After spending the past three years cozying up to securities regulators at NASD, independent-contractor broker-dealers are fearful that state regulators pose an increasing threat.
With the specter of millionare clients’ assets slipping through its fingers in a hot rollover market, Fidelity Investments is placing its high-net-worth strategy squarely on the shoulders of registered investment advisers.
Like their clients, advisers and registered representatives are getting older and often worry about their futures.
The $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry, bracing for its second regulatory battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission in as many years, plans to take a more proactive approach to dealing with regulators, critics and the media.
OTTAWA — A tussle has erupted over what to do with complaints against more than 2,000 brokers that the Investment Dealers Association of Canada inadvertently posted on its website.
A trade group for the variable annuity industry today announced a technology initiative intended to save time and money for VA distributors through streamlining and standardization.
Hedge fund manager Phillip Goldstein, who has been accused of marketing alternative-class investments to a non-qualified investor through his firm’s website, is crying foul by drawing attention to what he described as a “sting operation” aimed at him and his company.
One of the founders of Financial Network Investment Corp., the largest independent-contractor broker-dealer in the ING Advisors Network Inc., walked out the door last month and joined NFP Securities Inc., leaving some observers to wonder how many registered representatives affiliated with FNIC eventually could follow.
The Securities and Exchange Commission continues to forge ahead in its quest to wrap some kind of regulatory lasso around the $1.2 trillion hedge fund industry. Why it is doing so isn’t entirely clear.
SAN FRANCISCO — The biggest software company in the world may be forcing financial advisers to purchase expensive hardware in the wake of its recent upgrade.
BOSTON — Just because the Enron Corp. and market-timing scandals have led to greater disclosure requirements doesn’t mean that some mutual fund companies aren’t still burying some doozies in their regulatory filings, according to Russel Kinnel, director of mutual fund research for Morningstar Inc.
WASHINGTON — Be careful what you wish for with regard to cost basis reporting, as it might cause a headache of colossal proportions.
Regulators are backing off their aggressive pursuit of B share cases. In the clearest indication yet that enforcers have changed their tune, the SEC late last month dropped a prominent B share case against former Prudential Securities Inc. broker Robert Ostrowski.
In an effort to prevent top brokers from bolting, wirehouses quietly are backing down from their tough stance against allowing advisers to act as fiduciaries to employee retirement plans.
A congressman who raised eyebrows last month when he seemed to imply that annuities are the answer to the need for lifetime retirement income claims he was misunderstood.
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. continues to lead the wirehouse race for net new client assets.
A California court ruling late last month may make it easier for states to sue financial firms, according to legal experts.
The securities arbitration system should be reformed or else investors should be given the option of taking their disputes to court, according to a group that represents state securities regulators.
