Practice management

Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. has opened of a new branch in the Portland, Ore., area staffed with a new team led by a former Wells Fargo financial advisor.

Younger members of ultra-wealthy households are grappling with their forebears for a say in wealth planning, and women are concerned about how money affects their relationships.

RBC Wealth Management has expanded its Illinois force with the hiring of a mother-daughter financial advisor team from Merrill Lynch and another female financial advisor from Wells Fargo.

Banks and credit unions looking to increase revenue from investment programs should hire more advisors, according to PrimeVest’s latest research. But existing advisors won’t welcome such a move.

Jeff Wolk, together with registered sales assistant Lillian Marini, has formed the Wolk Group of Raymond James.

The company said that the new hires bring the firm’s public finance team to 16, up from 12 individuals at the end of last year.

Planners want to use social media, but many remain overwhelmed about where to start and how to succeed. Industry coach Matthew Halloran offers some simple solutions.

Syntal formally opened on May 4, and includes Chad Clary and Dane Crunk, who had been employed in Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group since 2006. Also joining Syntal with the team from Merrill Lynch are Barry Brauchi, Cressinda Hyatt, Clarissa Kuzmich and Raquel Padilla.

But despite their understandable fear that rising health care costs will erode their retirement savings, more than a third of high-net-worth folks haven’t bothered discussed their well-founded concerns with a financial advisor.

Marketing expert Marie Swift says social media sites are one of the best places to build and maintain strong relationships with clients and prospective clients. Here are some tips and advice from the recent Women Advisors Forum in New York to build your brand online.

The new platform, introduced by Beverly Hills Wealth Management, enables RIAs and advisors to streamline access and usage of cloud-based service applications and IT security

Fifty-one percent of retirees, but only 25%, of today’s workers, are confident about having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, according to a BlackRock study.

Large retirement plan providers tried to offer California’s teachers and other education workers simpler plan options, but the Financial Services Institute said it should not come at the expense of access to quality personalized investment advice.

Two groups representing mutual fund independent directors and trustees are joining together to voice their concerns about the changes to money market funds currently being considered by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wunderlich Securities has announced the hiring of four more professionals from Morgan Keegan: three in its Equity Capital Markets division and one in the Private Client Group.

RIAs who use the combined service will be able to pull up daily client balance, holding and transactional data through ByAllAccounts, plus the reporting capabilities of Portfolio Pathway

More than five million high-net-worth investors are using social media sites to inform their financial decisions and nearly three in four use LinkedIn for investment research.

The La Vista, Neb., based independent broker-dealer announced Thursday that Bruce Lear will be a senior vice president for Black Oak Investment Counsel in Kearney, Neb.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Montgomery, Ala., said a federal district judge in Atlanta erred in finding that the alleged misrepresentations made by Morgan Keegan brokers about the debt were not material. It sent the case back to the district court for more proceedings.

Proving that the competition is still strong for financial advisors from rival wirehouses, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has snapped up two wealth advisory teams and one more for its Graystone Consulting institutional business.