Banking & Finance

Menomonee Falls-based Magnetek Inc. announced that it has received conditional approval of its request for a waiver of the minimum funding requirements of the company’s defined benefit pension plan for the 2011 plan year.

Racine-based Modine Manufacturing Inc. reported fiscal second quarter net earnings of $1.4 million, or 3 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $16.7 million, or 36 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Johnson Controls Inc. reported record fiscal fourth quarter net income of $538 million, or 78 cents per share, up from $449 million, or 66 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

First Business Financial Services Inc., the Madison-based parent company of First Business Bank-Milwaukee, reported third quarter net income of $2.2 million, or 83 cents per share, up from $969,000, or 38 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2010.

Financial resources

Bank Mutual has added three new employees, including a recently created leadership position.

U.S. gross domestic product for the July-through-September period expanded 2.5 percent, nearly double the 1.3 percent rate of growth in the second quarter and much faster than the first quarter’s tepid increase of 0.4 percent.

Germantown-based Lightning Pick Technologies was recently acquired by Matthews International Corporation, a Pittsburgh memorials and graphics imaging manufacturer.

Business owners are taking advantage of the combination of historic highs for estate and gift tax exemptions, low business and investment valuations and extremely low interest rates to transfer and protect wealth – and uncertainty in the long-term stability of the estate and gift tax laws has many considering whether the time to act is now.

An employee with personal financial problems spends an average of 20 work hours per month dealing with them, according to Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation, a financial literacy nonprofit organization.