Wealth management

City National Bank in Los Angeles announced that it had hired Logan Allin to be a senior vice president and the manager of business and operations strategy for its wealth management division.

Julie Castle, the president of the wealth management arm at First Interstate BancSystem in Billings, Mont., said she was worried at the beginning of the year that the unit might become another casualty of poor economic conditions.

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When the asset manager Neuberger Berman Group was sold to Lehman Brothers Holdings in 2003, the leaders of Neuberger's trust unit figured they could reap a lot of new business from wealthy Lehman clients.

If M&A had a lemon law, the sovereign wealth funds could make a pretty good case for the U.S. courts.

Advisers are leaving the biggest wire houses to work at banks, regional brokerage firms and independent advisory companies at a more rapid pace than in January, according to a report from the research firm Discovery Database.

Thomas A. Banus, a former broker with Citigroup Global Markets Inc., alleges that Citigroup offered him a signing bonus of $45,675.36 structured as a forgivable loan over seven years when he joined the bank in October 2004.

Citadel Investment Group sold 13.9 million shares of E-Trade Corp. stock and set up a plan to sell much more, according to regulatory filings.

To the Editor:
The facts in your Aug. 10 article about variable annuity sales leaders ["TIAA-CREF's Stamina as Annuity Leader in Doubt"] suggest the opposite of the headline.

Guggenheim Partners LLC, a Chicago financial services company, said it has agreed to buy Claymore Group Inc., an investment products provider based in Lisle, Ill.

Today's environment finding decent yields at acceptable levels of risk a challenge. Though not as easy as it was last fall, there are options, each with its own pros and cons.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s agreement Wednesday to buy Insight Investment Management Ltd. for $387 million from Lloyds Banking Group PLC could force some of the other large custody banks to step up acquisition efforts.

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While some banks jettison fund units that fail to achieve at least $5 billion under management, Huntington Bancshares has spent the past nine years nursing its own.

UBS AG of Zurich said it has hired more than 20 senior bankers from competitors including Merrill Lynch & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to strengthen its fixed-income unit.

Hedge funds have generated strong returns this year, but the $1.4 trillion industry remains in a sticky financial situation because many firms have yet to recoup losses from 2008, leaving them missing out on lucrative fees.

Pershing LLC, a unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., has started providing its introducing broker-dealer and independent registered investment advisory customers with access to a performance reporting service from Black Diamond Performance Reporting.

The online brokerage Scottrade Inc. of St. Louis has opened branches in Portage, Mich., North Little Rock, and Somers Point, N.J.

Investor confidence among affluent investors increased in July, according to monthly data released by Spectrem Group.

First Republic Bank, a San Francisco private banking and wealth management company, has hired Andrew Smaltz as a managing director of foreign exchange.