AP
Dwight Freeney
NFLers suit against BofA is dismissed (Investment News)
A lawsuit brought against Bank of America by NFL star Dwight Freeney has been dismissed in federal court. Freeney sued the investment bank, alleging a Merrill Lynch advisor participated in a scheme to defraud him out of $20 million. Freeney alleges his advisor, Michael Bock, and the investment bank, 'aided and abetted' a fraudster who stole more then $8.5 million from his account at the firm. However, Judge Margaret M. Morrow ruled it was a rarity for parent companies to be held liable for the actions of their subsidiaries. Investment News reports Freeney will have 20 days to file an amended complaint and that Freeney's lawyer, Jeffrey B. Isaacs, is "confident" he
Hillary Clinton wants to overhaul capital gains taxes (Bloomberg)
Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wants to change the tax on short-term capital gains. Bloomberg reports, although her plan has not been finalized, Clinton would like to create a "sliding rate scale based on the length of an investment." Clinton's husband, President Bill Clinton, lowered the maximum capital gains tax from 28% to 20% in 1997 before President Bush cut the maximum rate to 15% in 2003.
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Blackstone enters the mutual fund business (Reuters)
Blackstone is the newest member of the mutual fund industry after its $4 billion buyout of First Eagle Investment Management. First Eagle manages seven mutual funds, holding a combined $74 billion AUM. Data obtained by Reuters from Morningstar shows First Eagle's top performing fund, the First Eagle Gold Fund, has outperformed 95% of its peers over the past one, three and five years.
The Department of Labor's fiduciary rule will be expensive to implement (Wealth Management)
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association says the Department of Labor's proposed fiduciary rule would cost the financial services industry nearly $5 billion to implement and approximately $1.1 billion each year. SIFMA's letter says the DOL gave "no study data to compare the performance of accounts managed by a fiduciary versus a non-fiduciary and cannot reasonably conclude that investors would be better off under an expanded fiduciary standard on the basis of the studies cited." According to Wealth Management, the Chamber of Commerce has also spoken out against the proposed rule.
How to maximize your firm's value (Financial Planning)
Financial advisors are always looking for ways to grow their firm's value over the long haul. According to Financial Planning, would be buyers focus on these three fundamental drivers: size, revenue and organization. The bigger the firm, the more revenue that comes in. The more revenue you have, the more services and capabilities you can offer. The better services and capabilities you can offer, the stronger your organization.