3 mutual funds were fined for charging clients too much money
Finra fines three firms for mutual fund overcharges (Investment News)
Wells Fargo ($15 million), Raymond James ($8.7 million) and LPL Financial ($6.3 million) have been fined more than $30 million combined for overcharging clients on Class A shares from July 2009 through 2014. Investment News reports, "The firms either passed along the charges improperly or put investors into Class B or C shares, which come with high back-end and ongoing fees." As part of the settlement, the firms neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.
Divorcing women need to understand their financial future (Think Advisor)
The US divorce rate is falling, but that doesn't mean women should still leave control of the family finances to the man of the house. "When going through a divorce, whether you're the primary earner or not, it's really important that both parties really but the woman especially has a great handle on all levels of finance, especially if she's delegated it to her spouse," Leslie Thompson, managing principal and co-founder of Spectrum Management Group, told Think Advisor. While 22% of women are the top breadwinners, only 19% make the financial decisions, and if they find themselves in the middle of a divorce they often don't have the appropriate financial literacy.
China announced more measures in an attempt to stop its stock market's slide (Business Insider)
On Tuesday, China's financial regulators increased their efforts to stabilize smaller Chinese stocks. Beijing announced it would limit the number of investors' daily purchases of CSI 500 index futures to 1,200 contracts and that Central Huijin Investment Company, the investment arm of the government, would continue to buy ETFs to bolster confidence. The announcement follows other measures implemented over the weekend, which saw brokerage firms buy massive amounts of stocks and Beijing halt IPOs coming to market.
A legal way to game the stock market (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg reports Wall Street firms are implementing a tactic similar to front-running, but what they are doing is perfectly legal. Wall Street firms are gobbling up shares of companies who are about to be added to the S&P 500. According to Bloomberg, "By one estimate, it gouges owners of funds tracking the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to the tune of $4.3 billion a year, a sum that can double or even triple the cost of such investments." Some mutual fund companies are working to resolve this shortfall by accumulating shares of companies that look like they will be added to the index.
Focus Financial is reportedly planning to IPO (Financial Advisor)
Industry sources told Financial Advisor that Focus Financial Partners is preparing a S-1 document for an initial public offering. Details of a potential IPO remain sketchy, but Financial Advisor speculates Focus Financial could use the money raised to provide additional capital and fund future acquisitions. It is still possible the company doesn't IPO.