NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wealth management executives worldwide expect merger activity to accelerate as most firms struggle to control costs, expand revenue and connect with a generation of younger, more skeptical investors.

Nearly three years after the financial crisis, private wealth managers still are finding it hard to both increase revenue and cut costs, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in its latest global private banking and wealth management report.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Robert W. Baird & Co, which showed it could poach brokers from bigger firms during the financial crisis, now aims to attract a generation of clients that has largely eluded Wall Street.

The Milwaukee-based investment bank, which has hired more than 200 brokers and branch managers in the past two years, is now focusing on recruiting women and minorities who can, in turn, attract clients in a marketplace that has become more diverse.

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) – Robert W. Baird & Co, which
showed it could poach brokers from bigger firms during the
financial crisis, now aims to attract a generation of clients
that has largely eluded Wall Street.

The Milwaukee-based investment bank, which has hired more
than 200 brokers and branch managers in the past two years, is
now focusing on recruiting women and minorities who can, in
turn, attract clients in a marketplace that has become more
diverse.

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) – Robert W. Baird & Co, which
showed it could poach brokers from bigger firms during the
financial crisis, now aims to attract a generation of clients
that has largely eluded Wall Street.

The Milwaukee-based investment bank, which has hired more
than 200 brokers and branch managers in the past two years, is
now focusing on recruiting women and minorities who can, in
turn, attract clients in a marketplace that has become more
diverse.

/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Millionaires are less optimistic about the U.S. economy than their financial advisers and are taking a more cautious approach in their investments, Fidelity Investments said on Thursday.

The Boston-based mutual fund and brokerage giant’s latest Insights on Advice report found that brokers and advisers are more confident than their millionaire clients about all key sectors of the economy, including real estate, consumer and business spending, and the stock market.

NEW YORK/BOSTON, June 14 (Reuters) – Affiliated Managers
Group Inc, a company that snaps up asset-management boutiques,
is setting its sights on also amassing a big slice of the
wealth management business.

Boston-based AMG on Tuesday hired Morgan Stanley executive
John Copeland as president of AMG Wealth Partners, a new unit
that will buy controlling stakes in boutique wealth managers.
Copeland, a 23-year veteran of the wealth management business,
will be based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) – U.S. brokerage giant Charles
Schwab Corp (SCHW.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said customer trading activity slowed
substantially last month, a sign that retail investors may be
losing confidence in the stock market.

Revenue-producing trades, a measure of investor engagement,
averaged 395,900 per day in May, down 23 percent from a year
earlier and off 9 percent from April, Schwab said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) – A pair of high-producing
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokers who jumped ship in 2009 to
form an independent firm were ordered by arbitrators to repay
the broker-dealer $4.3 million in bonuses.

A FINRA arbitration panel ruled that Sean Lehmann and Kurt
Halverstadt violated a brokerage industry recruiting pact when
they left to form Capital Investment Management Group in
Roseville, California. The pact bars employees from taking
certain client data with them when they jump to rival firms.

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) – A pair of high-producing
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokers who jumped ship in 2009 to
form an independent firm were ordered by arbitrators to repay
the brokerage $4.3 million in bonuses.

A FINRA arbitration panel ruled that Sean Lehmann and Kurt
Halverstadt violated a brokerage industry recruiting pact when
they left to form Capital Investment Management Group in
Roseville, California. The pact bars employees from taking
certain client data with them when they jump to rival firms.

NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) – LPL Investment Holdings Inc
(LPLA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the largest “independent” broker-dealer, has little
interest in buying other firms after several recent
acquisitions, according to a senior executive.

The Boston-based company, which sold shares to the public
for the first time last November, had been expected to use
shares and its surging cash balances to bid on struggling
independent firms currently on the block.