Wirehouses

Morgan Stanley reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates as pretax earnings from its retail brokerage, the world’s largest, rose to a record.

Bank of America’s wealth management division achieved record post-merger revenue, net income and AUM inflows.

“The success of the wealth-management business is fundamental to where the stock goes over the next five years,” said Christopher Wheeler, a London-based analyst with Mediobanca SpA, who has a neutral recommendation on UBS shares. “It’s the core business, and a number of other businesses feed off it, not the least asset management.”

FINRA fined Merrill $1.05 million and ordered the firm to pay more than $323,000 in restitution for over 12,000 trades executed on its ML BondMarket platform.

Goldman Sachs reported earnings that topped analysts’ estimates on a 63% gain in revenue from underwriting stocks and bonds.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. set aside $4.34 billion to pay employees in the first quarter, about 1 percent less than a year earlier, as the firm employed 400 fewer people.

The burgeoning influence of financial advisors in the United States was a repeated observation at this year's Tiburon CEO Summit at New York City's Ritz Carlton in Battery Park. Here are 11 themes we heard at the two-day event encompassing 200-plus executives and advisors.

Advisors rule the financial services industry for now -- but keep an eye on direct-channel “self-serve” distribution, Chip Roame said Tuesday at his firm's semiannual CEO Summit.

In its continued push for another year of growth, JHS Capital advisors has expanded its Pacific Northwest presence.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management hauled in nine new advisor hires on Friday with more than $765 million in assets and $9.2 million in fees and commissions.

UBS Financial Services has picked up three financial advisors from Morgan Stanley in Arizona and Indiana who managed $467 million in client assets.

Four advisors with over $3.7 million in total production have jumped to Morgan Stanley from Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch.

The happiness of the independent advisor appears to be slightly overrated. By a slight but significant margin, advisors in RIAs aren’t as happy with their careers as those in wirehouses.

American Century Investments has named Joseph Schultz head of intermediary sales, responsible for the firm’s field and internal sales businesses, including wirehouses, regional and independent advisors, registered investment advisors, insurance company advisors and broker-dealer key account management.

Brian T. Moynihan, who endured record losses and public thrashings while cleaning up Bank of America Corp.’s mortgage mess, said he wouldn’t mind being chief executive officer of the lender forever.

UBS still sees a “challenging environment” for its wealth management business as clients remain reluctant to invest on a large scale, Chairman Axel Weber said.

Manulife Asset Management has expanded its equity capabilities today.

Ed Riley and Jonathan Miller will lead a new team catering to ultra-high-net-worth clients.

The firm has won over a $300 million team from UBS and its 10th recruit so far this year.

This latest addition follows RBC’s hiring of four Morgan Stanley advisors to the new San Diego office in November.