Financial planning

Payout is top-of-mind for most independent advisors. Which firms had the largest growth in payout? According to Financial Planning's analysis, here are the top 10 firms.

As financial planning becomes a more important element of advisors' practice, fee revenues are ticking up across the board. Click through to see which firms are capitalizing the most on this movement.

In 2012, 36% of all participants in Vanguard retirement plans invested their assets in a professionally managed investment option, more than double that did so in 2007.

ETF flows topped $17 billion in May with the large cap category leading the way taking in $5.4 billion in flows, according to State Street Global Advisors’ latest ETF Shapshot.

Financial Planning unveiled its annual list of the largest broker-dealers in June. Here are the top 10 by total revenues.

Which broker-dealers have the best fee-based mix? The results were surprising and highlight a different group of firms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has improved how it justifies new regulations after at least five recent court defeats faulted its use of economic analysis, according to an audit by the agency’s inspector general.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has paid $580,000 to settle claims by a former internal watchdog that he was fired in an effort to quash his investigations.

Shares of discount brokers are gaining the most since 2003 compared with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, a sign that small investors are joining the four-year bull market even after U.S. stocks suffered their biggest losses in six months.

For the second consecutive week, equity exchange-traded funds experienced net outflows, handing back some $2.8 billion, while conventional mutual fund took in $500 million.

Investors pulled more money from municipal bond mutual funds than they have all year as funds that report flows weekly recorded outflows of $1.47 billion for the week ending June 5.

Commonwealth Financial Network, the nation’s largest privately held independent broker-dealer, named Rich Hunter president and chief operating officer on Friday and also announced new affiliation models for its nearly 1,500 financial advisors.

SpringReef Partners, a consulting firm specializing in evaluating wealth mangers for high and ultrahigh net-worth clients, has been acquired by Aronson, an accounting and consulting firm based in Rockville, Md.

A slew of recent regulatory shifts is keeping examiners busy -- and advisors must know how to react when they get a call from FINRA or the SEC.

Payden & Rygel is looking to tap into the broker dealer channel with a new partnership.

Muni money funds continue to struggle to recoup the billions they lost this year — particulary around income tax season — and the arrival this week of $411 million is not much of a boost.

LPL hired Michelle Oroschakoff as chief risk officer and managing director.

U.S. bond funds suffered their second-worst withdrawals last week in more than two decades after speculation about an eventual end to the Federal Reserve’s bond purchases sent fixed-income markets lower.

Financial Planning unveiled its annual list of the largest independent broker-dealers in June. Here's a list of the top 5 networks.

Which top program managers are surging? Check out a list of the top program managers that saw their assets surge last year.