Practice management

Unforeseen, costly emergencies and expenses are a given in every life. Eleanor Blayney, CFB Board's consumer advocate said: "It's just as important to protect our finances – or indeed anything we value – from loss, as it is to grow our wealth."

Barclays has added a quartet of investment reps from Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney to bolster its wealth and investment management group in New York.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has passed along a request to the Financial Accounting Standards Board that it consider making changes in how to account for derivatives contracts designated as hedging instruments.

The tool will help advisors partner with other advisors within the LPL Financial network.

Forty-eight percent of respondents reported plans to increase their allocation to commodities in 2012, and 45% of respondents to real estate.

Online marketing can automate sales activities and help make prospects into clients.

The presumptive Republican nominee has given almost no details about his plan to replace the Dodd-Frank Act.

If you think social media investing is about pajama-wearing day-trading amateurs, Covestor aims to prove you wrong.

Financial firms can ‘outsource’ almost any operation, from reporting to trade processing to customer support, to the computing cloud, anywhere in the world.

Mutual fund operators are beginning to use cloud services offered by NYSE Euronext, in its 10-month old launch of a platform for worldwide use of computing resources by financial firms.

Women advisors need to stop excluding themselves from male-dominated events if they want to continue rising through the ranks, advisors said at the NAPFA National conference in Chicago.

Tom Nally, TD Ameritrade Institutional’s new president said during a keynote address at NAPFA, that when it comes to appealing to women investors, advisors can't "just think you can change your font to pink and you have it covered."

Chairman Mary L. Schapiro said Friday that the SEC is in the midst of “honest open debate” on additional reform for the $2.6 trillion money market mutual fund industry. But she did not commit the SEC to proposing their net asset values be allowed to float, as a means of preventing a future run.

FINRA is substantially underestimating the costs to set up a self-regulatory organization for investment advisors, according to a review by an outside consulting firm. In response, FINRA says the review should be viewed with “skepticism and amusement.”

For years, advisors have waffled their way into utilizing social media, but most are failing.

Marc Cox, a reporter/anchor in St. Louis, will leave the station in May to become a financial advisor with Edward Jones there. Cox said he hopes to be licensed, trained and “ready to go” by late August.

A recent survey by TD Ameritrade uncovers how much financial trouble a fiancé will tolerate before calling off the wedding.

Brokerage firm Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. is expanding its virtual presence as it continues to hire new financial advisors, adding a new Twitter presence, corporate blog and YouTube channel.

FINRA has hired Robert Colby as its chief legal officer, replacing the broker regulating body's general counsel, Grant Callery, and its general counsel for regulation, Marc Menchel.

At the NAPFA National conference, a panel of advisors of varying ages, discussed how they have succeeded with the tricky task of planning and executing a succession.