Practice management

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said that the former controller of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities pled guilty to four counts of falsifying records.

A jury for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled in favor of an SEC lawsuit against a former Prudential Securities registered rep for market timing mutual funds between 2001 and 2003.

When Bank of America Merrill Lynch financial advisor Jay Fields had to do a couple of swaps on Monday morning from one security to another, he said the process was seamless thanks to a new portfolio management and trading platform.

Of all the social media sites that Aite Group followed in its study, only the use of LinkedIn grew between 2009 and 2011.

For once, it’s the whippersnappers who are behaving more wisely. At least when it comes to saving, Generation X and Generation Y workers are more diligent than their peers.

The time for watching and waiting is over. Twitter is a cultural phenomenon and more and more financial advisors are setting up Twitter profiles and testing the waters to connect with existing clients, promote their services to potential new clients and share industry news and insight with their peers. Here's what you need to know.

TJ Gilsenan, the Web Savvy Advisor, says it's time for advisors (if they haven't already) to start tweeting. Here are some tips to help you and your firm start taking advantage of this powerful social media tool.

Most couples disagree on a lot of important points when it comes to retirement planning. That lack of agreement can translate into lost financial planning business, making it important for advisors to get couples to work together, according to Fidelity Investments.

A new rule proposed by FINRA to help carrying and clearing firms transfer customer accounts if they go bust will be too cumbersome and costly to follow.

Market volatility is pushing fund managers to look for robust investment risk management systems, says a report from financial consultancy Celent.

Even in the digital age, nothing beats the “see the people” approach. This week, marketing expert Marie Swift shares two advisor success stories and how they are automating the referral process and supplementing their in-person communications with new media.

This may feel like the time to be generous, but registered broker-dealers should be extra cautious when giving gifts. Here are 13 ways that registered broker-dealers can run afoul of the rules during the holiday season.

More than 80% of investment advisors would prefer to pay user fees to fund greater SEC oversight than to be overseen by a self-regulatory organization, a major new study found.

Before the Department of Labor rewrites its proposal to redefine fiduciary responsibility — a new proposal is expected in the first half of 2012 — there are three changes SIFMA would like to see in the rulemaking process.

FINRA also orders the firm to make restitution for not providing breakpoints on unit investment trust sales and for unsuitable sales of reverse convertibles to older customers.

The 11th quarterly Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll found that near-retiree Baby Boomers have pushed back initial plans to retire from an average of age 60 to 66. Additionally, 68% of Baby Boomers expect to work in some form after retirement, the survey of 1,200 Americans found.

Joe Russo has been elected chair of the Financial Services Institute’s 2012 Board. Russo, founder of Advantage Financial Group, is the first financial advisor to chair the board.

The FBI said it had 2,500 active corporate and securities fraud investigations under way at the end of its 2011 fiscal year.

Despite the historic equity market decline of 2008-2009, most 401(k) participants earned positive investment returns in the five-year period ended 2010, according to Vanguard. In fact, the average return was 3.76% a year, not including the impact of continued contributions.

Americans of all political leanings are showing signs of increased anxiety about having enough money to make ends meet during retirement, a recent survey commissioned by the Americans for Secure Retirement found.