Practice management

Total HSA accounts rose by 22% last year, to more than 8.2 million, while assets picked up by 27%, to $15.5 billion.

Target maturity funds picked up more than $13 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the industry’s total assets to some $485 billion, a 29% increase from a year ago, according to data from Ibbotson.

FINRA appears to be pulling back from its campaign to regulate RIAs -- and advisors couldn’t be happier.

“Firms have to commit to planning," says Mike Durbin, president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. "The firms on a path to high performance are on a fast course to planning.”

Some pent up demand could make 2013 a more robust year for recruitment.

Fidelity will team up with Extend Health, a Towers Watson company, to help retiring corporate employees choose Medicare coverage.

A growing number of the nation’s wealthiest individuals are seeking advice on moving their funds and themselves not only across state lines but across national borders as fears grow over the direction of U.S. tax policy.

When it comes to understanding white collar criminals, Walter A. Pavlo, Jr. wants financial services professionals to know one thing: they look a lot like them.

Are advisors getting it wrong on recruiting and hiring? A new report out from Pershing finds a gap between what advisors say they ought to be doing and what they're actually getting right.

Can target date mutual funds continue their rapid ascent? Folio hopes so.

BlackRock the world’s biggest money manager, is accused in a lawsuit by two pension funds of reaping “grossly excessive” compensation from securities- lending returns associated with iShares.

In 2010, pre-retirees had $6.1 trillion in investable retirement assets. Retirees had $5.9 trillion. By 2020, that’s expected to swell to $10.2 trillion and $11.4 trillion, respectively, according to LIMRA.

Luke Palacio will join Citi Private Bank as managing director and regional market manager for the South East region on March 18. He will look to expand the firm’s presence throughout South Florida beyond Miami, Boca Raton and Palm Beach.

The Naples office of The Private Client Reserve is expanding its services, adding new advisors and relocating to a larger office space in the upscale neighborhood of Mercato.

How can advisors be more productive and take more time off? According to Jimmy Williams of Regier, Carr & Monroe in McAlester, OK and Randy Thurman of Investment Advisors Inc., by focusing on a dozen simple steps, the big picture becomes simpler.

Nearly half (47%) of adult children say their parents never made any financial mistakes. Meanwhile, their parents were quick to point out their children’s financial missteps.

Demographic shifts, technology implementation and investing challenges were in the spotlight this week in San Diego, where about 3,000 advisors and other industry professionals came together for TD Ameritrade Institutional’s annual conference. Between the presentations, meetings and hallway conversations, Financial Planning heard lots of smart takeaways for advisors.

Tired of running his financial planning firm in Michigan, Jason Wenk made a radical change to his planning practice a couple of years ago. He sold a portion of it, moved his family and his company to Laguna Beach, Calif., and began to grow a practice entirely through blogging.

Social networking has become so common and broad-based in its use that banks have no choice but to incorporate social networking into their marketing efforts. Here are five ways they can do that.

Thomas Foss read Ron Carson’s rebuttal to his position on generating referrals with great enthusiasm, but was disappointed by the response.