Investments

As low interest rates and sluggish loan demand continue to make healthy profit streams from traditional deposit and lending activities harder to come by at financial institutions, investment programs are increasingly viewed as a critical channel for generating non-interest income.

Bank of America has launched a campaign around socially responsible investing that is designed to enhance products and services available to a growing segment of clients concerned with value-based investing.

Responding to increased client demand, the firm has launched new efforts to enhance its socially responsible investment options.

LPL wants its advisors to know that it has heard their complaints and is doing something about them.

Since 2008, investors have sought new investment strategies less affected by market downturns. At the same time, many hedge fund managers who survived the collapse with positive returns are looking to expand their offerings to the retail market. Adding budget cuts and new regulations to the mix creates a recipe for potential problems.

The majority of American workers accept responsibility for financing their own retirement and are relying primarily on their 401(k) to get them there, but many lack the confidence to effectively manage their retirement savings.

Raymond James has added to its Private Client Group (PCG) with a key senior management appointment.

When President Obama unveiled his budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, it represented a wish list.

The bank launched new proprietary ETF portfolios that it says provide exposure to global investment opportunities by leveraging the international perspective of its parent, BNP Paribas.

Despite the controversy and repeated delays, the IRS and the Treasury Department have been moving forward slowly with implementing FATCA, including the release of a draft version of Form 8966.

Investors are favoring U.S. stocks over emerging markets by the most ever as fund flows and volatility measures show institutions are increasingly seeking the relative safety of American equities.

BLOOMBERG -- The U.S. government urged General Motors Co. (GM) to improve pensions of some Delphi Automotive Plc (DLPH) union retirees while cutting those of salaried workers to help ensure a speedy emergence from a GM bankruptcy, the watchdog of the Troubled Asset Relief Program said.

Alternatives juggernaut Blackstone joined the likes of other fellow private investment firms The Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) last month as the asset management practice continues its revolutionary switch in business focus out of institutional coffers and into the retail investment space.

Advisors, keep your eyes open for a new product that’s designed to help clients make investment decisions themselves that align with their values.

Merrill Lynch & Co. may be dead, but long live Merrill Lynch. While Bank of America has announced plans to dissolve Merrill Lynch & Co. as soon as the fourth quarter of this year, but the roughly 14,000 advisors operating in its brokerage division shouldn't see a name change.

These are stressful times for the mutual fund industry. An obvious statement, but one authored by a colleague ten years ago. Even more interesting is that the trends cited then are the same concerns that we hear from clients today. So what has changed?

AllianceBernstein L.P and W.P. Stewart & Co., Ltd. announced yesterday that the two firms have entered into a definitive agreement under which AllianceBernstein, a global investment management firm with $444 billion in assets under management, will acquire W.P. Stewart, an equity investment manager that currently manages $2 billion in U.S., Global and EAFE concentrated growth equity strategies for institutional and retail clients, primarily in the U.S. and Europe.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined Oppenheimer and Co. $1,425,000 for the sale of unregistered penny stock shares and for failure to provide an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program, which would detect and report suspicious penny stock transactions.

Will LPL Financial be getting into the banking business? While the nation's largest independent broker-dealer says it has no “imminent” plans to own a bank, it now can if it wants to -- thanks to the announcement of a stock distribution by two of the firm’s original private-equity investors.

Clients who inherit an annuity may now have a few more options thanks to a recent private letter ruling from the IRS.