Mutual funds

Wedbush has expanded its operations in Southern California with the addition of a former Morgan Stanley advisor to its Newport Beach, Calif., office.

Bloomberg -- UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, agreed to pay $120 million to settle claims by investors in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. securities in a lawsuit tied to the investment bank’s 2008 collapse.

Many wealthy business owners are increasingly confident about their finances despite the slow economic recovery. According to the latest survey from Northern Trust, half of high-net-worth business owners are feeling better off in their personal financial situation than five years ago. The number that are confident they will achieve their personal financial goals reaches 69%.

The Federal Reserve governor leading the central bank’s effort to tighten financial regulation has a decision to make as its governing board is reshaped: Should he stay or should he go?

ING U.S. Investment Management has appointed Bas NieuweWeme as Managing Director and Head of Institutional Distribution. NieuweWeme, will oversee the institutional business, setting strategic direction across U.S. and international sales, consultant relations, RFPs, client service and relationship management. He will report to Shaun Mathews, Executive Vice President and Head of the Client Group.

Fund sponsors have long debated the relative merits of building, buying or outsourcing fund administration technology. As sponsors face more and more data-driven demands from regulators and investors, there is increased pressure to adopt new efficient technologies for fund administration process such as expense payments and budgeting, regulatory reporting and financial reporting.

Morgan Stanley and Co. has agreed to pay $100,000 to the New Jersey Bureau of Securities. This came after Bureau investigators found the company was in violation of state securities laws and regulations in its sale of non-traditional exchange-traded funds to investors.

Schwab is shaking up its ETF lineup. The company announced Thursday that on Aug. 15, Schwab Investment Management would be launching six new ETFs, weighted by fundamental factors instead of traditional market capitalization.

While the use of ETFs continues to surge, their low expense ratios appear to be most prized by multi-millionaires. Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based consulting and research firm, just reported that 28% of investors own ETFs, but 47% of UHNW investors hold them. Those ultra-affluent investors, according to Spectrem, are worth $5 million to $25 million, not counting their main home.

Private Advisor Group, the largest branch of LPL Financial, has hired Abby Salameh as part of the unit’s senior executive team as it expands its advisory services.

Finding ways to reach shareholders with an appropriate message and choosing the medium to do so consumes the resources of many a fund company. Firms need to communicate bad news to shareholders in a gentle manner, trumpet the good news and economize the delivery of mandated disclosure information.

First came the big airline mergers. Now two Dallas RIAs that focus on airline pilots have combined as well.

State Street Corporation named Roger M. Stein chief analytics officer for State Street Global Exchange.

Bank of America Corp.’s traders fought off efforts by the firm in 2007 to include risky Alt-A mortgages in a securitization. That wasn’t enough to spare investors from being cheated, according to th

Views are mixed on the impact of the recent Securities and Exchange Commission decision to lift the general solicitation ban on private securities offerings.

Research conducted by ING U.S. underscores the growing role that retirement income planning continues to play in the readiness levels of working Americans. The study, Retirement Income Redefined, highlights some potential discrepancies in retirement planning ideologies and practices, and reinforces how retirement is being fundamentally redefined.

Edward Jones’s James Weddle and Robert Keenan of St. Bernard Financial Services Inc. were elected to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Board of Governors at its annual meeting.

Northern Lights Distributors, announced the upcoming launch of an educational series to provide advisors with information detailing each step of the mutual fund distribution process.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is losing senior officials faster than it can replace them, raising concerns that the agency may struggle to maintain the aggressive pace set during its nearly two years of existence.

Flexible Plan Investments recently partnered (as sub-advisor) with Advisor Preferred to launch The Gold Bullion Strategy Fund (QGLDX), the industry's first gold bullion fund offered to retail investors through a mutual fund product, which began trading at $25 per share on July 8.