Focus Financial Partners, which recently completed a $50 million recapitalization to meet debt obligations and revive its business of buying interests in wealth management firms, confirmed today that it has made LLBH Private Wealth Management a full partner firm. As a partner, LLBH gets a combination of cash and equity units in Focus in exchange for giving the parent company a preferential interest in a portion of its annual revenue.
Discount brokers lost a vote of confidence from equity analysts at Goldman Sachs Group on Monday. In a report, Goldman cut its recommendation on TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) to neutral from buy, and lowered its price target to $21 from $24. It kept its ratings on The Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and E*Trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) at “sell” and “buy,” respectively, but lowered its target prices on those firms and also on discount brokers OptionsXpress (OXPS) and TradeStation Group (TRAD).
Almost a year after a court dismissed a complaint against Wal-Mart over its 401(k) plan fees, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has brought the case back into play.
In the next two weeks, members of Congress are expected to decide on the fate of legislation that would have severe implications for every firm that advised 401(k) plan participants, or planned to.
Focus Financial Partners LLC, which calls itself “the leading partnership of independent wealth management firms,” confirmed Monday that it is buying a stake in Joel Isaacson & Co. Inc.
As any stockbroker knows, it isn't just online and institutional brokers that offer discounts.
Royal Bank of Canada today said that it will buy, for an undisclosed sum, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s servicing business for third-party registered investment advisers.
The world economy is recovering at a healthy pace but still needs government stimulus efforts to keep it going, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.
World stock markets fell Tuesday as Japan Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection and investors awaited a raft of fourth-quarter U.S. corporate earnings with a degree of unease following a fairly mixed start to the results season.
Two major life insurers are providing disaster relief to Haiti by making donations to the earthquake-ravaged republic.
Institutional investors are focusing on opportunities in the natural-resources sector by investing in timberland to hedge against inflation.
Both large and small financial services firms joined the worldwide effort to relieve the suffering caused by the earthquake in Haiti.
Moneta Group, a large financial planning and retirement benefits firm, has hired a team of A.G. Edwards Inc. veterans who last year produced around $1.3 million in revenue and managed about $300 million of client assets.
As December winds down, now is the time to reflect on the last year and determine what, if anything, you would have done differently in your practice or even in your personal life
Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd. last week introduced a $75 million catastrophe bond that covers extreme mortality risks.
Utah announced modifications to its Section 529 college savings plan today, including lower fees on some investment options and more flexibility in asset allocation.
Rising loan losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s consumer bank and a disappointing reading on consumer sentiment sent investors rushing from stocks Friday.
Their perspectives are different—one representing business, the other labor unions. But Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, agree on the urgency of creating jobs to get the economy moving forward.
It would seem to be an obvious conflict of interest for a Wall Street firm to create an investment product, sell it to its clients and then bet that the product would fail.
