Wealth management

By February the Internal Revenue Service's Code 7520 rate had fallen to 2%, its lowest point in over a decade, and by April it had risen to only 2.6%.

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, a unit of Bank of America Corp., has hired eight financial advisers from Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney unit and added brokers from UBS AG and Wells Fargo & Co.

Brown & Brown Inc., a Daytona Beach, Fla., insurance services provider, has agreed to buy Irving Weber Associates Inc., an insurance services provider that is based in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

Executives at Citigroup Inc.'s Primerica Financial Services have approached private-equity firms, including J.C. Flowers & Co., Blackstone Group LP and TPG Inc., to gauge their interest in buying its 100,000-person sales arm, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Institutional Capital LLC of Chicago, large-cap value manager, announced that it has promoted Paula L. Rogers to president.

Edward D. Jones & Co. LP plans to hire 250 advisers and 250 branch office administrators in both Toronto and Phoenix in the next five years as part of a plan to enter more urban areas.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. of Itasca, Ill., an insurance brokerage and risk manager, announced that its shareholders have elected Frank E. English Jr. to its board of directors, expanding the board to 10 members.

RBC Capital Markets, a New York unit of Royal Bank of Canada, announced that it has hired Deborah Freer as a managing director and chief operating officer for its U.S. operations.

A commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission offered a starkly different opinion from some of his fellow Democrats recently about how to address the regulatory differences between broker-dealers and investment advisers.

Hedge fund performance rose for the second consecutive month in April but still lagged stock market performance, according to data from Hennessee Group LLC.

Despite a first-quarter slump it attributed to declines in its wealth management division, UMB Financial Corp.'s president said it plans to continue adding scale to its alternative investment servicing business through acquisitions.

Assets held in pension plans rose for the second consecutive month in April, with moderate investment gains of $37 billion offset by liability increases of roughly $14 billion for an overall increase of $23 billion in funded status.

In a challenge to one of mutual funds' strongholds, exchange-traded fund providers are targeting defined contribution plans.

First Western Financial Inc. of Denver plans to continue buying small investment advisers in Colorado, California, and Arizona as part of its plan to double revenue and assets under management again this year.

Affluent investors' confidence increased last month for the second consecutive month, according to Spectrem Group.

Ron and Joe Barreca have tag-teamed their way to the top, with Ron producing $1.3 million and Joe $1.8 million last year as the leading producers for Essex National Securities Inc., a third-party marketing firm that provides broker-dealer services for Iberia Bank of New Orleans.

Fidelity Investments, Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. manage wealth for the largest percentage of U.S. millionaires, according to a survey by Fidelity.

The Reserve Primary Fund broke the buck in September, but despite fears to the contrary, it has not broken the back of the money market fund industry.