Compliance officers at investment advisory firms registered with the SEC should be required to conduct annual custody reviews and to certify those results, according to TD Ameritrade Institutional.
Though fewer catastrophe bonds were issued during the first half of 2009, investors may see more of these issuances in the second half of the year as the financial markets stabilize, according to a report from Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC and GC Securities, both of New York.
New U.S. home sales rose by the largest amount in more than eight years last month, in another sign the housing market is finally bouncing back from the worst downturn in decades.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has slapped Wells Fargo Investments LLC and four other investment firms with $1.65 million in fines for supervisory failures in mutual fund and variable annuity transactions.
Health insurer Aetna Inc. said Monday its profit skidded 28 percent in the second quarter due to higher medical expenses in its commercial business, which it expects to continue for the rest of the year.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s agreement with regulators last week to buy back $456 million of auction rate securities from individual investors, charities and small-business clients leaves registered investment advisers out in the cold.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. reported a better-than-expected fiscal-third-quarter profit last week, but company executives had little to say about the firm's business for servicing independent registered investment advisers.
The Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education has chosen prime-time dreamboat Chris Noth as its national spokesman for Life Insurance Awareness Month in September.
The American Council of Life Insurers is worried about efforts to establish a voluntary disability in-surance program.
In a dramatic re-branding, NAVA Inc., the trade group of variable annuity providers, last week changed its name to the Insured Retirement Institute and its focus to serving “the insured-retirement-strategies industry and consumers who rely on those guarantees.”
The Internal Revenue Service recently ruled that an improper transfer of funds from an individual retirement account from which the client was taking 72(t) payments triggered the 10% early-withdrawal penalty.
First, carry out the sentence. Then select the jury (preferably a dysfunctional or biased one). Finally, hold the trial and announce the verdict. That is the peculiar process that Congress and the Obama administration are following in trying to ensure that there will be no repeat of the financial crisis.
How recession-strapped consumers will spend their limited dollars is a question that is perplexing the financial markets and the pricing of consumer-related stocks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely reissue a rule that classifies equity index annuities as securities and subjects them to federal oversight.
Depending on the outcome of health care reform, investment opportunities could be found in a variety of related sectors, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and even certain insurers.
Following the company's release of strong second-quarter earnings, John J. Degnan, chief operating officer of The Chubb Corp., yesterday took a dig at competitors for accepting federal aid.
Online brokerage OptionsXpress'profit fell 31 percent in the second quarter as expenses rose 48 percent, the firm reported today.
Although affluent and millionaire investors may be more optimistic about the economy, they are still not confident about the stock market, according to a survey released today by Phoenix Marketing International of Rhinebeck, N.Y.
The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc. said that it has slashed 270 jobs in its investment products division, eliminating positions in its Planco LLC unit.
