Practice management

Bank of the West has hired senior marketing executive Brian Katz to head up the Wealth Management Group’s newly created Banking and Sales Strategy unit.

Cloud computing, software-as-a-service and Big Data cited by Fidelity’s technology portfolio managers as the high-tech trends to watch.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch said it will market a broker-neutral trading platform named Thunder, to institutional customers in Asia.

In nearly 90% of high-net-worth households, women are either the sole decision maker or equal partners in decisions on charitable giving, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey in conjunction with The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Fidelity Investments has added an automated, end-to-end, web-based validation and notification service to its corporate actions service, ActionsXchange.

Marketing expert Marie Swift says financial advisors who publish articles and engage with the press increase their credibility and give clients and potential clients something to talk about.

The SEC's market structure crimes unit is hiring a group of non-lawyer trading specialists to aid in its investigations.

Lobbying over the contentious issue of regulatory oversight of investment advisors will likely continue deep into the next session of Congress, with some advocacy groups working to scuttle the measure altogether in an election-shortened legislative calendar.

New cost basis reporting rules are particularly challenging. Here's how to turn them into an opportunity for your practice.

Financial data, analytics and disclosure management services provider Edgar Online has launched I-Metrix Enterprise, the latest version of its I-Metrix professional risk analysis technology.

Financial advisors looking to save costs, improve productivity and meet compliance standards recognize the importance of an effective document management application that goes above beyond Adobe Acrobat – but thus far the options remain fairly limited.

Whether you're a sophisticated early adopter or a newbie to all the latest technology available to you and your firm, these stories should bring you up to speed about everything any financial advisor or firm needs to know about information technology to improve productivity and increase assets under management.

Walmart, the world’s largest private employer, and Merrill Lynch, without admitting to wrongdoing, have agreed to pay $13.5 million in a class-action lawsuit accusing them of breaching their fiduciary duty to 2 million past and present Walmart workers. The suit was settled in Kansas City federal court.

The Principal has launched the Dreamcatcher mobile application for iPhones, a companion to the Dreamcatcher web tool. This is part of Principal’s “Dream Again with The Principal” financial educational campaign aimed at helping people envision their financial goals and putting them into clear focus.

SIFMA spent $3.96 million on lobbying during the first three quarters of 2011, slightly outpacing its efforts for the same periods in 2008 and 2009, according to reports filed with the clerk of the U.S. House that contain information for both houses of Congress.

National Financial, Fidelity Investment’s clearing and custody company, announced a new myStreetscape portal for investors working with brokers who use the Streetscape platform.

Mutual funds have a new competitor in the defined contribution market: collective investment trusts. These investments have been around for years but are now increasingly grabbing the attention of investors in defined contribution retirement plans.

TD Ameritrade this week will roll out an upgrade of its open architecture platform’s integration with cloud-based electronic signature system DocuSign, as it streamlines DocuSign’s pairing with financial form-filling software Laser App.

BATS Europe said it has resolved the “hardware issue” that shut off all trading on Tuesday.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management has appointed financial services veteran Ron Bruder managing director of a growing team of advisors to ultra high-net-worth families and family offices.