Endpiece: From the Mouths of Brokers 

By Will Leitch

In the Spitzer Files (evidence released with New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer's $1.4 billion settlement with Wall Street), brokers say the darnedest things about Jack Grubman....

Think Big about Small Niches 

By Anne Field

Reps who organize their practices around a specialty do significantly better than generalists....

Stages: Marriage and the Financial Advisor 

By Susan L. Hirshman

If your client is tying the knot, you should move aggressively to make sure he stays yours--and become theirs....

Generations: Forget the Conventional Wisdom Go After Middle Americans 

By Kevin McKinley

Sure, it's heresy to say you aren't targeting high-net-worth clients. But you can make more if you serve your Mom and Pops efficiently....

Judge Says CAP Plan Violates Wage Laws 

Will Leitch

Opponents of Salomon Smith Barney's CAP plan, a deferred compensation plan that requires employees to contribute wages through payroll deductions to purchase...

The Eight Ways to Broker Nirvana 

By Anne Field

There is a memorable passage in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where Alice is confronted with a fork in the road. She asks the Cheshire...

Sweeping Away The Blues 

By Anne Field

Ray Jensen thought he was handling the stress of the bear market well. Until July. That was when the market plunged for four weeks in a row, brought down...

Pounding the (Cyber)Pavement 

By Bennett Voyles

Remember the old days, when you had to sit around and wait for the Sunday classifieds? How archaic. These days, the Internet is the best thing for job...

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do 

By Jonathan Arfa

When a business partnership is new and everybody is toasting the new team, nobody thinks much about the legal agreements the partners just signed. In...

The Tale Of The Tape 

By Anne Field

Yes, we know: You're not a broker, but a wealth manager or a financial consultant or whatever. That sounds nice, and it may even be true. But to your...

Think Before You Move 

By Nicholas Ferber

These days, it sometimes seems like a chore just to roll out of bed and into work. The market's down, the boss is a pain and the mere thought of cold...

As Time Goes By 

By Anne Field

E-mails pile up; the phone rings incessantly; and still those financial plans must be finished. What's a broker to do? Get organized, of course. Here's how....

The Inner Game: Put Your Best Face Forward 

By Matt Oechsli

When even H&R Block joins the wealth management fray, you know the competition for upper middle class and affluent investors is feverish. Everyone wants rich investors, and they want to manage all of their money. It's like what infamous Willie Sutton said of his bank-robbing career: "It's where the money is."...

The Difficulty of Going it Alone 

By Anne Field

Me, Myself and I . . . and my attorney, and my receptionist, and my tech consultant . . ....

Reversal of Fortune: Compensation Trends 2002 

By David A. Geracioti

A third of our broker compensation survey respondents say their earnings fell by 10 percent to 40 percent in 2001. Still, the respondents remained optimistic for 2002. Crazy optimists or pragmatic realists?...

Basic Training 

By Anne Field

So, you've decided it's time to move up to a new professional designation. How do you go about it—and keep your day job?...

Betrayed? 

By David A. Gaffen

Phil Spartis and Amy Elias say Salomon Smith Barney rushed to settle investor claims against them—and ruined their future as brokers....