Howard Stock

Overall sales of annuities though bank holding companies were up slightly at $2.62 billion in 2009, according to the latest Michael White-American Bankers Insurance Association Bank Annuity Fee Income Report.

Bank-based adviser productivity stayed relatively flat in February, in large part reflecting January's weakness. But observers are enthusiastic about the rest of 2010.

Mutual funds attracted $47.5 billion in net inflows in March, mostly into bond funds, a trend that has endured for 27 straight months, according to a Morningstar analysis.

Registered investment adviser firms are on pace for a record year in mergers and acquisitions, after their strongest-ever quarter, according to an analysis by Schwab Advisor Services, the RIA division of Charles Schwab Corp.

Advisory assets are rising at Citigroup Inc.'s post-Smith Barney brokerage after its controversial move of transaction-heavy advisers to a fee-only platform serving just wealthy clients.

Small-cap and midcap domestic equity mutual funds are leading the way in returns in 2010, according to a Standard & Poor's analysis.

Financial advisers are recommending their clients consider higher overseas equity allocations in the near term, according to the results of Russell Investments' new quarterly Financial Professional Outlook survey.

HighTower Advisors, a registered investment adviser in Chicago, has been on a hiring streak since its inception in December 2008, primarily targeting successful wire house reps with high-net-worth practices.

ING plans to launch a registered indexed annuity next month and will voluntarily register it with the Securities and Exchange Commission in anticipation of Rule 151A.

Beginning in 2013, people earning more than $250,000 a year will see the Medicare tax on their income rise to 2.35%, from 1.45%, and the same group will be hit by an additional 3.8% Medicare tax on investment income.

Despite advisers' bullish predictions, average production dropped by 11%, to $14,930, in January from $16,728 in December.

New York Life Insurance Co. bucked industry trends last year, increasing sales by 14% and surpassing $1 billion in sales for the first time in its history.

As many as 88% of bank brokerage programs now offer fee-based accounts, Ken Kehrer, director of research at Kehrer-Limra, said in a presentation Sunday at the Bank Insurance and Securities Association's annual conference in Hollywood, Fla.

What seems like a minor back-office move could make a world of difference to Bank of America clients and wealth advisers.

Registered investment advisers are thinking outside their more typical client prospecting and communications streams and product mix this year.

Invesco Powershares has launched an exchange-traded fund, the CEF Income Composite Portfolio, which tracks yield-oriented, closed-end funds, based on the S-Network Composite Closed-End Fund Index.

Even though overall annuity sales dropped, sales of variable annuities increased 3%, to $32.6 billion in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, according to Limra International Inc.'s U.S. individual annuities quarterly sales survey. The survey was released Thursday.

Barnaby Grist will join the newly minted Cetera Financial Group as executive vice president, wealth management, effective Wednesday.

Some 70% of people over the age of 65 will need long-term care at some point in their lives, and that gets very expensive if you're not prepared for it.

Bank adviser productivity hit its lowest level of the year in November, but things may be looking up.