Practice management

The SEC has ordered broker-dealer FTN Financial Securities to pay nearly $2 million for allowing a registered investment advisor, Sentinel Management, to defraud its clients through a reverse repurchase transaction.

Russell Investments has launched an iPad-friendly version of its Helping Advisors website.

Financial professionals, 86% of whom have at least one social media account, risk running afoul of compliance rules as regulatory bodies sort out the rules for advisors’ use of these new channels. That was the message from social medial expert Alexandra Basak Russell, at the Women Advisors Forum in Huntington Beach, Calif.

A recent survey of 1,000 mass affluent investors uncovered a statistic that startled researchers: 75% of men said they wanted their spouse or partner to take more a more responsible role with their joint money.

A lot more mass affluent investors know what a CFP is than was the case just a few months ago. That’s what an early study of the CFP Board’s 4-year, $40 million advertising and brand awareness campaign shows, the board reported in a media briefing this week.

When FINRA at the outset of 2010 issued its first set of guidelines on how to use social media (Notice 10-06), lots of questions ensued. Here's an interactive slideshow detailing what advisors, broker-dealers and financial services firms need to know to navigate FINRA's social media guidelines.

Tweets have now been turned into formatted streams of market data.

Leaders of the Financial Services Institute expressed cautious optimism about their efforts to dilute or derail an initiative under way at the Department of Labor to broaden the scope of the term "fiduciary," a top policy priority for the advocacy organization.

Living more frugally and paying off debt has paid off for one in five retirees -- but fewer are looking out to the future to estimate how long their assets will last in retirement.

Financial advisors are increasingly interested in hearing from asset managers’ marketing teams in a digital format, accessible via the Web, according to Kasina’s latest FA Vision report, created in conjunction with Horsesmouth.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management agreed to pay $3.3 million in a case involving billing for subadvisory services in Malaysia that the SEC said were not rendered.

Not only do Americans expect to work longer to save enough for retirement, they expect to work way longer. New research by Wells Fargo shows that the anticipated retirement age has now stretched as much as 15 years past age 65.

It’s perhaps the ultimate irony when a financial advisor files for bankruptcy. But the CFP Board finds it is happening more and more often. Of 103 disciplinary hearings the board held last year, an estimated 25% of planners involved had filed for bankruptcy. In 2011, that number jumped to about a third.

Fidelity has rolled out the next-generation of its Fidelity Investments for iPad app, available for free at the App Store or by updating an existing Fidelity iPad app.

Banks may be on shaky ground, but 43% of Americans see them as a trusted source for retirement advice, according to a survey by Hearts & Wallets. This is an increase from 41% a year ago.

Investors and financial executives are increasingly feeling overloaded by the volume and complexity of financial disclosure information in annual reports and other financial filings, according to a new study.

UBS Financial Services Inc. was fined $300,000 by FINRA for failing to supervise and prevent excessive cross-trading of municipal securities between the customer accounts of one broker for a two-year period.

Bank of New York Mellon said it would cut $650 million in costs over the next three years and be prepared to settle disputes involving its fees for foreign exchange transactions.

More than a third of high-net-worth individuals don't have confidence in their beneficiaries to handle their inheritance responsibly, according to a new study by Barclays Wealth.

The Chase unit recommended risky investments to unsophisticated investors with little or no risk tolerance, FINRA said.