Wealth management

A St. Louis complex manager who left Morgan Stanley Smith Barney for Wells Fargo Advisors last week is facing a lawsuit from his former employer that could hinder his ability to recruit advisers in his new position.

Citigroup Inc., the fifth-largest takeover adviser in the first quarter, hired Paul Phillips from Bank of America Corp. as managing director for global telecom, media and technology investment banking.

Some of the world's biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are fighting Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s plan to spin off an asset management unit.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. announced it has put John Walters in charge of its wealth management business.

A 65-year-old couple that retires this year will need a quarter of a million dollars to pay for medical expenses throughout their retirement, representing a 4.2% increase over last year, according to the Fidelity Investments annual Retiree Health care Costs Estimate.

Financial advisers are recommending their clients consider higher overseas equity allocations in the near term, according to the results of Russell Investments' new quarterly Financial Professional Outlook survey.

HighTower Advisors, a registered investment adviser in Chicago, has been on a hiring streak since its inception in December 2008, primarily targeting successful wire house reps with high-net-worth practices.

With the tax deadline fast approaching, wealth management clients are deciding whether they are going to convert from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.

Citigroup Inc. was able to shuck part of its insurance arm Primerica Inc. through an initial public offering of the unit Thursday. The company's stock closed at $19.65 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, up 31% from its IPO price of $15.

A group of California cities and localities are urging a federal judge in Manhattan not to dismiss the 13 cases they brought against Wells Fargo & Co. and 44 other banks, broker-dealers and investment brokers, charging they conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the muni market.

Millionaire investor confidence rose in March, according to the Spectrem Group monthly survey, though confidence among affluent investors declined.

Fixed and variable annuities sold through banks started the year in the dumps, hitting their lowest point in a decade, according to the latest Kehrer-Jackson monthly bank annuity sales survey.

UBS Wealth Management Americas made some cuts at its headquarters that some market observers say were widely expected, but the next step will hit closer to home for advisers.

Rep-as-adviser managed accounts have been steadily growing in popularity and will continue to do so in the short-term, but Cerulli Associates sees growth dampening further out because of the account's nondiscretionary nature.

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Axa SA and National Australia Bank Ltd. agreed to buy asset manager Axa Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd. for $12.2 billion in the second-biggest acquisition in Asia during the past year.

Primerica Inc., the insurance business that Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill used to build Citigroup Inc., is selling shares in an initial public offering at a discount to its competitors.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court ruling in the Jones v. Harris Associates excessive mutual fund fee case Tuesday and asked the trial court to reconsider the case.

Hedging its bets, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. plans to increase life insurance sales by focusing on developing relationships with independent financial advisers, as opposed to the big-bank channel.

Dealmakers expect the pace of secondary equity offerings to quicken in coming quarters after a slow start in the first two months of the year, and a wider variety of industries probably will raise money through follow-on offerings.