Wealth management

In June, advisers were more confident about the longer-term prospects for the U.S. economy and the stock market, according to Rydex | SGI AdvisorBenchmarking.

UBS AG recently made three new additions to its adviser staff, in two different Florida offices.

After launching an initiative to revamp its wealth management business in April, Hartford Financial Services Group said John C. Walters, current president of wealth management, will leave Hartford at the end of July to "pursue other opportunities."

Annuities sales through banks maintained their modest recovery pace in April after hitting record lows at the beginning of the year.

Now that Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has closed its $2.31 billion acquisition of PNC's Global Investment Servicing Inc., it is looking abroad for growth in its asset servicing business.

Joseph J. Cassano, whose derivative bets on subprime loans forced American International Group Inc. into a U.S. bailout, defended the deals while the insurer's chief risk officer said the firm was "wrong" on the trades.

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UMB Financial Corp. of Kansas City, Mo., said it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Prairie Capital Management LLC, an independent national asset management and wealth management firm in Kansas City.

For employers with 401(k) plans, auto enrollment is growing, and target-date funds are an increasingly popular default option. But concern is building over what happens when the two trends meet.

Asset managers are not in financial reform's crosshairs, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a report.

Putnam Investments has started an enhanced website for sponsors of 401(k) plans and other defined contribution retirement programs.

Fidelity Investments has launched a program for registered investment advisers to help maximize their referral flow.

The number of exchange-traded funds has surged the past few years, bringing a unique business opportunity to Russell Indexes in Tacoma.

Jesup & Lamont Inc. announced it would terminate all non-essential personnel and stop paying nearly all salaries about a week after the small investment bank and brokerage firm received a notice to stop making trades.

The Valley Forge, Pa., mutual fund giant plans to introduce 19 exchange-traded funds in an effort to offer a wider array of low-cost stock and bond options. The firm will also launch ETF shares of its flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund.

While the House version pushed for the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a fiduciary standard, the Senate preferred instead to have the SEC study differences between its fiduciary standard and the suitability standard many brokers are held to by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, without giving the SEC the power to do anything about it.

Though world gross domestic product shrank in 2009, high-net-worth individuals managed to almost make up for 2008 losses, according to the Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini 14th annual "World Wealth Report."

Investors seem less worried than Congress when it comes to the opacity of management fees, according to Spectrem Group's latest "Retirement Market Insights" report.

Demand for health savings accounts seems to be reviving after a long period of inertia that preceded the passage of health care reform.

Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $102 million to settle claims by Massachusetts that the firm financed and securitized unfair residential loans, state Attorney General Martha Coakley said.