Wealth management

Adviser confidence in the economy and stock market rose to its highest level in six months in September, according to the Advisor Confidence Index from Rydex/SGI. The measure had fallen to its lowest level in 16 months in August.

Banks' sales of variable annuities struggled in July along with the stock market, falling to $1.2 billion from $1.4 billion in June, according to the Kehrer-Jackson Monthly Annuity Sales Survey, released late last month. Fixed annuities held their ground at $1.5 billion in sales, but wobbly VA sales brought total annuity sales at banks down by 7%.

Hedge funds turned in better performance numbers for August than the major equity indexes did, and it's because they made the most of a general sell-off of risky assets on the broader equity and bond markets, according to a preliminary roundup by Morningstar.

The annuity industry, with its battered reputation, seemed to have found a powerful ally in President Obama's administration, when the Middle Class Task Force issued a report in January saying the executive branch would work to promote the availability of annuities and other forms of guaranteed income.

Trilogy, which had $12 billion of assets under management as of June 30, specializes in emerging- and global markets strategies.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is proposing all-public arbitration panels in a rule it is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission next month, following a two-year pilot program.

A group of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. traders is being pursued by at least three competing firms, including Avenue Capital Group, as the investment bank prepares to break up the unit, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

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In a Barclays survey, 60% of wealthy people said they want to continue working as long as they are able, shunning traditional retirement.

Brokerage firms continue to talk a good game when it comes to social media, but few are actually doing anything about it, and that may turn out to be a mistake.

UMB Financial Corp. has added a leg to its distribution structure for health savings accounts.

The Treasury Department may announce plans as early as this week to return American International Group Inc. to independence and recoup taxpayers' bailout money, according to three people with knowledge of the talks.

Morgan Stanley, the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, has frozen hiring at its investment banking division for the rest of 2010, a person briefed on the decision said.

Fidelity Investments has expanded independent advisers' access to third-party providers within its WealthCentral custodial platform by integrating a portfolio management solution from Black Diamond Performance Reporting.

GAMCO Investors Inc. has elevated Agnes Mullady to president and chief operating officer of the open-end fund division of Gabelli Funds LLC.

Kathleen Kennedy has joined Columbia Management, where she will head the Boston firm's consultant relations efforts.

The Basel III bank capital requirements proposed earlier this month threaten to eviscerate the supply of eligible investments for tax-free money market funds — an industry already struggling with a severe supply shortage.

Bank of America Corp. said Thursday that its Merrill Lynch unit has started a division to handle customers' futures and derivatives trading.

UBS pushed ahead with its integrated bank model by starting a unit that will move its investment bank closer to its business catering to extremely rich clients.

Retail deposit rates on September 21.