Seeking to assess the strength of the insurance carriers they do business with, many smaller independent broker-dealers — flummoxed by the insurers' opaque balance sheets and arcane accounting practices — are relying on a time-tested tool: their own observations.
The Iowa insurance commissioner has eased accounting rules for 11 insurers based in the state, allowing them to polish up their balance sheets.
Commentators in Switzerland voiced their anger at the bank's business practices and what they saw as heavy-handed treatment by U.S. authorities.
Concerned about liability related to hedge funds, Schwab is telling registered investment advisers that it will no longer accept custody of alternative assets.
Morningstar Inc. yesterday reported a 3.5% decline in fourth-quarter earnings and the launch of a series of cost-cutting measures.
The Labor Department said Friday that consumer prices rose by 0.3 percent last month, the biggest monthly increase since a 0.7 percent rise in July.
The number of people collecting unemployment benefits rose to an all-time high of 4.99 million this month, according to the Department of Labor.
While acknowledging that the economic indicators have been “dismal,” the Fed has taken steps beyond reducing short-term interest rates to improve credit markets, Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday at the National Press Club in Washington.
Producer prices rose faster than expected in January, according to a Department of Labor report released today.
Paul Wichman, the former national sales manager of Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC of Jersey City, N.J., left the firm this month.
John W. Goff, owner of the Goff Group, may face at least 20 years in prison after his conviction yon charges of mail fraud, embezzlement and filing false documents.
Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday that temporary nationalization of U.S. banks may be necessary.
When the SEC declared that equity index annuities are securities last year, it ignored the McCarran-Ferguson Act.
New residential-housing construction permits continued to decline last month, falling 4.8% from December.
A member of a blue-ribbon panel appointed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make recommendations on improving the state’s tax code said the panel’s members are philosophically opposed to taxing professional fees or any other “non-tangible” services but warned that dire economic conditions may make such opposition moot.
Smith Barney has lost 15 advisers in the Baltimore area to Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc.
Iceland’s economic meltdown, fueled by its exposure to foreign debt, could bring the country to the brink of failure, according to research from Hennessee Group.
Americans’ confidence in their own financial security continues to drop, according to an index that showed a steady decline in people’s views over the past six months.
Employers persuaded their employees to put their 401(k) investments in the stock market, but now they are trying to persuade them not to abandon their investments.
