Practice management

With JPMorgan rumored to be eyeing a minority stake in Twitter that would value the company at $4.5 billion, it’s time for advisors to start taking it seriously. Not surprisingly, like many other aspects of web-marketing and social media, how an advisor uses Twitter is different from most everyone else.

Four more members of Congress have sent letters to the SEC expressing concerns or raising questions about provisions in its proposed muni advisor registration rules that would treat state and local appointed board members as muni advisers who would be subject to registration and regulation.

The recession rocked women’s confidence in their investment decisions, according to a survey released Thursday by MassMutual.

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against a former financial advisor at UBS Financial Services whom the Securities and Exchange Commission charged with siphoning $3.3 million from investors to pay for luxury cars, prostitutes and gambling debts.

The search function lets advisors root out detailed profiles of existing clients, prospects or professional connections using a wide array of variables.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a hedge fund manager with diverting investment proceeds of over $12 million into other funds, which he then used to fund a real estate venture and a San Francisco record company.

Philip Hill has joined First Republic Private Wealth Management in San Francisco as a portfolio manager and managing director.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday unanimously agreed to propose amendments to its Rule 2a-7 that would remove all credit rating references from the rule, which requires money market funds to invest in high-quality and very liquid short-term securities.

An “onerous regulatory environment” and funding volatility have been the reasons why many private sector companies have shied away from providing pensions to their employees, new research states.

Even if the Dodd-Frank financial reform law is implemented flawlessly, two men in a position to know say it won't be enough to stop another financial crisis.

Industry veterans, Brent Norman and Erik Lawrence, formerly with UBS, will work with John Noble, a managing director of Paulson Wealth Advisors, in the expansion of Paulson’s investment advisory firm throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Middle class Americans who work with planners trust their own planner despite deep distrust of the financial services industry

Financial services firms are being specifically targeted in Web attacks by "criminal elements," according to Edward Powers, a principal at Deloitte & Touche. Those attackers “know what assets they’re going after and they’re going after you in a very orchestrated way,’’ he said at a meeting of the Wall Street Technology Association.

Women are not only becoming more responsible for the finances in their own homes, but they are passing on their knowledge to their own parents.

Anyone looking for the Treasury Secretary to endorse a specific approach to the future of the GSEs was surely disappointed by his testimony Tuesday, yet much could still be gleaned.

When the call comes from compliance that your branch examination is imminent, some advisors decide it’s time to take a vacation while others take the vapors. But branch exams should not be stressful or painful – if you follow these basic steps and integrate them into your practice.

A pair of prominent financial news agencies are teaming up with public relations and marketing firm Cognito to host a pair of soup-to-nuts events that will delve into what financial services professionals want and need to know about using social media in their practices.

Sam Pyle and Shauywn Smith joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney from Merrill Lynch.

Why not tap into your affinity with clients to create a powerful marketing message, and solidify your hold on that group?

Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust hired Paul C. Guidone to be its chief investment officer.