In wealth management circles, Robert McCann is a pro. After all, he ran Merrill Lynch's financial advisory business -- known as the "thundering herd" -- which is now part of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).

However, he left in January and wanted another opportunity. But there was a problem: he had a noncompete. So, with the help of skillful attorneys, he was able to reach some type of settlement.

During the past year, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) went from near-death to profitability. Yes, Wall Street can be extremely resilient.

In its latest quarterly report, Morgan Stanley posted a profit of $757 million, or $0.38 per share. This was far below the company's results in the same period a year ago, which came to $7.7 billion, or $6.97 per share (keep in mind there was a large one-time gain for this quarter).

One of the characteristics of this decade's bull market has been the emergence, use, and growth of derivatives, options and futures products, both for hedging and for pure investing purposes, and a company in this segment worth a review is FC Stone.

FCStone Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: FCSX) provides risk management consulting and transaction execution services to commercial commodity intermediaries, end-users and producers. An FCSX unit also offers grain merchandising services for grain buyers/sellers in the U.S. and overseas; the company also ships about 100 million bushels of grain per year.

Sequoia Capital is a pioneer of the venture capital space, having invested in such game-changing companies like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). No doubt, they've helped create many millionaires -- and some billionaires.

Well, the same thing is now happening in China, although the wealth management business in the country is still in the early stages.

As a result, Sequoia wants to be a player and has invested several million for a 20% stake in Noah Private Wealth Management Centre, which is headquartered in Shanghai. With the cash infusion, the firm can expand into other cities as well as add new consultants and perhaps some tech systems.

It's a very savvy move. And, yet again, it should result in a big payday for Sequoia.

Visit DealProfiles.com if you want to check out other recent venture capital fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

In a move to make it one of the largest retail brokerage operations in the country, banking giant Wachovia (NYSE: WB) has bought AG Edwards (NYSE: AGE). The combined operations will become second only to Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER), and ahead of Citigroup's Smith Barney. The new operation should have about 15,000 brokers.

It is easy to say that the move is simply a cost consolidation play. Wachovia says that it can take out [subscription required] about $400 million in duplicate costs, which should add to the profitability of the acquired assets.

Wachovia, however, is cleverer than simply making the purchase as a simple earnings play. Retail brokers are huge collectors of assets. The new, combined operation will manage $1.1 trillion.

Rival banks, including Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) do not have networks of brokers anywhere near this scale. That gives Wachovia an edge in wealth and asset management that Citigroup already has. While Wachovia's stock is flat over the last year, Citi is up about 12% and JP Morgan has climbed well over 20%.

Perhaps Wachovia needs a little edge.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

I'm not surprised. When the deal was struck, several friends of mine from U.S. Trust left to go to other private banks. They told me that there would be a culture clash, so why jeopardize clients?

This was exactly the case with contended issues ranging from serious to funny. For example, one dispute was whether to charge clients ATM fees (to me, if a client has $100 million with your bank, it does sound kind of petty). Another issue was investment selections -- should Bank of America push its own products?

This is not to say that the deal will implode. It's smart that Bank of America is taking quick action, but to get things back on track, it may mean letting U.S. Trust have its own identity – lest more financial advisors and perhaps clients move elsewhere.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.