Wealth management

When American Tower's senior unsecured debt was upgraded to investment-grade last year, the chief financial officer saw an opportunity to refinance some debt and slash debt-service costs.

ICP Asset Management LLC and its founder were sued by regulators for their role in overseeing mortgage-linked investments insured by American International Group Inc. as the housing market declined.

In a survey of 350 investors and 218 brokers and advisers, Fidelity Investments and its National Financial unit found 36% of investors expect — and believe — that their adviser has the know-how to steer them to profits should there be a repeat of the financial downturn that took markets to near-historic lows in 2008-9.

Financial advisers are starting to turn their backs on the idea of going independent and are instead favoring the benefits of working at wire houses, a survey found.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 5 to 0 last week to require target-date funds to do a better job of explaining the purpose of their retirement date, how their asset allocation glide paths change over time and, in a new twist, to include easy-to-understand visuals in ads.

The holding company of Boston Private Bank & Trust and Borel Private Bank & Trust said it would raise about $6.3 million from selling 1.1 million shares to the Carlyle Group.

Putnam Investments plans to continue to aggressively expand its array of products even as market volatility has forced some competitors to retrench.

Invesco PowerShares plans to roll out its second exchange-traded fund devoted to Build America Bonds, highlighting both the proliferation of municipal ETFs and the growing importance of taxable state and local government debt.

The wealth management group at $61 billion-asset Bank of the West of San Francisco, while it has benefited from the market rebound, owes much of its growth to new assets.

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Equity investors could not shake off their anxieties in May about the European sovereign debt crisis and what that would mean for credit markets here.

KBW's managers say they see an opportunity, essentially, to take over serving banks, insurers and other financial firms in China, Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia and the rest of Asia.

Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP, an investment bank for financial companies, has hired former Institutional Credit Partners LLC executive Carlos Mendez to lead its new structured-finance group.

With the global debt crisis set to corral investment banking's bull run, it's questionable whether the largest lenders can compensate for a resultant decline in a top source of profits.

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First Republic Bank in San Francisco continued its expansion in Los Angeles, hiring three City National Bank executives.

Investor confidence has declined, but concerns over the European economy appear to be easing, a monthly Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of fund managers found.

Most registered investment advisers spend decades building a practice based on a solid reputation with a core clientele.

Lincoln National Corp., one of three insurers to get bailed out by the U.S., said Monday it will repay the government with a planned sale of more than $1 billion of stock and debt.

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