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.
Focus Financial Partners LLC, barely a year old, purchased majority stakes in three more independent fiduciary wealth management firms last week — increasing its roster of firms to nine and tripling assets under management to $15 billion.
When it comes to Putnam Investments, it is the performance — not the parent — that matters, financial advisers say.
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. continues to lead the wirehouse race for net new client assets.
WASHINGTON — As Americans feel more stressed out over the erosion of corporate benefits and the solvency of social benefits programs, such traditional economic indicators as gross domestic product growth and household income are becoming less correlated to their perception of the economy’s well-being, according to a recently released study.
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.
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.
Real estate investment trusts that focus on office properties and those investing internationally will continue to show strong performance this year, even though REITs overall have outperformed the broad market for the past seven years, according to industry experts.
The Bush administration’s push for an increased use of alternative energy has shed new light on an emerging category of relatively untested and untapped investment opportunities.
OTTAWA — After much consultation, the Canadian Securities Administrators’ Regulation Reform Project is about to surface, though exactly when isn’t clear.
NEW YORK — Recent reports of an uptick in home invasions in many parts of the United States may increase the popularity of a policy that covers medical and other costs of the invasions.
Corporate America received a dose of common sense when The Home Depot Inc. said that its new chief executive, Frank Blake, would be paid a fraction of what his predecessor was taking home.
NEW YORK — The negative savings rate in the United States has been a cause for concern to some economists — who contend that Americans are spending away their futures.
WASHINGTON — Proponents of allowing insurers to be federally regulated are taking heart in the inclusion of that proposal in a report recently issued by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
NEW YORK — Exposure to global markets is playing an increasingly important role in the confidence investors have in a company and its stock, according to evaluations of 2006 fourth-quarter company reports published last month by Goldman Sachs & Co. Inc.
IRVINE, Calif. — Wachovia Securities LLC of Richmond, Va., is expected to roll out in coming weeks a significant new incentive program.
Lower gas prices and a thriving labor market boosted consumer confidence to its highest level in two years, according to the monthly index of consumer sentiment that Reuters and the University of Michigan released today.
The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration released its first Field Assistance Bulletin of the year, which provides guidance to field investigators regarding an exemption for investment advice in the Pension Protection Act.
