Wealth management

This summer, Fiserv plans to implement a solution that will move managed accounts using mutual fund advisory and exchange-traded funds on to its existing unified managed account platform.

"Follow the money" can serve as a good starting point for identifying strong-performing mutual funds, said analysts at Standard & Poor's.

Financial services leaders in the U.S. are lowering their expectations for the country's economy, according to the Business Optimism Index, a quarterly survey by Grant Thornton LLP.

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Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is betting that enhancements to its variable annuity suite will put it ahead of competitors in the race to offer investors secure retirement income options.

Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust in Coral Gables is squarely in growth mode. After a management-led buyout of the company from Boston Private Financial Holdings, the 22-year-old institution's asset total and employee counts have risen by respectable margins over the past two years.

Paul K. Stetter Jr. knows his clients' biggest fear is outliving their savings. Yet, the pragmatic Ephrata, Pa.-based financial advisor doesn't mince words when telling investors how much they'll need for retirement.

Moves to streamline operations follow the recent trend of leadership changes at other firms.

Elderly investors have the most to lose — literally, in terms of assets — if they start losing cognitive abilities.

Just the idea is daunting: How to sell an advisory practice that may have taken you a lifetime to build.

Trusts are starting to put more of their money into hedge funds and other alternative investments, as heirs exercise more sway over these assets and state laws allow using outside investment managers.

Inertia is a powerful force in potential clients, and one that financial advisers must find a way to overcome.

A bid by the hedge fund Paulson & Co. to force Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. creditors to disclose trades in the defunct firm's debt is a "fishing expedition" meant to "intimidate," according to debtholders such as Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and the German central bank.

Morgan Stanley, owner of the world's largest brokerage, could shut down its trading businesses and the company would be worth 28% more than Thursday's share price, according to Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Charles Schwab Corp. customers with Android smartphones can now deposit checks into their bank and brokerage accounts.

The private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is pursuing a minority investment in ING Group NV's U.S. online bank, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Financial advisers' pasts have always been able to haunt them, thanks to rules that give the public access to records of disciplinary troubles and legal scrapes. Now new rules will push those skeletons even further out of the closet.

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ING announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its fiduciary service offerings to help sponsors better fulfill their responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Erisa).