Practice management

The SEC said a trader based in Latvia broke into online brokerage accounts of customers at large U.S. broker-dealers and manipulated prices in more than 100 New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market securities.

Financial planning, when it’s done right, requires a lot of different skill sets. So what exactly are firms looking for when it’s time to bring someone new aboard? Here's what the people who actually make the personnel decisions had to say.

Participants in defined contribution retirement plans want direction—and even prompts—from their employers when it comes to saving for retirement. That’s one of the findings from a survey by State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corp.

Financial planning, when it’s done right, requires a lot of different skill sets. So what exactly are firms looking for when it’s time to bring someone new aboard? Rather than rely on some think tank or consulting firm, Financial Planning queried principals at more than 50 advisory firms to find out from the people who actually make the personnel decisions what qualities they value the most. Turns out, many of these attributes aren’t found on candidates’ resumes. Here’s an interactive slide show featuring the Top 10 traits advisory firms want to see from a prospective new hire.

A study by Ameriprise Financial and Harris Interactive found that men outpace women in planning for the financial aspects of retirement at a ratio of 77% to 72%. However, women are more likely to say they have thought about what they would like to do during retirement.

The vast majority of U.S. households — regardless of demographic and financial characteristics — overwhelmingly support preserving the nation’s current tax incentives to encourage retirement savings.

Merrill Lynch agreed to pay a $1 million fine for failing to arbitrate disputes with employees about retention bonuses related to its 2009 merger with Bank of America Corp., the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said.

State Street Corporation said its exchange-traded fund service, Total ETF, will use cloud-based technology to fully automate the development and management of a fund from basket creation through to trade processing and settlement.

The wealth management industry is adjusting to clients who increasingly expect that they should have anytime, anywhere access to their account information via mobile applications, according to a new study.

Reports focused on Gen X and multi-age workers reveal varied confidence levels when it comes to planning a retirement strategy.

Electronic alpha capture is poised to become a major workflow tool for every portfolio manager and broker-dealer to help prioritize insights gleaned from incoming data and options, a new report from Tabb Group indicates.

Former Major League Baseball player Douglas Mirabelli and his wife, Kristin Mirabelli, hit a home run in an arbitration dispute with Merrill Lynch this week when a FINRA panel ordered the firm to pay the couple more than $1.2 million.

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Citigroup to pay $24 million to a team of financial advisors formerly employed by the firm.

Amid record attendance and formidable growth in its membership ranks, the leaders of the Financial Services Institute insisted that ensuring the organization’s potency as lawmakers define a fiduciary standard for the industry is chief among their strategies and challenges for the coming year.

As an advisor, your ability to engage in clients’ goal-setting conversations may well prove the difference between them staying with you or going elsewhere.

Savvis has added low-latency connections to an “open access’’ exchange for interest-rate swap futures.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management has added company veteran Gregory Simpson to its growing team of advisors to ultra high-net-worth families and family offices.

Succession planning is preoccupying many independent advisor firms. But what are some concrete steps owners can take to make sure their firms continue to thrive far into the future? Financial Planning talked to Dave Grant, CFP, a financial planning analyst with Vantage Financial Partners Limited about how RIA firms can create a working environment that will attract — and keep — younger hires.

To not only survive, but thrive in 2012 and beyond, planners need to do two tricky things exceptionally well simultaneously: reduce expenses and increase their technology and mobile capabilities to engage younger, tech savvy clients.

Marketing expert Marie Swift says some advisors are realizing success using today’s interactive, real-time web to amplify their voice and position themselves not just as thought leaders but as social creatures on a mission to educate the public on all things financial.