In: Investor Advocate office, ramped up protection for senior investors; Out: fiduciary standard for brokers who give advice
In a surprise, Conn. Democrat Christopher Dodd called it quits on hammering out a bi-partisan financial reform bill. The upshot? Expect plenty of tweaks to the financial system, but little change.
The Senate Banking Committee Chairman says he's working with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee to propose legislation.
For advisers and their clients, making a fully informed, balanced decision not to convert to a Roth IRA is — unequivocally — a legitimate choice.
Roth IRA conversions should be discussed with most investors this year as part of their overall retirement planning strategy.
With regulators and lawmakers continuing to scrutinize the blowup of target date funds in 2008, AllianceBernstein LP is adding a component to its lineup of target date funds aimed at managing market volatility better.
Ponzi scam artists will have greater freedom to flourish if state regulators are assigned expanded oversight of RIA firms, according to panelists at the Financial Services Institute Inc.'s annual conference last week.
Firm to be acquired by socially conscious investing shop; combined broker-dealers in top 30 of independent B-Ds
Questions surround the beleaguered firm after owner and chairman resigns.
Ameriprise Financial Inc.'s plan to open its brokerage platform to outside variable annuities falls short of the open architecture favored by other independent broker-dealers.
Less than 4% of all independent advisers have ever had their businesses professionally valued, and less than 10% have any formal, written succession plans in place.
The recent surge in the price of gold has the CFTC considering placing restrictions on speculative trades in gold, silver, and copper.
The claims that advisers would have to select from the entire universe of options and that results, not process, determine fiduciary appropriateness certainly tell a scary story of how a fiduciary standard would unfairly target well meaning advisers who are only trying to do what's best.
State decides to go with Union Bank and Trust, instead
A new proposal targeting tainted investment advice would affect millions of workers.
A Missouri woman was sentenced Thursday to nine years in federal prison for a grain fraud scheme that bilked 179 farmers out of a combined $27.4 million and earned her the nickname the "Madoff of the Midwest."
Finding accusations "speculative and flimsy," a judge has dismissed civil securities fraud charges against a New York brokerage firm and its executives that resulted from a probe into Bernard Madoff's epic fraud.
