NEW YORK — National Financial Partners Corp. will continue to pour money into acquisitions this year. At a recent conference for analysts and investors, company officials disclosed that they have earmarked $20 million to spend on acquisitions this year, a $5 million increase over 2006’s allocation.
OTTAWA — The federal budget unveiled last week allows the Canadian government to remove withholding tax on arm’s-length interest payments under the Canada-U.S. Tax Treaty and with other countries.
One of the most pressing issues in the investment industry today is retirement plan fees and expenses. A lot of questions have been raised about them recently, all of which can be answered simply à la college basketball commentator Dick Vitale: “It’s about fiduciary responsibility, baby!”
NEW YORK — Clean energy is increasingly gaining the attention of institutional investors. Last Monday, dozens of top investors managing a total of $4 trillion in assets asked Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the White House to approve stronger climate control policies.
NEW YORK — ING Advisors Network Inc. has reshuffled key spots in its top management ranks, with its president, Valerie Brown, leaving to become executive vice president of wealth management and annuities for ING U.S. Financial Services.
IRVINE, Calif. — The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed that firms beef up their disclosure of cash sweep policies. The proposal, part of a little-noticed package of rules floated by the SEC this month, would require broker-dealers to provide a quarterly notice to customers telling them that they can opt out of a default sweep option and choose another vehicle for their cash.
Worried about giving clients a fair deal and keeping regulators at bay, some brokerage firms are tamping down the commissions on variable annuities that registered representatives and financial advisers sell.
Regulators are turning the spotlight on companies that specialize in using high-pressure marketing tactics to sell financial products and services to older Americans.
State securities regulators are worried that the recent emphasis on making U.S. capital markets more competitive could lead to the pre-emption of their power by federal regulators.
Nobody ever accused companies that push annuities on older Americans of being subtle.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is getting close to bringing a first-of-its-kind privacy case against a broker-dealer for using client data in the account transfer process, and industry attorneys said that the SEC is investigating similar cases against as many as a dozen other firms.
WASHINGTON — The Department of Labor has put the issue of enhanced 401(k) fee disclosure on its agenda, a move that could take some of the wind out of the sails of a legislative threat.
LONDON — If you can’t beat it, trade it. That approach toward volatility is increasingly making inroads among institutional investors, including pension funds such as the $275 billion Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP of Heerlen, Netherlands.
NEW YORK — IBM Corp.’s announcement that it will offer financial planning services to all 127,000 of its U.S. employees is the biggest sign yet that companies are increasingly interested in providing workers with more individual — and effective — counseling on financial topics.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — For asset managers, forecasting whether the Federal Reserve will cut U.S. interest rates for the first time in four years might become a little easier, thanks to a budding derivatives contract.
BOSTON — Institutional investors that shun potential money manager candidates because of below-median returns could be lowering their odds of picking a long-term winner, research from investment consultant DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC shows.
By OTTAWA — The minority Conservative government’s budget, released last Monday, drew immediate fire from two Canadian opposition parties, the Liberals and New Democrats.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — For fixed-income investors, few words cause more fear in the over-the-counter-credit-derivatives market and its whopping $26 trillion notional value than “default” and “bankruptcy.”
Merrill Lynch & Co. analysts are mad as hell that people are simultaneously belittling and stealing their investment ideas, according to Crain's New York Business.
