Gaining access to high-net-worth clients is priority No. 1 for many brokerage firms these days, but it takes years of hard work to grow an organization of qualified wealth managers. So firms—such as Wachovia (Tanager), Schwab (U.S. Trust)...

The SEC narrowly succeeded in passing a final rule requiring hedge fund advisors to register under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940. The commission says the measure will benefit all involved parties, including investors, but many observers say...

If there’s one thing to be learned from “all weather” investment strategies such as muni laddering, it’s this: there is such a thing as too conservative.

The New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm is flexing its muscle, hoping to squeeze confessions out of Wall Street firms that failed to deliver prospectuses to customers.

The nation’s largest discount brokerage firm, Charles Schwab & Co., is cutting 19 retail branches in favor of smaller, one- or two-broker boutiques, a move the company says will cut costs and more effectively serve clients. Analysts think it...

Bob Mulholland, second-in-command in Merrill Lynch’s brokerage unit, has left the firm, Registered Rep. has learned. Mulholland’s retirement was announced internally on Oct. 26, according to a firm spokesman. The move is somewhat of a...

Perhaps it was the recent victory of President Bush that heartened this business friendly crowd, or the tranquil Boca Raton setting, but the annual SIA conference exudes an oddly serene tone

It may come as no surprise to many brokers, but more than half of American investors look to them for more than just transactional assistance, according to new research.

Citigroup has been hit with another fine, this time for improper marketing of hedge funds. The NASD fined Citigroup Global Markets $250,000 for sending out more than 100 pieces of sales literature between July 2002 and June 2003, which, among...

Separately managed accounts (SMA) have been touted as the next big thing, the Holy Grail even, for the financial services industry for a few years now, but myriad inefficiencies still hamper the effective delivery of the best of these products to...