Practice management

After a marathon final day of debate, the regulatory reform process ended in the early hours of Friday in the same dramatic manner it had been conducted for more than a year: with a near breakdown followed eventually by a miraculous save.

A lack of investor confidence in the market has triggered advisors to work feverishly to strenghten client retention techniques over acquiring new customers.

The regional continued its hiring spree with the addition of Jarrett Kovics as senior vice president and branch manager of its Dallas office.

The demand for passion investments among high-net-worth investors are expected to increase this year, according to Merrill’s World Wealth Report

House and Senate conferees are expected Thursday to add language to the final regulatory reform bill that would strengthen a provision to ban proprietary trading and restrict investment in private-equity firms and hedge funds.

House and Senate conferees were set Tuesday to deal national banks a setback, agreeing on final language that would make it harder for federal regulators to preempt state consumer protection laws.

Investor behavior has changed dramatically in light of market rebounds and signs of recovery, according to the 14th annual World Wealth Report released today by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in conjunction with Capgemini.

Despite the fact the world's gross domestic product shrank last year, high-net-worth individuals managed to almost make up for 2008 losses, according to the Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini 14th annual World Wealth Report.

FINRA has struck an agreement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to enhance the work efforts between the two regulators.

Already armed with Pershing for standard clearing, the new unit is designed to clear futures and derivatives trades.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a review of a failed investment by five southeastern Wisconsin school districts in collateralized debt obligations that were intended to establish trusts to pay the districts’ non-pension retiree health care benefits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday it charged ICP Asset Management LLC and its founder and president, Thomas Priore, with defrauding investors four multi-billion-dollar collateralized debt obligations

House conferees reached an accord with Sen. Richard Durbin on a provision of the regulatory reform bill that would allow the Fed to regulate interchange fees on debit cards.

Now that custodians like Schwab Advisor Services will have to report the same information directly to the Internal Revenue Service, Schwab is taking steps to ensure that they and their advisor clients move in lock step with each other to avoid running afoul of the IRS’s new rules.

The Senate is considering a set of exemptions to the Volcker Rule that would allow the asset management divisions of banks to continue business as usual when it comes to investing client money in hedge funds and private equity.

The hiring mill keeps grinding at the wirehouses, as MSSB adds two teams of advisors with combined client assets of more than $1 billion.

Wealthy individuals now hold more of their assets in IRAs than employer-based plans.

The conference committee made critical changes to the regulatory reform bill in its first substantive week of work, but the hardest decisions are still ahead.

Wirehouses and regionals nab financial advisors and veteran executives.

Currently in its pilot phase, the new software could be available to all of its advisors in August.