Wealth management

Sales of fixed annuities through all channels totaled $19.4 billion in the second quarter, a jump of 18% from the first quarter, according to a report by Beacon Research, which tracks fixed annuity sales.

In the clash of the two largest U.S. brokerages, Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch is generating more profit with fewer people than the business Morgan Stanley formed by buying a controlling stake in a venture with Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney.

Shares in Swedish investment bank HQ AB plunged 84% Monday after its banking license was revoked by regulators over the weekend, pushing the bank into involuntary liquidation.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. recently recruited Michael O'Brien, a former BlackRock executive, to head its worldwide institutional sales.

Wall Street wire houses — or bulge-bracket firms — continued to top the list of sponsors of separately managed accounts in the second quarter, according to research by the Money Management Institute and Dover Financial Research.

The Royal Bank of Canada wealth management unit in the United States increased its net income by 10% in the company's fiscal third quarter from the year earlier.

Charles Schwab Corp. said Monday that it has agreed to buy Windward Investment Management Inc. of Boston for $150 million in stock and cash.

Community banks reported investment program income of $110.1 million for the period, an increase of 4.6% from the fourth quarter of 2009 and a 12.6% jump from the first quarter of 2009.

Bank of America Corp.'s legacy financial advisers are transferring to Merrill Lynch's more expansive brokerage platform.

Independent advisers are still "somewhat conservative" in their outlooks, but their expectations include some bright spots, according to a survey by Charles Schwab.

Although it supports the Securities and Exchange Commission's goal of bringing more disclosure to target-date funds, BlackRock has told the agency that the proposal to include asset-allocation.

When Grail Advisors officially closes two of its active exchange-traded funds — Technology and RP Financials — before the market bell on Aug. 30, the total universe of active ETFs will fall to just 28.

After less than a year, Denise Wypiszenski has stepped down from her job as chief operating officer at Robert W. Baird's private wealth management group.

The court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s broker-dealer business said the adoption of a "living will" could have prevented much of the chaos surrounding the company's historic collapse.

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Confidence among high-net-worth investors tumbled in August, according to a monthly survey by Spectrem Group.

The fallout from the financial reform bill is still up in the air, but the wealth management industry expects compliance and service costs to rise.

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As the struggling economy makes saving for college that much harder, parents working with financial advisers are saving more for higher education than those who do not work with planners, according to a new study by Fidelity Investments.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards says it hopes to bridge the gap between advisers and people in their 20s, who are generally considered atypical financial planning clients.