Practice management

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a San Francisco-area investment advisor with fraud for allegedly lying to clients about how brokerage commission rebates were being used and then providing phony documents to cover up the so-called “soft-dollars” scam during an SEC examination.

Merrill Lynch said it rolled out an enhanced set of algorithmic trading tools that allow market participants to tune settings on strategies down to each order that is to be executed.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services has reorganized into four industry-focused service teams serving: Taft-Hartley, technology, finance and professional services, and manufacturing, materials and retail. Each of these teams will have its own relationship managers, communications consultants, investment specialists and ERISA consultants.

The twin needs for organic growth and expense reduction are driving insurance technology investment, new research from IVANS, Inc. indicates.

Now that the Department of Labor is back at the drawing board trying to determine what should constitute a fiduciary under 1975 ERISA amendments, the industry wants to make at least one point clear: investors should have good choices, regardless of the business model their advisors use.

The advocacy organization representing independent broker-dealers and independent financial advisors will press its policy priorities to lawmakers on Capitol Hill as part of a two-day summit in the nation's capital.

Advisor Software, a provider of wealth management applications for financial advisors, announced that its goalGetter financial planning application for the iPad is now available for free download from Apple’s App Store.

Wall Street firms shouldn't think about complying with the Internal Revenue Service's new rules requiring them to calculate the cost of investors' accounts only as a burdensome operational cost. Instead, they should think of following the new cost-basis reporting rules as a potentially profitable means of retaining and attracing new clients, says a report just issued by research firm Celent.

Eighty-four percent of 401(k) sponsors surveyed by Mercer and the U.S. SIF Foundation (formerly known as the Social Investment Forum Foundation) believe that sustainable and socially responsible investing (SRI) funds will either hold steady or grow in the next five years.

Investors who relied on professional help in the form of target-date funds, managed accounts and advice earned nearly three percentage points more than those that did not, according to an analysis of eight large defined contribution plans between 2006 and 2010 by Aon Hewitt and Financial Engines. The plans covered 400,000 participants with $25 billion in assets.

The nation’s stock exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are filing proposals that will trigger halts in trading, market-wide, more quickly, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Managers of U.S mutual funds, separately managed accounts and other asset pools are pretty concerned about whether they calculate their risk exposure and performance results correctly and report correctly to regulators and clients.

Retirement Benefits Group on Monday announced that three retirement specialists from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s The Fraser Group have joined the San Diego-based retirement-focused branch of LPL Financial.

Professional marketers and smart advisors always tackle the “The 3 M’s” of marketing before they do any serious outreach. The 3 M’s are the foundational elements of all good marketing. However, according to marketing expert Marie Swift, it’s a very common error for many entrepreneurs and small business people to start with the wrong “M.” The problem with that is, it rarely, if ever works.

Financial Advisers of America on Monday announced that Honolulu-based CKW Financial Group has joined its family of investment advisors, bringing more than $900 million more in assets under management to the San Diego-based broker-dealer.

Investors reaching or in retirement are more likely to stay in the stock market if they’re invested in financial products that provide guaranteed income, an online survey of 1,000 Americans shows.

The Association of Divorce Financial Planners on Friday awarded its annual Pioneering Award to Dan Caine and Wendell Smith, the founders of Family Law Software Inc., for developing tools that help advisors work with couples going through a separation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the co-founder of institutional money manager AXA Rosenberg with securities fraud for concealing an error in the computer code that helped the company manage risk for its customers and itself.

Putnam Investments has unveiled a redesigned website that provides advisors with advanced portfolio modeling capabilities, practice-management resources and a social media component for sharing and surveying information on Twitter and Facebook.

Guggenheim Partners and Rydex/SGI announced that Guggenheim will acquire Rydex in the first quarter of 2012 and combine its asset management capabilities under the name Guggenheim Investments. Once the deal is closed, Guggenheim Investments will have $119 billion of assets under management. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.