Practice management

BigFoot Investments has launched a cloud-based investment strategy software portfolio that streamlines trading, data delivery and client correspondence for RIAs and registered reps via their PCs, tablets and smartphones.

EDGAR Online said it will start delivering data on over-the-counter stocks that do not report their financial results to the SEC.

ConvergEx Group said it introduced an algorithm that lets portfolio managers take advantage of dark pools.

This week is National Save for Retirement Week, and a variety of financial planning groups are promoting that fact to attract clients.

Interactive Data Corp and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are trying to shed some light on market activity related to U.S. structured securities for the first time ever.

Cisco Systems said it has commercially introduced a switch that can route trading messages through its circuitry and back out onto a wire in under one microsecond.

FINRA this week issued an investor alert urging the roughly 30% of American workers who are not contributing enough to their 401(k) plans to receive a full employer match to step up their contributions in order to meet their eventual retirement needs.

Vanguard said the small 401(k) plan service that it introduced last month for plans of up to $20 million in assets under management has been receiving a great deal of interest, particularly the platform’s concentration on low-cost index and target-date funds, and its “all-in” plan fees that include investment, recordkeeping and administration costs.

Great-West Retirement Services has launched a marketing campaign this week to participate in the National Save for Retirement Week. Dubbed “Celebrate Saving,” the campaign centers around e-mails, fliers, posters and a banner on its participant website that links to a “Celebrate Saving” microsite.

MFS Investment Management has launched an additional 401(k) module for financial advisors called “Building a Standout Approach.” The module helps advisors decide which content to present and how to organize and structure it to various industries and audiences.

Congress is currently considering a bill that would permit 401(k) investors in danger of losing their primary home to foreclosure to use up to $50,000 or 50% of the balance, whichever is less, to prevent that from happening.

EDGAR Online Inc., a global provider of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) software, services and data, reports that it experienced a 280% year-over-year increase in XBRL filings in the third quarter.

Sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference. If you’re like most financial advisors, you are ultra-busy serving your clients and generating new business. But have you handled the marketing fundamentals? Columnist and marketing expert Marie Swift delves into two marketing fundamentals that should not be ignored: the power bio and the prospect profile. Ignore them and suffer the consequences.

For the second time in two years, the watchdog for broker-dealers is warning traders they are obligated to send clients accurate indications of interest.

Even with proposed regulation to the financial advisory industry still pending, several industry members at this week's Women Advisors Forum conference were certain about two things: the SEC should have expanded oversight and the industry will bear more costs.

Man Investments has launched the Man Long Short Fund, an equity hedge fund-of-fund that will invest in up to 30 portfolios and offer monthly liquidity.

John Hancock Financial Network has launched a turnkey retirement income program for financial advisors that includes a web-based product allocation analysis tool, multi-media educational and sales materials and dedicated support.

The “smoking guns” were dropped in a Chicago river. Only the “guns” were not guns. They were hard drives. And the suspect is not a gangster, a la Al Capone. Instead, it is a programmer and former employee of Citadel, the computer-driven hedge fund in the Windy City.

Direct Edge has been sanctioned for weak internal controls that led to millions of dollars in trading losses and a systems outage.

Although Edward Jones recommends that retirees start with a plan to withdraw 4% of their retirement savings each year, Americans have a widely varying idea of how much they will need, the investment firm found in a survey of 1,011 people.