Talk about playing hardball. Back in 1990 when Nell Minow was at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a corporate governance watchdog, she was confronted with the task of having to call a board member of Aon Corp. to tell him that ISS had to...

According to the FPA's 2005 Compensation and Staffing Study, revenue at independent financial advisory firms grew by 25 percent on average in 2004. The firms also added 21 new clients and increased assets by $28.9 million, on average. Seems only...

When it comes to client-advisor communications about charitable giving, something is amiss. That, at least, is the conclusion of a survey conducted by The Philanthropic Initiative of Boston. The study found that half of all advisors say they...

For Darcy Bhatia, there's no such thing as too much good advice. Once a month, Bhatia, a partner at Highmount Capital, a three-year-old New York-based multifamily office and wealth management firm, meets for three hours with a group of 17 other...

David Penn joins Smith Barney, effective November, as director of Investment Products at the firm's Global Private Client Group. He will be responsible for oversight of all Smith Barney Investment products. Penn joins the firm after 21 years with...

Lawyers, Drugs and Money: Consuelo Marquez, an ex-Lehman Brothers broker who worked at the firm from 1995 to 2000, pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan in August to conspiring to launder roughly $11 million in drug money for a former...

It's a fact that busy workers are happy workers. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it may help explain the apparent mirth at the SEC. The federal regulator fresh off William Donaldson's administration, the busiest enforcement period ever...

When it comes to lavishing praise on their sales assistants, reps are generous. They'll often tell you that they couldn't possibly get through the day

Can the folks who market variable annuities and have gotten slammed by regulators for how they line their pockets in the process force the industry that the products to roll back prices and simplify mind-boggling fee schedules? Can they, in fact...

Citizens Financial Group is punishing its brokerage force for targeting elderly bank customers in the sale of its high-risk variable annuities. How? By taking away the things brokers love: Red Sox playoff tickets, limousine trips to Mohegan Sun...