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NEWS
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IMCA Raises Standards for CIMA Certification
July 2, 2009The Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) implemented changes to its Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) certification program yesterday, the organization said. Candidates who enroll in the program after July 1 will have to pass a new certification exam.
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FPA Urges Members to Write SEC About Custody Rule
July 2, 2009The Financial Planning Association is encouraging its members to write to the Securities and Exchange Commission protesting a proposed regulation that will require investment advisors to undergo surprise annual accounting audits by an outside accounting firm.
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Hedge Funds Brace for Regulation
July 2, 2009Hedge fund managers, who shouldered plenty of blame for the destabilization of the financial markets, have largely averted regulation until now, but those days appear to be numbered.
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Web Access with Human Advice Is a Winning Combo
July 2, 2009Two-thirds of 401(k) plan participants visit their plan’s website at least once per month, according to Spectrem’s new Retirement Market Insights report.
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Financial Planning Coalition Asks Members to Lobby Congress
July 2, 2009The Financial Planning Coalition is encouraging members to meet with their Congressional representatives, who are currently in their home districts for the holiday weekend, to push for uniform regulation of the financial planning profession.
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Group Annuities May Be Inappropriate for 401(k)s
July 2, 2009Group annuities are being criticized for subjecting investors to lockup periods of five years or longer and a variety of additional fees.
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California Ready to Hand Out IOUs
July 2, 2009California is poised to begin paying some bills with IOUs today after efforts to pass budget-balancing legislation before a Tuesday night deadline failed.
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House Committee Clears Bill on Hidden 401(k) Fees
July 2, 2009The House Education and Labor Committee has approved a bill that would require 401(k) plan providers to provide clear, complete information about the fees they charge.
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Feds Break up ID Theft and Tax Fraud Scheme
July 2, 2009Eleven defendants have been charged in a massive scheme to file fraudulent tax returns using the stolen identities of Puerto Rican residents in an attempt to collect more than $18 million in tax refunds
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FACT Act Provisions Finalized
July 2, 2009The banking agencies finalized provisions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act on Wednesday that gives consumers more authority to dispute information in their credit reports.
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Surprising Surge in Home Equity Loans
July 2, 2009Data suggests that many banks binged on home equity loans last year and began tightening standards only in the second half — after housing prices had already staged a dramatic retreat.
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First U.S.-Based Islamic ETF Launches Today
July 1, 2009The first U.S. exchange traded fund to comply with Islamic law began trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JVS.
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The Hartford Accepts $3.4 Billion in TARP Funds
July 1, 2009Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., reports that it has accepted all of the $3.4 billion approved from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program.
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Regulatory Report Cites Better Mods But Finds Issues
July 1, 2009A regulatory report on the pace of mortgage modifications was a decidedly mixed bag, showing that although servicers have increased the number of sustainable modifications, serious delinquencies among prime borrowers continue to rise.
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American Century Tax-Free Fund
July 1, 2009American Century Investments, a Kansas City investment management company, said that it launched the American Century New York Tax-Free Fund.
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Commercial Property Could Become Operating Albatross
July 1, 2009Growing weakness in commercial real estate is poised to transform banking companies into accidental landlords — with a new set of headaches.
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Putnam’s Haldeman May Be Headed to Freddie Mac
July 1, 2009The Wall Street Journal reports that Charles E. Haldeman, who resigned yesterday as chief of Putnam Investments, is a prime candidate for the CEO position at government-backed mortgage provider Freddie Mac.
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April Home Prices Fell 18 Percent
July 1, 2009Two measures of home prices published on Tuesday showed a drop of just over 18% in April from year-ago levels, leading some observers to voice optimism that the worst of the price declines may be over.
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Match or No Match, 401(k) Contributions Are Critical
July 1, 2009Noting that one-quarter of employers have either already cut or plan to cut their 401(k) match, financial advisors are reminding investors of the importance of saving for retirement.
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Taxpayer Advocate to Focus on Tax Preparer Regulation
July 1, 2009National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson plans to make oversight of tax return preparers one of her office’s main priorities in the coming fiscal year.
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New Leadership at Putnam
June 30, 2009Putnam President and CEO Robert L. Reynolds will replace Charles 'Ed' Haldeman as president of the Putnam Funds, but the position of chairman of Putnam Investment Management will be eliminated.
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Index of Advisor Confidence Up in June
June 30, 2009Advisor confidence in the economy and the stock market grew in June, according to Rydex SGI AdvisorBenchmarking.
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New Fiduciary Group to Educate Consumers
June 30, 2009A new advocacy group aims to tackle the consumer with a media campaign to explain the differences between advisors’ fiduciary standard of care and brokers’ suitability standard.
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Half of Registered Advisors Add Clients
June 30, 2009Registered investment advisors reported a rise in new clients, according to a survey released Monday by TD Ameritrade Institutional, a unit of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.
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Standard & Poor's Says Recession to End This Year
June 30, 2009Standard & Poor’s is predicting an end to the recession by the fourth quarter of this year, and positive GDP growth next year of 1.3%.
