oversees federally registered investment advisors.

When the Department of Labor produces its controversial proposal to extend fiduciary responsibilities to certain advisors to retirement plans later this year, the plan will come with a robust economic analysis making the case for new regulations, along with targeted exemptions to the rules, the senior official who is leading the effort said on Tuesday.

In May, stock and bond mutual funds, including exchange-traded funds attracted $56 billion of net inflows bringing total net intake for the first five months to about $350 billion, according to data from Strategic Insight.

For a majority of financial advisors, life insurance planning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

More than 60% of high-net-worth clients expressed a high degree of trust in both their wealth managers and their firms, according the World Wealth Report 2013, but a majority prefer to work with a single firm to “manage all of their financial needs."

You’ve set up a Twitter account and you know how to tweet, but how can you convert Twitter followers into prospects and then clients? Marie Swift, the Marketing Maven offers tips for Twitter power users.

As Congress looks to raise revenue by eliminating tax exemptions, could 529s, which cost the government nearly $2 billion a year in lost revenue, be on the chopping block?