Practice management

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.

The Port Jefferson, NY team previously had $1.8 million in annual production and $277 million in assets under management.

FINRA ordered Santander Securities of Puerto Rico to pay $2 million in fines and review its procedures that resulted in customer losses.

A new study published by Aite Group found that financial advisors can better leverage customer relationship management systems.

Washington Wealth Management, a Middleburg, Va., based registered investment advisory firm, announced it hired Jordan Ball as a regional vice president for its newly opened Richmond, Va., office.

There’s no doubt that starting an advisory business can be harrowing, but finding good people to eventually take over your business may be even harder, says John Brackett, a regional director with Financial Network Investment Corp.

And 50% of workers are not sure they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, EBRI survey funds.

UBS will pay up $2.5 million in fines and $8.25 million in restitution for allegedly botched sales of Lehman Brothers principal protection notes.

Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter? You’ll need a different writing style to succeed online.

T. Rowe Price suggests many boomers planning early retirement would be better off working through their 60s and saving less.

An Oregon CPA has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering with his business, misusing over $44 million of customer funds and causing 91 of his customers to lose $13.7 million.