Worried about giving clients a fair deal and keeping regulators at bay, some brokerage firms are tamping down the commissions on variable annuities that registered representatives and financial advisers sell.
Nobody ever accused companies that push annuities on older Americans of being subtle.
BOSTON — Institutional investors that shun potential money manager candidates because of below-median returns could be lowering their odds of picking a long-term winner, research from investment consultant DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC shows.
NEW YORK — IBM Corp.’s announcement that it will offer financial planning services to all 127,000 of its U.S. employees is the biggest sign yet that companies are increasingly interested in providing workers with more individual — and effective — counseling on financial topics.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — For fixed-income investors, few words cause more fear in the over-the-counter-credit-derivatives market and its whopping $26 trillion notional value than “default” and “bankruptcy.”
LONDON — If you can’t beat it, trade it. That approach toward volatility is increasingly making inroads among institutional investors, including pension funds such as the $275 billion Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP of Heerlen, Netherlands.
By OTTAWA — The minority Conservative government’s budget, released last Monday, drew immediate fire from two Canadian opposition parties, the Liberals and New Democrats.
Merrill Lynch & Co. analysts are mad as hell that people are simultaneously belittling and stealing their investment ideas, according to Crain's New York Business.
OptionsXpress Holdings Inc. announced today that it promoted its chief financial officer to the role of president and its chief operating officer to the role of executive vice-chairman, according to published reports.
Morgan Stanley today posted a 69% increase in first-quarter profits on strong advisory fees from higher trading levels and increased investment banking fees.
IRVINE, Calif. — In an expected move, Wachovia Securities LLC this month launched a client loyalty program called 4front.
NEW YORK — Just as Federal Reserve monetary policymakers will use economic data to determine what to do with the federal funds rate this week, financial advisers and asset managers rely on such data to pick investments.
OTTAWA — The Certified General Accountants Association of Canada has addressed the subject of a national securities regulator and has offered up suggestions about how it should work.
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. is planning to increase the scope of its Indian private banking business, with a focus on providing financial services to that country’s growing wealthy population, according to the Economic Times in India.
Intrigued wirehouse executives who are looking for a change are beginning to check out independent-contractor broker-dealers, and what they see interests them more and more, industry executives, consultants and recruiters say.
Continuing its focus on buying small to midsize firms, Royal Alliance Associates Inc. late last month completed a deal to acquire United Securities Alliance Inc.
A wealthy retired couple in their late 70s enjoyed an annual income of $80,000 but wanted to increase their standard of living.
SAN FRANCISCO — In need of an alternative to lackluster Treasury bond performance, financial advisers are helping a high-yield and low-profile cash product go mainstream.
Some insurers are taking away their advisers’ group health insurance and other employment benefits if proprietary-product quotas aren’t met, advisers say.
The growth of the financial planning profession overseas is in the fast lane, though there are some speed bumps, observers say.