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States Get More Power Over Banks
June 30, 2009The Supreme Court's decision Monday to let states have enforcement authority over national banks could open the floodgates for lawsuits from state attorneys general and bolster momentum for President Obama's regulatory restructuring plan.
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Survey: Widespread Anxiety Among Health Policy Holders
June 30, 2009A new survey finds a pervasive sense of unease among holders of health insurance policies.
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Fund Giants Resist ‘Radical Changes’ to Money Funds
June 30, 2009While Fidelity Investments agrees with most of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed changes to money market funds, it doesn’t want to see “radical changes” to the asset class.
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Putnam CEO Succeeding in Turning Firm Around
June 30, 2009Replacing a team portfolio structure with a single top manager and doing away with quantitative strategies has created a new era of accountability at Putnam Investments that appears to be having a striking effect on performance.
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A New ETF that Invests in Banks?
June 29, 2009The First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index Fund will begin trading on Wednesday.
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LOOKING AHEAD: Investing Ideas and Analysis for the Week of June 29, 2009
June 29, 2009After a week of sell offs, experts discuss whether this time really is different and give some insight as to when—and how—we may get out of it, including Jensen Investment Management, Muhlenkamp & Co.’s Ron Muhlenkamp and Clearbrook Financial’s Tom Sowanick.
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Advisors Should Choose Process over Product for Retirement Income
June 29, 2009It is the process and not the products that will drive retirement income planning, according to the latest Cerulli Edge Retirement report.
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Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison
June 29, 2009Bernard Madoff, the disgraced financier and architect of the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, was sentenced on Monday to 150 years in prison, the maximum time allowed.
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Fidelity Study: Millionaires Better Off with Advisors
June 29, 2009Millionaires with financial advisors have lost less money during the financial crisis than those who don’t work with an advisor, according to a new study by Fidelity Investments.
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Barclays Doubts Bank Revival
June 29, 2009Banks may not get another big rebound in profits until the second half of 2010, according to Barclays Capital analysts.
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S&P: Distressed Ratio Falls to 34%
June 29, 2009The distressed debt ratio is at its lowest point in nine months, dropping to 34% from a high of 85% last December, according to a study released today by Standard & Poor’s.
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SEC Uncovers Another Ponzi Scheme
June 29, 2009The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Moises Pacheco and the two investment advisory firms he controls for operating an alleged Ponzi scheme.
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No Robust Recovery Ahead, John Bogle Predicts
June 29, 2009The economy will not bound back with élan but at least will provide a “normal recovery,” Vanguard founder John Bogle tells Bloomberg.
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Hancock Arms Advisors with Portfolio Insight Tool
June 29, 2009John Hancock Funds has developed a tool that allows financial advisors to create detailed analyses of their clients’ portfolios and prepare high-quality, customized reports.
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IRS Extends Deadline for Filing FBAR
June 29, 2009The Internal Revenue Service has extended the deadline for filing a report on foreign bank accounts to Sept. 23 from the original June 30 deadline as it seeks to crack down on offshore tax havens.
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Supreme Court Might Side With Investors on Fees
June 29, 2009After years of the court system siding with the mutual fund industry on the discrepancy between retail and institutional mutual fund fees, an upcoming Supreme Court case might be a watershed one for investors.
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Regulators Close 5 Banks; Worst Single Evening Since 1992
June 29, 2009Federal and state regulators shut 5 banks totaling a combined $1 billion in assets late Friday – the largest number of failures in a single night since the end of the savings and loan crisis.
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Brian Moynihan on the Integration of Merrill Lynch
June 29, 2009Six months into one of the most scrutinized takeovers in recent memory, Bank of America Corp. is pulling every lever imaginable to make its embattled purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. work.
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Podcast Library
June 29, 2009
Our free podcasts for advisors provide information and advice from industry experts on a wide variety of topics. Listen now, or download now and listen at your convenience. -
Financial Services M&A to Continue Despite Credit Meltdown, Says Tiburon Study
June 26, 2009The financial services sector can count on plenty of merger and acquisition activity in the near future, as insurance companies and retail banks try to turn themselves into financial supermarkets.
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Survey Names Most Effective Wholesalers
June 26, 2009Blackrock, Mainstay Investments/NYLIM, and JPMorgan Asset Management were the top three firms receiving the highest wholesaler satisfaction scores in a new survey of advisors.
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Illinois Agent Guilty of Fraud Charges
June 26, 2009The Illinois Department of Insurance has cracked a case of insurance fraud, as agent Reuben Collier Jr. of Zion pleaded guilty this month to four Class 3 felony charges in Lake County Court.
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Study Foresees Ongoing Pains for Life Insurers
June 26, 2009The ill effects of the financial crisis will hamper the life-annuity industry for the remainder of the year, a new report by Hartford, Conn.-based Conning Research and Consulting finds.
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IRS Will Help Streamline Student Aid Applications
June 26, 2009The Obama administration is introducing a shorter and simpler Free Application for Federal Student Aid form that takes advantage of information from the IRS to streamline the application process for college financial aid.
