Wealth management

Looking to fill a growing need for advisers for its brokerage business at a reasonable cost, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. has been training promising candidates in-house, in a departure from standard bank practice.

Fewer hedge funds closed their doors in the second quarter, but there were also fewer hedge fund launches, as investors continued to shun startups and smaller firms in favor of large, established players.

Credit Suisse said it has agreed to pay $425 million for a minority interest in the New York hedge fund manager York Capital Management.

Cutwater Asset Management, a fixed-income money manager, has struck a strategic partnership with Tandem Global Partners.

At 91%, the overwhelming majority of retail investors support a fiduciary standard for all financial advisers, according to a survey of 1,319 investors by Infogroup/ORC.

Income in retirement is becoming an issue politicians on both sides of the aisle can't afford to ignore, according to a survey by Lake Research Partners and Public Opinion Strategies.

Industry participants say brokers have made a lot of progress toward meeting new cost-basis reporting requirements from the Internal Revenue Service, which take effect in January.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is suing a handful of banks along with dozens of investment firms over so-called flip clauses that allowed investors to move ahead of the company to grab assets backing complex derivatives deals.

The U.S. investor Wilbur Ross said Wednesday that he continues to see opportunities in both Ireland and the U.K. banking systems, after bidding for the Irish EBS Building Society and investing in the U.K.'s Virgin Money.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued by three former female employees who claim they faced discrimination in pay and fewer opportunities for promotion than men at the firm.

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E-Trade Financial Corp. announced Wednesday that average trading volume declined significantly in August. The New York company said that volume fell 36% from a year earlier and 4.6% from July.

Most American households are confident that their post-crash austerity is paying off, according to a survey by the public relations firm Weber Shandwick and KRC Research.

Fixed-income funds held their siren-like draw for investors, contributing largely to long-term mutual funds' $16.8 billion in inflows in August, according to a Morningstar analysis.

Registered investment advisers' assets under management rose 28%, to an average of $174 million in 2009, up from $136 million in 2008, the 2010 Rydex/SGI AdvisorBenchmarking Annual Study showed.

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Morgan Stanley has announced its naming of Paul Price to head its investment management international sales.

UBS' Americas wealth management division continued its hiring spree, adding million-dollar producers in New York and Houston.

Advisers are turning to annuities, using tactical asset allocation and continuing to move to fee-based business models, as they cope with the effects that the sluggish economic climate is having on their practices, according to findings from the latest Financial Professional Outlook from Russell Investments.

The asset management industry felt the ground shift under its feet during the recent financial crisis, but signs of resiliency persist, according to a new benchmarking study by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm.