Feb 27, 2012
By Lauren Barack
These days you can’t afford not to be online if you want to build and safeguard your “brand.” There are many things you can do to head off potential trouble and make sure potential clients don’t stumble upon a nasty surprise during a search. ...
Feb 23, 2012
By Stephen Boswell & Kevin Nichols
The following are some common social media faux pas we’ve seen advisors make over the past few years. By reviewing these and inverting, we can learn from our mistakes and ensure we avoid them. ...
Feb 16, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
Minneapolis—“We’ve got to make a change in our support personnel,” John explained with a rather painful expression. “My personal assistant just isn’t capable of communicating clearly with the other players on the team.”...
Feb 15, 2012
By Joshua Brown
Financial advisors are feeling pressure to get on the social media bandwagon. But will canned content and compliance-approved writings drain the life out of a spontaneous, free-flowing medium?...
Feb 15, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
Elite advisors have turned mapping their affluent clients’ social network into an art form....
Feb 9, 2012
By Stephen Boswell and Kevin Nichols
Fort Lauderdale: "You make it sound easy," moaned Bill. "When asked, I should be able to easily tell someone what I do, especially an affluent prospect. Heck, I've been through all the training and I’m on a big team."...
Feb 2, 2012
By Lauren Barack
A bunch of social media services have emerged to help financial services firms comply with regulations and make the most of social networks to build business. They've got big plans for 2012. ...
Feb 1, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Tom Bradley President, TD Ameritrade Institutional...
Feb 1, 2012
By Brad Zigler
Check your e-mail. Clients may be sending you portfolio ideas....
Feb 1, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
A youngster's four techniques for closing the deal....
Feb 1, 2012
By Mindy Diamond
Some firms are negotiating perks and bonuses to keep top producers in their seats....
Feb 1, 2012
By Kristen French
Women control an increasingly large portion of private wealth. That’s good news for advisors who understand the subtle differences in how men and women communicate. ...
Feb 1, 2012
By Joshua Brown
Why do people hire financial advisers? The answer might surprise you. Sometimes they are merely looking for someone to pull the trigger for them when they’re too shell-shocked to invest for themselves. ...
Jan 31, 2012
By John Byrne
If you don’t know Mark Matson, CEO of Matson Money, a Cincinnati-based investment advisory firm with some $3 billion in AUM, it’s not his fault....
Jan 27, 2012
By Kristen French
This week, FINRA fined Merrill Lynch $1 million for making it hard for former brokers of the firm to fight back in bonus disputes. That’s pocket change for a financial services leviathan like Merrill, which has paid as much or more out to individual brokers in come-hither money. ...
Jan 27, 2012
By Anne Field
Creating a plan for exiting the business takes time. ...
Jan 26, 2012
By Stephen Boswell & Kevin Nichols
By Stephen Boswell & Kevin Nichols
Boston: “I’ve set up my first meeting with a CPA,” started Jay during our new advisors training session. He excitedly continued, “How do you recommend I go about conducting this meeting? How do I differentiate myself? I thought I’d start with my investment philosophy and then talk about our tactical approach to investing.
...
Jan 25, 2012
By Charles Paikert
The hottest trend in wealth management this year will be business development. This is unfortunate, because a lot of wealth management firms are terrible at developing business....
Jan 24, 2012
By Diana Britton
Much of the talk at the Financial Services Institute’s OneVoice 2012 conference in Orlando is about the challenge independent broker/dealers face by allowing advisors to have their own registered investment advisor. During a Tuesday panel session, IBD executives said the RIA model was putting pressure on their recruiting, profitability and expense of compliance. ...
Jan 23, 2012
By Diana Britton
A majority of advisors are marketing themselves as financial “planners,” even though they really don’t provide comprehensive planning services, according to a recent Cerulli Associates report. By adopting the nomenclature, they are hoping they can stay competitive amid the growing trend towards more holistic, one-stop-shops of financial services. ...
Jan 19, 2012
By Stan Luxenberg
Where art thou, mine lifetime income investment?...
Jan 18, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
Dallas—“If we are going to develop the reputation we want within the affluent centers of influence, we need to raise our game,” Robert told me. “What do the elite teams you’ve coached do that sets them apart?”...
Jan 18, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
TD Ameritrade Institutional President Tom Bradley tells Registered Rep. the custodian is considering whether to offer succession financing for its RIA clients. In an interview with editors, Bradley said TD is evaluating three ways to do it: using its own capital, partnering with TD Bank (which owns 45 percent of the company), or staying out of the financing and, instead, referring interested RIAs to outside parties such as aggregators who are willing to put up the money....
Jan 18, 2012
By Charles Paikert
Given the chaotic financial environment of the past few years, innovative wealth management firms see a real business need to improve the softer side of how they interact with clients. ...
Jan 13, 2012
By Mark Miller
A Social Security and Medicare checklist for your clients.
...
Jan 11, 2012
By Diana Britton and Kristen French
Raymond James announced Wednesday it will acquire Morgan Keegan for $930 million. Rumors recently surfaced that a deal between the two firms might be in the works. Regions Financial Corp. put Morgan Keegan on the block in June after it agreed to a $210 million settlement with federal, state and industry regulators over issues related to subprime mortgage-backed securities. The acquisition will add over 1,000 advisors to Raymond James’ current 5,000. ...
Jan 11, 2012
By Stephen Boswell and Kevin Nichols
Greensboro: “How can my goals be any more important to me than they already are,” moaned Arnold, during the Q & A of our FastTrack for Growth workshop, adding final emphasis with “If I don’t hit my new assets targets I need to find a new career.” ...
Jan 11, 2012
By Charles Paikert
Add one more winner to last week’s blockbuster LPL-Fortigent deal: the rapidly growing business of providing outsourcing services to wealth managers....
Jan 9, 2012
By Susan Konig
A legacy branch manager with Wells Fargo Advisors on the East Coast—let’s call him Joe—says he hasn’t had a raise in his base salary in more than a decade, despite the fact that revenues at his branch have increased tenfold, and he is now doing “about seven times the amount that I did back then.” ...
Jan 4, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
San Francisco—“We’ve been talking about making changes in how we manage our practice, but we never seem to execute,” said Jim, the leader of a very successful wealth management team. He then laid out a challenge to his team: “We need to make three New Year’s resolutions that will improve our practice—changes that we can execute. ...
Jan 3, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Elliot Weissbluth is drawing dozens of large advisors out of the wirehouses and into HighTower, a rapidly growing national hybrid RIA. The exodus says as much about the state of the brokerage industry as it does about what’s happening at HighTower itself....
Jan 1, 2012
By Mindy Diamond
If you want to work with high-net-worth clients, the private banking divisions of the wirehouse firms are worth considering....
Jan 1, 2012
By Diana Britton
Jan 1, 2012
By Diana Britton
Director of recruiting, World Equity Group, an independent b/d in Arlington Heights, Ill....
Jan 1, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
CEO, Dynasty Financial Partners, New York City...
