Wealth management

The SEI Advisor Network released a survey Thursday showing that more than half of investors have moved back into the market, though risk and its avoidance are now overriding concerns.

Real estate investment trusts earned higher returns during the past decade than investments in any other equity sector, according to research from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

New life insurance premiums at banks rose 59% in the third quarter of last year from a year earlier, the latest quarter for which data is available, according to the Kehrer-Limra bank life sales report, released last week.

Taking more of a hands-off approach with its Merrill Lynch financial advisers, the Charlotte company had "historically" low broker attrition in the fourth quarter and even plans to add advisers this year, Sallie Krawcheck, the president of Bank of America Global Wealth, said during a conference call Thursday.

Bank of America Corp. global wealth and investment management president Sallie Krawcheck said Thursday that broker departures were at an all-time low in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Barclays Capital has hired Liz Padova Hanson as a managing director in the asset securitization origination business in the Americas.

Global assets for exchange-traded funds hit the $1 trillion mark in 2009, a milestone long expected by industry insiders and a reflection of ETFs' rapid emergence as a competitor to the $7 trillion mutual fund industry.

Huntington Bancshares Inc.'s wealth management arm aims to leverage "The Year of the Roth" into a closer relationship with its customers.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. announced Tuesday that it has doubled its fourth-quarter core earnings estimate, and it said core operations "performed well" in the period.

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To expand its independent broker-dealer arm, Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. has hired a team that had worked for Axa Advisors LLC.

As wealthy customers reevaluate their financial situations, PNC's wealth management advisers are increasing and improving their conversations with them in an effort to retain and expand relationships.

When Congress allowed the estate tax to expire at the end of 2009, it may not have realized that it was setting up a social experiment that could test the values of high-net-worth individuals.

Institutional investors often do not take full advantage of exchange-traded funds, according to a study released Monday by State Street Corp., one of the largest providers of ETFs in the world.

With its typically strong December, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund reported a 4.8% increase in contributions last year, the Boston fund firm announced Monday.

WisdomTree Investments has introduced the WisdomTree International Hedge Equity Fund, an exchange-traded fund of funds.

BlackRock has thrown a new type of product into the mix in the rapidly evolving municipal bond exchange-traded fund industry.

As many variable annuity providers simplify and streamline their products, Axa Equitable Life Insurance Co. in New York is bundling theirs.

Global standards should be developed to determine the amount of capital that insurance companies and securities firms must hold against potential market losses, in the same way they have been for banks, regulators for the banking, insurance and securities sectors said in a report Friday.

Last week New York Life launched a print advertising campaign that highlights the financial benefits and long-term guarantees of its whole-life insurance product.