WACHOVIA TO BUY TANAGER FINANCIAL: In an effort to strengthen its wealth management practice, Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp., the nation's fifth-largest bank, agreed to acquire wealth advisory firm Tanager Financial Services Inc.
Terms of the deal were not undisclosed.
Once the deal is completed, Tanager, which has 47 employees and $2 billion under management, will be integrated with Wachovia Wealth Management and its Calibre family office business. Calibre provides financial services to families of multi-generational wealth, and currently has more than $10 billion under management and serves roughly 180 families.
The Boston office of Tanager will become Calibre's third location. It currently has offices in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Philadelphia.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year.
SURVEY SAYS MOST AMERICANS are SHORT ON LTC INFO: While half of them will need it at some point in their lifetime, when it comes to long-term care knowledge, most Americans get a failing grade, according to a survey conducted by MetLife.
The MetLife survey of 1,488 Americans between 40 and 70 years old found that most lack a basic understanding of long-term care. According to MetLife, the cost of LTC services is one of the areas where Americans have the greatest gaps in their knowledge.
Forty-one percent of those who took MetLife's Long Term Care Insurance IQ Test incorrectly believed that they are entitled to basic coverage for long-term care from the government at retirement, and the same proportion cited Medicare, Medicare Supplement (Medigap) or disability insurance as forms of insurance that pay for this care.
Nearly two-thirds incorrectly estimated the cost of waiting to buy LTC insurance at an older age, according to the results. In addition, less than 40 percent of respondents recognized that a 65-year-old has a 50 percent likelihood of living another 18 years, and 72 percent didn't know how likely it is that an 85-year-old will need help with his or her daily living activities.
More than half (55 percent) of those polled incorrectly thought that people are most likely to receive long-term care in nursing homes, while only 18 percent of respondents correctly identified their home as the most likely place where long-term care services would be provided.
SEC URGED TO SCRAP ANTI-INVESTOR RULE: In a formal comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission and a follow-up letter to the commission's chairman, William Donaldson, the Consumer Federation of America called on the SEC to drop its anti-investor proposal, which expands the broker/dealer exclusion in the Investment Advisers Act.
Instead, the CFA is urging the regulator to restore a real functional distinction between brokerage services and advisory services.
Both of the documents sent by the CFA outline an alternate approach that would create what it feels is a much needed distinction between brokerage services and advisory services, while clarifying that fee-based compensation alone does not automatically trigger Investment Advisers Act regulation.
Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the CFA, said that the distinction is important for the investment community because investment advisors are subject to a higher standard of conduct than brokers.
"Despite their fancy titles, brokers are salespeople," said Roper. "They do not have the same fiduciary duty to their customers that advisors have. Instead, they are subject to a less exacting obligation to make suitable recommendations. And, while they have some limited obligation to disclose conflicts of interest, those requirements are neither as extensive nor as timely as the disclosure requirements that investment advisors must comply with."
