Wealth management

In another sign of model portfolios' growing popularity, Fiserv Inc. has introduced a communications infrastructure designed to better transmit models between asset managers and clients, including bank trust departments.

Boston Private Financial Holdings sold Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust for $93 million in cash and will sell Rinet Co. to the affiliate's management team for an undisclosed price.

IMGCAP(1)]

Open-end mutual funds attracted more than $226 billion of assets in the first eight months of this year, bringing them close to making up the ground lost in the second half of last year, according to Morningstar Inc.

TD Ameritrade Institutional, a unit of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., announced Thursday it had introduced a Business Evaluator tool to help advisers join or start a registered investment advisory firm.

Far from any population center, Michael Jandreau, the chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, knew even an enormous casino couldn't generate enough revenue for the South Dakota tribe. So he did the next best thing: he bought a wealth management company, Westrock Group Inc. in New York.

Citigroup Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons is joining the Rhode Island private-equity firm Providence Equity Partners as a senior adviser but will remain in his Citigroup post.

Since their introduction in January, Putnam Investments' family of absolute-return mutual funds has attracted more than $400 million of new investment assets and, according to the Boston investment management company, is on track to top $1 billion by yearend.

IMGCAP(1)]

Raymond James Financial Inc. will continue aggressively recruiting financial advisers to keep its assets above water, the chief operating officer of its private client group said.

There are three key enablers that will help banks capitalize on the wealth management opportunity: master data management, team selling and an aligned compensation plan.

Visa Inc. said Monday that U.S. aggregate payments volume shrank 1% in August from a year earlier. This was an improvement over July, when volume contracted 2%, the San Francisco company said.

Fidelity Investments is offering a series of fee waivers and price reductions on its custodial platform for independent advisers and their customers.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. announced Monday that it has partnered with Microsoft Corp. to provide project fund administration, tracking and reporting to aid state and local governments with their requirements related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s treasury services business, which provides cash management, trade finance and treasury products and services, announced Monday that it plans to continue to expand its service capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is hoping a team-oriented approach can boost sales, but its effort to align its sales force is a bit too late to be considered innovative.

HSA Bank has run into a big obstacle in its push into the large-employer market for health savings accounts: health-care reform.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is using the prime brokerage services that it obtained in the Bear Stearns Cos. purchase to develop an integrated prime brokerage and custody platform.

Hedge funds largely lagged the major stock market indexes in August, said Hennessee Group, yet the industry chalked up another month of gains after the record beating it took in 2008.

Geller & Co., a New York financial advisory and wealth management firm, said it hired Steve Fadem as a senior managing director and chief operating officer.