Wealth management

Dynasty Financial Partners last week detailed an ambitious plan to expand its adviser network to between 100 and 150 top-tier registered investment advisers with total assets under management of around $50 billion during the next five years.

In the wake of the economic downturn that pummeled markets and investor accounts, one would think financial advisers would have learned that forging and maintaining extensive contact with their clients is critical to keeping and finding new business.

Americans appear hesitant to tie up their money, even though inflation is easily outstripping the paltry interest rates paid by their liquid accounts.

NEW YORK — UBS Wealth Management Americas plans to increase its U.S. financial adviser headcount by about 150 this year after accounting for attrition, the company confirmed late Friday.

UBS Wealth Management Americas has continued its hiring streak with new appointments in Ohio and California.

Advisers in general are back in the pink, making more money, gathering more assets under management and generally feeling upbeat about their prospects.

Financial advisers have known for some time that Americans have lost confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement, but for confidence to plunge just as economic indicators were perking up?

Brokers and financial advisers looking to make more money and have more control over the type of clients they serve and the investments they recommend continued to flood the independent channel at a swift pace in 2010, according to a broker and adviser sentiment index survey conducted on behalf of Fidelity Investments.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp.'s former chairman, Lee Farkas, ordered data sent to Colonial Bank for nonexistent loans in an effort to cover up growing deficits, an ex-president said.

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Many younger people pursuing jobs say they are not interested in financial services sales, according to Limra, which recently conducted surveys and focus groups on the matter.

Some brokers are eroding "The Protocol for Broker Recruiting," an agreement among firms that allows registered investment advisers to transfer between participating firms without lawsuits or arbitration.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. creditors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have drafted a payment plan that would compete with the defunct bank's $61 billion proposal, taking back money that Lehman sought to give to bondholders, said two people familiar with the matter.

Business costs are rising, leaving some advisory firms to find subtle ways, such as tiered pricing, of passing these costs on to clients.

An elderly client has $12 million in two homes she wants her children to inherit. How to make that happen without exposing the kids to estate taxes that could oblige them to sell?

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About 30% of Mike Byrne's clients are not profitable, as he specializes in serving families with special-needs children. Those families are frequently overwhelmed and rarely wealthy.

From his offices in Milwaukee, the head of Baird Inc.'s Intermediate Municipal Bond Fund has watched at close range as investors and financial advisers alike have scurried to make sense out of their holdings.

Raymond James Financial has completed its acquisition of Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett Inc.

John Paulson, founder of the hedge fund giant Paulson & Co., earned a record $4.9 billion in 2010 overseeing a fund that exited the year with more than $36 billion under management, according to a new survey from AR Magazine.