Will Leitch

Talk about paying to play. Three registered investment advisors were accused by the SEC of accepting cash payments from TD Waterhouse in return for putting client assets with Waterhouse. The SEC announced in late...

Is a 61 percent decrease in profits from one year to the next a “reversion to the mean” or an ominous sign of cloudy skies ahead? It depends on whom you’re talking to.

With the job cuts, branch closings and refocusing currently under way at Charles Schwab & Co., there's one area that seems to be safe. Despite the firm's move to replace former CEO David Pottruck with founder Charles...

The first target has been hit: Directed brokerage is no more, and 12b-1 fees might be in more danger than had been thought. The SEC's recent ban on the practice of directed brokerage was expected. The same cannot be...

Change is in the air for wholesalers, thanks to the mutual fund scandals and recent banning of directed-brokerage practices by the SEC. Boston-based Financial Research Corp. recently said in a study that the changes...

The fortunes of advisors took a turn for the better in 2003, according to the annual report from the Securities Industry Association. For starters, average gross commissions and fees were up to $372,963, a 4.2 percent...

The SEC has nailed some additional broker/dealers for failing to disclose payment relationships they had with companies their research departments covered.

A new study from Boston-based Financial Research Corp. confirms what many in the industry have suspected for a few years now: The world of wholesalers is about to change dramatically.