Practice management

Commission says FINRA is Congress’ best bet for policing advisors.

UBS plans to hold its branch managers and complex directors to stricter standards for individual measurements for their bonuses in the coming year.

A greater number of U.S. households are at risk of falling short of money in retirement because of the housing and financial crisis, according to a report by EBRI.

Four came from UBS, two from independent shop Ingalls & Snyder, one from Chase Investment Services.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. $500,000 for failing to establish and maintain written supervisory procedures to ensure that its representatives considered customers’ state income-tax benefits in their suitability analyses of 529 college saving plans.

Most regulations already cover financial planning activities, but designations need another look.

The raft of documents released Tuesday by the Financial Stability Oversight Council gave little sense of what the final regulations would look like for implementing the Volcker Rule, identifying systematically important nonbanks or dealing with other issues involved in Wall Street reform.

The SEC has fined BNY Mellon $24 million and has banned a former manager of institutional trading at Mellon Securities from associating with any broker dealer firm after carrying out what it called an “eight-year best execution fraud.”

Banks are still juggling how best to use social media to communicate to customers — especially when other systems go down.

Men and women have distinct approaches to financial management, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab.

With small-business credit still sluggish, policymakers and industry representatives spent much of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. forum Thursday debating whether government could find a solution, or was itself part of the problem.

But will a new self-regulator be the new reality?

The community really needs to know if you are (or are not) satisfied with the service you're receiving, and how it has (or has not) helped you focus on your direct client services.

A recent Fidelity Investments survey shows 60% of registered investment advisors are actively looking to acquire new advisors and now they can have help doing so with Fidelity’s newly expanded advisor recruiting and retention resources.

According to a study by SEI, advisors hope to spend more time this year on business growth.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board is scheduled to move ahead on new resolution powers and discuss executive compensation structures at a meeting Tuesday.

Helping business owners manage group retirement plans for their employees creates an income stream as well as a gateway to future business.

The Bank of America-owned private wealth management business has added five new advisors to its southeast and eastern divisions in its bid to serve ultra-high net worth clientele.

A group of House Financial Services Democrats are raising questions about whether taxpayers will be fully protected under the terms of a recent settlement over poorly underwritten loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Schwab will pay $118 million to settle the charges.