Wealth management

Even as market conditions have pounded Fifth Third Bancorp's wealth management business, it has completed a series of initiatives that should ultimately improve its profitability, according to its top executive.

TIAA-CREF, one of the original players in the 529 college savings market, has lost another plan's business.

Hedge funds may cut 20,000 workers worldwide this year, a record 14% of the industry's jobs, as investment losses and client withdrawals erode fees.

State Street Global Advisors, State Street Corp.'s investment management arm, has launched the SPDR Barclays Capital Long Term Credit Bond ETF.

Fidelity Investments has three new funds that aim to buck the market turmoil by targeting a range of asset classes and regions and focusing on long-term returns.

The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more fell 27% last year, to 6.7 million, according to Spectrem Group.

A conservative approach and a wide product selection enabled BB&T Corp.'s fund unit to maintain its assets under management through a trying 2008 for the industry.

A silver lining exists in the ongoing financial crisis for small banks with strong balance sheets — this is an ideal time for them to woo customers and executive talent from the faltering titans and to build their investment programs, according to third-party marketers.

Hedge funds fell in February, giving back January's gains and reversing two straight months of small advances as the stock markets continued to swoon, according to data from the hedge fund adviser Hennessee Group LLC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a money manager and her firm Monday with pretending she had a billion-dollar client in order to lure legitimate investors.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. was the No. 1 trustee in the United States last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

Invesco Ltd.'s Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management plans to take advantage of the "chaos" in the financial services industry to add assets and customers, according to its new chief executive officer.

Marshall & Ilsley Corp.'s acquisition of a majority stake in Taplin, Canida & Habacht Inc. of Miami in December is going exactly according to plan, according to an M&I executive. But analysts say it likely will be the last acquisition of its kind for a while as banks become sellers rather than buyers in the investment business.

At yearend a majority of global assets under management in hedge funds and funds of hedge funds came from institutional investors, and a third of those assets came from pension funds, according to the Alternative Investment Management Association.

Fourth-quarter assets in 529 college savings plans fell 13% from the third quarter and 21% from a year earlier, to about $88.5 billion, according to a report assembled by Financial Research Corp. and released by the College Savings Foundation this week.

Many advisers are in flux these days, and Brian Surovik at Lone Star Bank and Trust in College Station, Texas, knows how that feels.

By recruiting financial advisers and expanding organically this year, Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust, a Coral Gables, Fla., unit of Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc., plans to recover the assets it lost last year as a result of difficult market conditions, according to the new managing director of its wealth arm.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. announced Monday that it has completed its acquisition of JPMorgan Trust Bank Ltd. in Japan from JPMorgan Chase & Co.