Financial advisors have long complained that 529 college savings plans aren’t profitable products for them to fuss with: The average account size is too small, the account opening process is too time consuming...
Growing up on a dairy farm in Owen, Wis., Mark Schley always dreamed of running his own cattle ranch. He envisioned sprawling land, a barn and a rustic home for his family. His wife Susan had also been raised on a...
If you want to help fight the war on terror with your pocketbook, plunk down some loot in the Roosevelt Anti-Terror Multi-Cap fund. The tiny mutual fund, with just $14 million in assets, changed its name from Abacus...
Merrill Lynch has launched a new benefit program for its army of 15,700 brokers that will provide financial assistance to their families in the event of their death. The added death benefits include a lump-sum payment...
Small broker/dealer firms are trying to slow the proposed merger between the NASD and NYSE Regulation, saying that it’s being pursued too hastily and the consequences are not clear. In a letter to NASD committee...
The NASD fined Chase Investment Services and MetLife Securities for failing to establish internal controls to supervise the sale of 529 college savings plans. The two firms were fined $500,000 apiece and ordered to...
Brokerage firms have lobbied for a new self-regulatory organization (SRO) model for years, saying the current system of two cops on the beat is redundant and, therefore, too time consuming and expensive. Now that SEC...
Not everybody is cheering the formation of a single self-regulatory organization. An insurgency of small brokerage firms is urging their peers to strike down yesterday's announced merger between the regulatory arms of...
Three foreign firms plan to make their final bids for Putnam Investments ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the bidding process. The trio includes U.K...
