Independent advisors require a vastly different level of support from money managers and their field forces than their wirehouse and bank rep counterparts, according to newly published research from Financial Research Corp.

Merrill Lynch is launching a new career-development magazine geared toward executive leadership in corporate America. Entitled 360 Degrees and published by Spot On Media, the first edition is expected to hit the presses in the coming weeks.

For many investors, incorporating personal values into a portfolio is a must, and socially responsible investing (SRI) is a way to do that. If you don’t know what SRI is, or only have a vague idea, it turns out you’re in good company...

James Gorman, the Merrill Lynch defector who, since February, heads the retail brokerage unit at Morgan Stanley, continues to build his leadership team. Gorman announced in a memo to employees on Thursday that Donald Herrema will join the company...

In the battle over California’s 529 college savings program, Fidelity Investments provisionally beat out the Vanguard Group to replace TIAA-CREF as the provider this week. TIAA-CREF had been running California’s ScholarShare College...

Advisors bent on serving the rich might consider taking an occasional look at the middle-class market. Consider this: Median net worth from 2001 to 2004 rose only 1.5 percent to $93,100, according to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances...

retax earnings at Merrill Lynch’s global private client group (GPC) rose 27 percent in the first quarter ending March 31 to $646 million from $510 million in the same period a year ago. As might be expected, the division’s headcount...

Financial advisors have the best jobs after college professors and software engineers, according to a research report from Money magazine and Salary.com released today. Among the factors the report took into account were job growth, pay and stress...

This may be remembered as the year advisors found out that even their wealthiest clients were worried about long-term health care costs.

The Swiss banking giant UBS added the retail unit of Midwestern gem Piper Jaffray today to its wirehouse brokerage division for $500 million in cash and other considerations.