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Contributing editor, Bill Singer, is a securities industry attorney who advocates on behalf of small- and mid-sized broker-dealers, registered persons, whistleblowers, and defrauded public investors.
Broke And Broker Blog
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Registered Rep. teams up with Fortune magazine to present a look at this year’s Top 50 wirehouse advisors, Top 50 independents, and Top 50 RIAs. Rankings based on assets under management. Read More
The development and distribution of financial products has become a new world order. Momentum Partners, LLC and Registered Rep magazine have joined forces to help companies identify the opportunities created by these changes and to capitalize on them. Read More
Beginning in July, Schwab will waive commissions on electronic equity trades and reimburse account transfer fees for its RIAs’ clients. The offer is good through the end of 2009. And for the more than 2,200 investment advisors who use Schwab’s portfolio management software, the firm says it will waive related maintenance fees next year. ...
RIAs have a lot on their plates. They’ve seen their assets drop significantly over the last year, their clients are demanding more of their time, revenues are taking a hit and on top of it all, there’s potential for major regulatory changes in their industry....
Not surprisingly, last year’s market took its toll on the wealthy, reducing assets, slimming their ranks and undercutting their trust in institutions associated with the market, according to the 14th annual Global Wealth Report, released this morning by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini. The report contains the results of a survey of clients, FAs and executives at 31 banks. ...
More than nine months after one of the oldest and largest money market funds suffered such severe redemptions that the net asset value of its shares fell below $1, the SEC is proposing structural and regulatory changes for money markets so it doesn’t happen again. ...
Lose a client’s money, what’s the worst that could happen? According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, last week in Germany, elderly pensioners allegedly beat their financial advisor with Zimmer Frames (metal walkers) and then kidnapped him and tortured him for four days. He had lost them $2 million pounds (U.S. $3.3 million). The financial advisor, James Amburn, 56, says he was ambushed outside his home in Speyer, western Germany, bound with masking tape and bundled into the trunk of his client’s Audi 8....
The SEC today indicted four individuals for helping Bernie Madoff in his colossal Ponzi scheme. One of the individuals was a registered rep and a second was an investment advisor. If the allegations are true, the men and one woman are quite wicked—or kept themselves willfully (“recklessly,” says the SEC) ignorant. ...
A wave of sentiment surveys hit, as usual, at the close of the second quarter. While money managers are becoming more bullish on high-yield investments, consumers seem to have mixed feelings about the economy and the market. Of course, sentiment surveys of money managers and consumers have existed for many decades, and as long as they’ve been around their usefulness has been debated. Some say they can tell us where investors are inclined to put their money; others say they're great contrarian indicators; still others say that over the long-term they're moot. ...
Despite the market’s continuing volatility, or perhaps because of it, m&a deals in the RIA industry picked up dramatically in the first three months of this year in both number and asset volume. In the first quarter, 18 deals were done, with $29 billion in assets changing hands. In the first quarter last year, RIAs did 10 deals representing $14 billion in acquired assets. ...
After an absolutely dizzying few weeks on Wall Street—which have included a chain of bank failures and near failures, several uncertain rescue attempts and the largest one-day point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average ever—financial advisors and investors are exhausted. ...
Interns can be a black-hole for time and energy if not approached properly. Through practical experience--both coaching advisors and developing an intern program at the Oechsli Institute--we have developed five fairly simple steps to follow. ...
Washington, D.C.: "We've got systems and procedures down to a science," said Marty, "but something is missing in our client relationships. We've recently lost four clients who I thought we were providing with a high level of service," he said. Marty wanted me to help him pinpoint that missing link. ...
Sales of individual guaranteed renewable disability insurance policies have been holding up well during the recession, and are expected to grow at an attractive clip. Higher-income individuals are also buying bigger-ticket policies....
Immediate fixed annuities and deferred fixed annuities are finding a growing market in the wake of the financial market meltdown. It’s no wonder. Their guaranteed payout rates are more than 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively at a time when the equity market is a seesaw of volatility. ...
The unprecedented seems to happen all too frequently in financial markets. Is there something wrong with the way financial advisors build their clients' portfolios? "Post" Modern Portfolio Theory says yes, and it's gaining currency...
Cultivating the Middle Class Millionaire
Based on extensive research with with more the 1,400 middle-class millionaires and more then 500 high-end advisors, Prince & Geracioti provide a detailed set of strategies and tactics to build a extremely successful advisory practice. Proven approaches to sourcing and converting prospects into loyal clients are meticulously explained. Also included are exercises to enable readers to more effective master the various strategies and tactics...
