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Wells Fargo Finds Itself In DOL Crosshairs

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The Department of Labor is questioning Wells Fargo's practices in recommending retirement savings vehicles.

Wells Fargo is the target of a Department of Labor probe on whether the bank has been pushing its customers to take their money out of low-cost corporate 401(k) plans and roll their holdings into more expensive individual retirement accounts at the bank, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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First-quarter RIA mergers and acquisitions rocketed to a record 47 deals, bouncing back from 33 deals in the fourth quarter, according to new data.

NAIFA needs to adapt and become more nimble in order to reverse membership losses that go back decades, CEO Kevin Mayeux told the Pennsylvania chapter Monday.

As regulatory activity increases, more and more advisors are going the independent route, partly to reduce the cost obligations of compliance as a broker-dealer firm.

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Variable annuities have fallen, but Morningstar believes they can get up.

Variable annuities continued a long slide in 2017, but Morningstar is finding hope in several factors this year. The downed Department of Labor fiduciary rule and rising interest rates are key.

RIA mergers and acquisitions are way up so far in 2018, according to new data.
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First-quarter RIA mergers and acquisitions rocketed to a record 47 deals, bouncing back from 33 deals in the fourth quarter, according to new data.

But in a flash, he lost $2.5 million of their retirement savings by using it to bet on the volatility of U.S. stock markets. That’s what Joseph Daines, a retired orthopedic surgeon, and his wife Susan allege in a lawsuit against local investment adviser Mark Matsko and his firm Selway Asset Management.
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NAIFA needs to adapt and become more nimble in order to reverse membership losses that go back decades, CEO Kevin Mayeux told the Pennsylvania chapter Monday.

April 24– More investors turned to the financial planning services of Ameriprise, helping drive the Minneapolis- based company to a sixth consecutive quarter of better-than-expected earnings. Ameriprise earned $594 million, or $3.91 per share, up 47 percent over the first quarter of 2017. Adjusted operating earnings were up 30 percent to $563 million, or $3.70…
Jackson National is staffing up for a push into the financial advisor space.

Jackson National is adding staff to grow its financial advisor distribution of fee-based variable annuities.

The Department of Labor is questioning Wells Fargo's practices in recommending retirement savings vehicles.

The bank was found to have charged nearly 600,000 customers for insurance they didn’t need, which led to about 20,000 repossessions, investigators said.

At the backdrop of increasing impressive performance of the global economy, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Mrs Christine Lagarde, has warned of some dangers in the horizon, as world debt rises to $164 trillion. Addressing the media on the sidelines of the on-going Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group in Washington DC, United…

Federal regulators are poised to impose a $1 billion penalty on Wells Fargo for a variety of alleged misdeeds, including forcing customers to buy auto insurance policies that they didn’t need, according to people briefed on the regulatory action. The expected penalty, levied by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the…
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As regulatory activity increases, more and more advisors are going the independent route, partly to reduce the cost obligations of compliance as a broker-dealer firm.

A new Merrill Lynch study conducted in partnership with Age Wave,“ Women and Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line,” celebrates the progress made by women while examining the financial challenges women still face throughout their lives, and offers potential solutions. The study finds that 70 percent of women believe that men and women have a fundamentally…
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton asks staff members questions about the proposed rule.

The SEC gave the public a first glance at its investment advice rules for brokers. The panel divided in its assessment, but voted 4-1 to tentatively adopt the rules.

Many people take Social Security early and put off tapping into their IRAs and 401(k)s until they must. But that’s the opposite of what most should do, because waiting until 70 to take benefits can pay off in more ways than one.

DENVER—Research funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®), and conducted by the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at…
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Several things contribute to clients outgrowing their advisors. In particular, advisors should be wary of these six things as they could be signs their client is ready to move on from the relationship.
Americans want employers to offer annuities in benefit plans to help with retirement income, according to a survey.

Employees want to build their own pension with annuities through employers, according to a MetLife survey.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that, from at least February 2015, Amrit J. S. Chahal, of Fairfax, Va., used his company, Kane Capital Investment Group, LLC, to fraudulently solicit approximately $1.4 million from about 50 individuals, including friends and family members. The SEC alleges that, in reality, Chahal had substantially no experience working in the financial or…

April 17– Michael Giokas’ three decades as a trusted investment adviser ended Monday with an admission that he cheated clients out of $1.4 million. The former owner of Giokas Wealth Advisors in Williamsville also admitted using a fake company, Trinity Council LLC, as part of a scheme to solicit investments he knew were fraudulent. “Trinity Council was a shell…

April 16– Bank of America said it made a record $6.9 billion in profit during the first three months of the year as the bank got a lift from rising interest rates and new cuts to corporate taxes. Revenue rose 4 percent to $23.1 billion in the latest quarter in which Federal Reserve increases in short-term interest rates have helped boost the bank’s results.

–The majority of 401 consultants support additional services in defined contribution retirement plans as participants rely more heavily on such funds when they retire, according to according to the 12th annual PIMCO Defined Contribution Consulting Support and Trends Survey published by PIMCO, one of the world’ s premier fixed income investment managers..
Don't wait for the bear market to bare its teeth before you help clients protect themselves.

