Posts belonging to Category Fidelity



Wall Street Trade Association Supports Fiduciary Standard

 

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, an important Wall Street lobbying group, has decided to support the Obama administration’s proposal to hold brokers to the same standard as a fiduciary when they provide investment advice, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. While investors who sue their brokers have long argued, […]

Investors Need to be Careful with Target-Date Mutual Funds

 

Target-Date mutual funds are not always what they appear to be, reports Leslie Wayne in her June 25, 2009 article in the New York Times entitled “Target-Date Mutual Funds May Miss Their Mark.” Target-Date mutual funds are supposed increase the allocation of bonds over time in order to reduce volatility as an investor approaches retirement. […]

Evergreen Pays Over $40 Million to Settle SEC Charges that it Overvalued Mortgage-Backed Investments

 

Evergreen Investment Management Company (“Evergreen”), a unit of Wells Fargo & Co., has agreed to pay more than $40 million to settle an enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Massachusetts Securities Division, according to articles in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Evergreen was a subsidiary of Wachovia at the […]

Regulators Require Financial Firms to Provide More Public Disclosure Regarding Customer Complaints

 

On May 13, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved a rule change that requires brokers to disclose alleged sales practice violations made by a customer against a securities broker in the body of a civil lawsuit or arbitration claim, even if that broker is not named as a defendant or respondent. The […]

Questionable Sales Practices Haunt Fidelity

 

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC has had trouble retaining some of the most successful brokers in its Private Client Group as a result of questionable sales practices. According to an article in Investment News, dozens of brokers serving Fidelity’s most affluent clients recently left the firm because, even though they were required to obtain certified financial […]

World’s Largest Mutual Fund Company Lays Off Employees

 

Fidelity Investments, the world’s largest mutual fund company, will lay off 1,300 employees, or 3% of its work force this month. It will also conduct a second round of job cuts in the first quarter of 2009 that is anticipated to impact another 1,700 employees.

FINRA Announces Auction-Rate Securities Settlements with More Firms

 

Yesterday the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) announced auction-rate securities settlements with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Comerica Securities, First Southwest, and WaMu Investments, Inc.

Credit Suisse Enters into Auction-Rate Securities Settlement with Regulators

 

A settlement, in principle, has been reached between a state auction-rate securities task force and Credit Suisse which would require the investment bank to buy back approximately $550 million in auction-rate securities. In addition, the firm will pay a $15 million fine. The investigation of Credit Suisse was lead by the North Carolina Secretary of […]

Fidelity Reaches Auction-Rate Securities Settlement

 

Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have reported that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office has reached an agreement with Fidelity Investments to resolve problems over Fidelity’s marketing of auction-rate securities. According to sources familiar with the negotiations, Fidelity will apparently repurchase approximately $300 million of auction-rate securities from its […]

Many Auction-Rate Securities Investors May Be Left to Fend for Themselves

 

While regulators have announced tentative settlements with major Wall Street firms (Merrill Lynch, UBS, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank) that underwrote auction-rate securities, these settlements have not addressed the situation of thousands of investors that purchased auction-rate securities through smaller brokerage firms. Most of these smaller brokerage firms were […]