REUTERS/Gary Cameron

The icy steps at the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial is seen during blizzard conditions in Arlington, Virginia during a snow storm in the Washington metro

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LPL Blames Recruitment Slowdown On Weather And Stock Market Volatility (Investment News)

The severe cold that slammed the U.S. this winter has trickled through in the economic data. Now, LPL Financial is blaming a slowdown in recruitment on the cold as well, reports Bruce Kelly at Investment News. LPL also attributed part of the slowdown to stock market volatility. This is because at times of volatility advisors tend to strap in and settle down to take care of their clients. Kelly writes that "is closely watched by the rest of the independent broker-dealer industry and is considered a bellwether for the business."

Merrill Lynch Advisors Worry About Changes After Veteran Managers Quietly Retire (The Wall Street Journal)

Bank of America's advisors are worried that they will face more pressure to change the way they conduct their business, "more than a dozen veteran Merrill Lynch managers have quietly retired, resigned or been reassigned in recent weeks," report Corrie Driebusch and Matthias Rieker at the Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson told the WSJ that this is normal for this time of the year, but a Merrill Lynch advisor on condition of anonymity said, "this is the old guard, good managers, suddenly leaving."

The One Big Story No One Is Talking About Right Now (Business Insider)

John Stoltzfus, chief market strategist at Oppenheimer, thinks no one is talking about how unprepared baby boomers are for retirement. "No one wants to talk about just how unprepared the Baby Boomer generation is for the years when they will no longer be able to work," he told Business Insider's Steve Perlberg. Investment and Insurance firms certainly provide informational commercials as background in the media on this but it does not appear that Washington or the folks on Main Street are considering the unpreparedness as the potential for crisis that it may be."

Here's Where We Are In The Business Cycle (Fidelity)

2014 has got off to a rocky start. There's the severe weather impacting the U.S., emerging markets have taken a hit, concerns about Chinese growth have resurfaced, and geo-political tensions between Russia and Ukraine are in th headlines. Fidelity has put up a chart of where some of the world's biggest economies are in the business cycle.