Someday the bear will come. How well are advisors preparing clients?
Advisory firms are testing out several different fee models as the industry adapts to new concerns.

Traditional advisory payment models are steadily disappearing as younger clients expect flexibility and competitive fees. With that in mind, many advisors are creating new payment options that are gaining favor.
Digital-first agencies are finding they need to include humans if they hope to actually sell.

Digital-first agencies find that step No. 2 might be handing it off to an advisor.
Advisors are watching dollars fly away in wealth transfer.

Advisors are not paying attention to inheritances from sources other than parents and are losing clients in generational transfer, according to Spectrem.
People across the generations are pretty unhappy about their wage growth.
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Americans generally worry about wages, but younger workers are also concerned about affordable education.

A question I regularly hear regarding all types of estate planning documents is “how often should this be updated?” The answer depends, of course, on the individual circumstances. However, there are some general guidelines that can be helpful.

The indictments were issued following an investigation by the Alabama Securities Commission and the Alabama Department of Insurance. Officials with the Alabama Securities Commission said according to the indictment, Powell participated in illegal securities transactions by selling promissory notes and misappropriating the investment funds…

Stocks have been on a bumpy ride lately as concerns over a trade war prompt investors to rethink their appetite for risk. But what prompts people to take risks in the first place? Winston Churchill, himself known as a risk-taker, famously said: “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

Asian markets have risen amid uncertainty about an escalating U.S.-Chinese trade standoff after President Donald Trump said a settlement was possible but his advisers said other governments might pressure Beijing. Benchmarks in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney all advanced.

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., a developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics that are intended to create an artificial form of useful vision to blind patients, today announced that Dr. Robert Greenberg, MD, PhD has resigned from the Company’ s Board of Directors and the Company, effective April 3, 2018. Robert Greenberg has served…

The Hartford Gold Group has issued an Investor Alert warning retirement investors of the pending April 15 deadline to open and fund a new IRA account. “If you don’t have the right protections in place, everything you’ve worked for could vanish in a stock market meltdown,” said Sanford Mann, CEO of The Hartford Gold Group. Wealth Protection: precious metals have…

Grier has previously objected to about $27 million in claims by Stone Street Partners– a private equity firm and consulting firm once known as Siskey Capital– and two of its employees. In court documents, Grier said there won’t be enough assets available to “satisfy all claims in full if the Stone Street claims are allowed,” noting the firm’s claims are equal to…
More financial advisors are finding lots to like on social media.

More than 50 percent of financial advisors expect to go deeper in their social media relationship with their clients.

Simmons, who solicited over $6 million in investments for a hedge fund, misappropriated nearly $2 million of these funds for his own use and that of a co-conspirator, said Geoffrey Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Other investor funds solicited by Simmons were used by the owner of the Hedge Fund in the Ponzi-like scheme to…

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article about an issue we’ve covered since last year: Vanguard Group, our local mutual fund giant, is grappling with both a blessing and a curse. The company’s signature index funds, created by founder John Bogle, have won widespread acceptance. My colleague Joseph N. DiStefano’s story in January 2017 asked whether…

As he sits in the Erie County Prison, accused of fatally shooting his wife of five months on March 8, John Grazioli can no longer tend to his business, Grazioli Asset Management at 3614 W. 12th St., near Potomac Avenue in Millcreek Township.

Today, roughly one in five women in the U.S. doesn’ t have children. Thanks in part to this decline in birthrate, for the first time in U.S. history, there may soon be more elderly people than children. The cost of having children in the U.S. has grown exponentially since the 1960 s, when the government first started collecting data on childhood expenditures.

The SEC’s order found that Aegis failed to file SARs on suspicious transactions that raised red flags indicating the transactions were potentially related to the market manipulation of low-priced securities. “Aegis failed to meet its AML obligations to report suspicious activity, including when it was faced with specific information alerting the firm to…

The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana, Brandon J. Fremin, issued the following news release:. United States Attorney Brandon J. Fremin announced today the conviction of a Mandeville investment adviser who stole up to $1.5 million from investors in a widespread investment fraud scheme. On March 26, 2018, RALPH WILLARD SAVOIE, age 70, of Mandeville,…
Fallout from an industrywide regulation push is likely going to sharply reduce the number of independent marketing organizations.

The 350 Independent Marketing Organizations serving independent agents could shrink by 30 to 50 percent due to pressing regulation on several fronts, experts say. Many IMOs will be looking to buy or sell for the foreseeable future.
An average couple entering retirement at age 65 faces over $400,000 in future costs of care. The challenge is particularly stark for women, who face higher lifetime costs due to longer life expectancies.

Planning experts offer advice on crafting a responsible retirement plan that takes into account sharply rising health care expenses. A retirement plan that shorts health care planning can leave a client high and dry, they say.
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The National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted Saturday to accept more comments for 30 days on its best interest rule for annuity sales. The model law draft has drawn criticism from both sides for being both too tough and too lenient.

–Retirees and pre-retirees overwhelmingly express concerns about protecting retirement savings from stock market losses yet many say their primary investment goal is to grow rather than to preserve assets, according to a new study from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.. “Both retirees and pre-retirees say they worry that a major downturn in the…