The IRS plans to issue final regulations for 403(b) plans by the end of June, and the changes could result in industry consolidation, particularly in the K-12 marketplace, observers said.
Along with the layoffs and cost cutting unveiled last week by Citigroup Inc. came rumors that the company’s Smith Barney brokerage unit was destined for a spinoff.
Proponents of health savings accounts and their mandatory high-deductible health insurance plans have come out swinging against a study concluding that the plans cost women about $1,000 more per year than men.
Most financial advisers wouldn’t expect to find health insurance in the same store where they buy lumber and fertilizer, but it turns out that the folks in orange aprons really can help with just about anything.
TIAA-CREF wants to be a contender in the Section 529 college savings plan business — again.
NEW YORK — The nation’s smallest Section 529 college savings plan — Tennessee’s BEST Savings Plan in Nashville, which has less than $40 million in assets and is managed by New York-based TIAA-CREF — soon may become the second state to transfer its 529 plan assets to a neighboring state.
The radical notion of abolishing mutual fund boards and allowing funds to set their own prices may be worth a second look, according to the head of a group representing independent fund directors for the $10.4 trillion fund industry.
IRVINE, Calif. — NASD continues to tinker with a pending variable annuity suitability rule, making a fourth proposed change in almost two years.
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress are calling for investigations into alleged long-term-care-insurance abuses just as the government is set to release its latest survey, showing a 97% satisfaction rate among policy claimants.
OTTAWA — The Ontario Securities Commission is playing catch-up after a slew of embarrassing court decisions that have led to a spate of negative editorials and op-ed articles.
NEW YORK — Conventional wisdom holds that it isn’t profitable to work with the low- to moderate-income market, but financial advisers across the country are developing business models that fly in the face of that supposed truism.
SAN FRANCISCO — In a world of broker-dealers that are out to poach financial advisers with large books of business, Scott Householder takes a different tack that feels like tough love to his representatives.
A year after taking over retail at Morgan Stanley — amid much skepticism — James Gorman has made believers out of most of the firm’s troops.
CIT Group Inc. said Monday that it placed three top executives at its Student Loan Xpress unit on leave just days after the companies were subpoenaed by New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in his ongoing probe of the $85 billion student loan industry.
The National Futures Association suspended Christ Investment Service LLC, a San Francisco-based introducing broker, for allegedly illegally acting as a futures commission merchant and as a counterparty to foreign currency transactions, according to the association.
Abolishing the role of mutual fund boards of directors in approving advisory expense ratios would lead to more competition in mutual fund fees, according to a book released in Washington today.
Peter Scaturro’s impending departure as chief executive of U.S. Trust has left Bank of America Corp., the venerable wealth manager’s prospective new owner, with a big mess on its hands.
Brokers who left United Securities Alliance Inc. before its March 1 acquisition by Royal Alliance Associates Inc. received a letter from United’s lawyers last month that contained a surprise: They owe United $5,000.
Fee income from variable and fixed annuities, and mutual funds, sold by banks declined by 0.6% last year to $19.33 billion, from $19.46 billion in 2005, according to a recent study.
