World stock markets fell today but relatively strong U.S. consumer confidence and housing data helped limit swine flu-related losses.
Hopeful signs that the worst may be over for the economy boosted Americans' moods in April, sending a closely watched barometer of sentiment to the highest level since November.
Lazard Ltd., a financial advisory and asset management firm, said today it posted a first-quarter loss as revenue declined and it recorded a previously announced restructuring charge.
Worldwide sales for Aviva PLC rose to 10.3 billion British pounds ($15.1 billion) in the first quarter, up 5% from a year earlier, buoyed by sales of life insurance and pensions.
The SEC will consider two proposals on custody rules as part of a package of initiatives aimed at ensuring the safekeeping of investor assets in the wake of the massive Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC of New York, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said today.
Only a buyout — preferably one by Allianz SE of Munich, Germany — will rescue The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc., wrote Bob MacDonald, former chief executive of Allianz Life of North America and Allianz Income Management Services, both in Minneapolis.
The Treasury Department said Monday it will need to borrow $361 billion in the current April-June quarter, a record amount for that period.
General Motors Corp. said it will cut 21,000 U.S. factory jobs by next year, phase out its storied Pontiac brand and ask the government to take more than half its stock in exchange for half of GM's government debt as part of a major restructuring that would leave current shareholders holding just 1 percent of the company.
PrivateBancorp Inc., which provides financial services to commercial firms, business owners, executives and individuals, said Monday it returned to profitability during the first quarter and easily topped analysts' expectations.
The stock market's downturn is reshaping the retail-brokerage industry, with disgruntled clients replacing wirehouse brokers with independent representatives and financial advisers.
Some smaller broker-dealers are weathering tough times by diversifying into the institutional side of the business.
Two legal cases that will be decided by courts this year may significantly affect the mutual fund and investment advisory industries.
Considering the economy, the state of the stock market and the public's perception of Wall Street, the immediate outlook for the independent-brokerage business — like most financial services businesses — is anything but glowing.
The fantastic growth among independent broker-dealers came skidding to a halt last year, but the results were far from disastrous — with some firms taking advantage of recruiting opportunities despite the revenue declines.
Brokers who are considering going independent are finding a bright spot amid the gloom: The cost of going it alone is down sharply.
There is a crisis in defined contribution retirement plans. In addition to devastating market losses, employers are ceasing their matches.
The term "bailout" has taken on new meaning for financial advisers as they devise ways to free clients from underperforming variable annuities, but the path to freedom is paved with possible tax complications and worries about account churning.
With regulation of the financial planning industry all but a certainty, a coalition of industry groups is cobbling together a proposal to make the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. the rule setter and enforcer for the nation's hundreds of thousands of unregulated planners.
Banning short sales not only doesn't calm markets, it makes them choppier, a new study has found.
The idea to offer free financial planning to unemployed professionals came to Robert Fragasso when he was counseling a man who was on the verge of losing his house.
