Practice management

Six days after the Securities and Exchange Commission holds a roundtable discussion regarding money market funds and systemic risk, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will host its own one-day money market fund summit.

Bankers are divided over a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan to train bank employees on insurance limits and require tellers to question depositors about their accounts.

In addition, 55% don’t know how much they will need to retire.

A House oversight committee hearing slated to examine state and municipal debt Thursday devolved into an extended debate about collective bargaining, featuring two sitting governors from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Small business owners first crippled by the economic downturn and then further encumbered by a tight lending environment in its aftermath are set to hire more workers, make more capital investments and are reducing their retirement savings targets this year as they set their sights on growth and expansion.

Some advisors are averse to even DISCUSSING the value of portfolio management, possibly believing that we all spend too much time talking as if financial planning and portfolio management are the same service--which they clearly are not.

FINRA fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million, ordered the investment bank to repay $425,000 in ill-gotten commissions and fees and suspended a pair of its brokers for failing to disclose additional compensation to institutional clients and other conflicts of interest related to shady sales of auction rate securities between August 2007 and March 2008.

Wealthy women want three things from their financial advisors: honesty, trustworthiness, and transparency, according to “Wealthy Women Investors,” a Spectrem eZine report released on Thursday.

The National Association for the Self-Employed advised small business owners who have put off doing their tax returns not to panic.

Small business owners reported an increase in hiring, but a decrease in optimism last month, according to a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.

Success of the Office of Financial Research is critical to curbing TBTF, and if it flops, the next set of solutions may be much harsher than living wills and orderly liquidation authority.

Whether it's a case of the comparatively small number of "haves" simply socking away a lot more money or a jump in smaller contributions by a larger group of middle class investors, Americans' total retirement investment assets surged to more than $17.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2010, up 9.1% for the year.

Wells had sought $36 million from Stifel Nicolaus for the case of improper recruiting.

It's not exactly cats and dogs living together, but a new white paper from Sanctuary Wealth Services surmises that independent advisors and wirehouse brokers could definitely learn a lot from each other when it comes to attracting and retaining clients and would do well to learn from each other's mistakes in the future.

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Citigroup Global Markets to pay $54 million in compensatory and punitive damages to investors in its municipal arbitrage trust funds.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission said they will hold a two-day roundtable at the start of May to help set dates for implementing final rules governing the establishment of new markets for trading credit default and other types of swaps of financial risks.

The Global Transaction Services unit of Citigroup Tuesday rolled out OTC Derivatives Service, which consolidates and streamlines the confirmation, settlement, valuation, collateral management, and margin management involved after a trade is executed. The system handles both middle- and back-office functions.

Independent financial advisers blasted the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board for its draft muni-adviser fiduciary duty rule, saying it targeted independent FAs while virtually exempting underwriters, some of which market themselves as advisers.

Following the extended failure wave and deficit in federal reserves, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sounded decidedly more hopeful Tuesday about its future.

Until the Investment Adviser Registration Depository is adapted to handle the influx of advisors converting to state registration, not much will get done.