Jul 29, 2011
By Diana Britton
Asset managers have lately begun changing tack in their attempts to woo financial advisors, offering more of what they call “thought leadership”—educational content and tools that help advisors run their businesses—rather than product-oriented information. ...
Jul 29, 2011
By Diana Britton
In 2005, Frank Martin, founder of private, independent RIA Martin Capital Management in Elkhart, Ind., wrote an essay in his annual report to his clients called “The Perfect Storm,” which warned of a potential financial crisis related to the market’s disregard for risk. ...
Jul 28, 2011
By Diana Britton
Advisor productivity reached a new high for Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP) in the second quarter, up 14 percent from a year ago to $99,000, driven by improved client activity and retail client net inflows, the company said in its earnings release. During a conference call Thursday morning, chairman and CEO Jim Cracchiolo told analysts that the Securities America sale, announced in April, was “proceeding well,” and that the firm would be announcing a buyer in the near future. ...
Jul 27, 2011
By Diana Britton
LPL Financial (NASDAQ: LPLA) reported record revenues in the second quarter of $894 million, a 13.1 percent gain from the year-ago quarter, and record asset levels of $341 billion, 23 percent higher than the second quarter of 2010. . Second quarter income was $45.5 million, or 40 cents a share, up 82.4 percent from the year-ago quarter. ...
Jul 27, 2011
By Diana Britton
National Planning Holdings (NPH), the independent broker/dealer network of Lansing, Mich.-based Jackson National Life Insurance Company, plans to roll out a social media initiative this fall, which will allow its 3,563 reps to use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to communicate with clients. ...
Jul 26, 2011
By John Aidan Byrne
UBS Wealth Management Americas continues to improve, today reporting pretax profit of $165 million for the second quarter ended June 30. That compares with a loss of $61 million in the same period last year—and a jump of 39 percent from the first quarter of this year when the brokerage unit had pretax profit of $119 million. ...
Jul 26, 2011
By Charles Paikert
U.S. Trust, as things turned out, remained a major contributor to BofA’s wealth management empire with $367.7 billion in assets, fending off persistent stories that the unit would be sold off by its beleaguered corporate parent. Now it's focused on growth. ...
Jul 26, 2011
By John Aidan Byrne
New research from Aite Group shows that the online brokerages continue to take market share of wealth management assets from the wirehouse firms—something that surprised Aite Group analysts. ...
Jul 25, 2011
By Diana Britton
Many IBDs have been going under due to large liabilities they face related to alternative investments that have gone bust, including Medical Capital, Provident and DBSI. Meadowbrook is the latest to join the list of imploding firms. Other IBDs, such as Securities America, are being sold off, providing an opportunity for larger firms looking to acquire. ...
Jul 25, 2011
By Lena S. Rizkallah, JD
Almost a year after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“the Act”) was signed, advisors are still unclear about how the provisions in it will affect the financial industry...
Jul 21, 2011
By Kristen French
Morgan Stanley financial advisors should expect more cost-cutting in the global wealth management division in coming quarters—possibly in the guise of cuts to staff or financial advisors. On a second-quarter earnings conference call Thursday morning, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said that while revenues, flows and assets are all strong in the global wealth management group, the firm remains very focused on expenses in that business. “Margins must improve and do so soon,” he said. ...
Jul 21, 2011
By Diana Britton
Raymond James Financial’s (NYSE: RJF) private client group added 20 advisors in the U.S. during the fiscal third quarter despite a tough recruiting environment for regional firms. But second-quarter earnings were down....
Jul 21, 2011
The phrase wealth management is used throughout the financial advisory industry; even asset managers like the sound of it. But the term properly refers to advisors who offer a broad range of financial services in addition to managing money...
Jul 20, 2011
By Charles Paikert
Chase Private Client, an under-the-radar wealth management unit of the giant bank, plans to open 160 offices to serve 600 branches around the country in two years, up from only 16 dedicated offices currently, JPMorgan Chase &Co. announced Tuesday. ...
Jul 19, 2011
By Charles Paikert
After studying Capgemini’s recently-released 2011 U.S. Metro Wealth Index, wealth management firms who aren’t doing business in the New York or Houston markets may be asking themselves why not....
Jul 19, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
Profits and revenues fell at TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (Ticker: TDMA)last quarter as trading waned at the discount brokerage, but Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk said TDA Institutional has brought on 260 breakaway brokers over the past three quarters, a 20-percent increase year over year. ...
Jul 19, 2011
By Diana Britton
Wells Fargo’s (NYSE: WFC) wealth, brokerage and retirement business posted slightly lower second-quarter earnings. Advisor headcount was also down compared to the first quarter, but, on a positive note, advisor cross-selling continued to improve. ...
Jul 19, 2011
By Kristen French
BofA's Global Wealth and Investment Management, which includes Merrill Lynch, reported $506 million in net income for the quarter. Merrill Lynch contributed the bulk of revenues, with $3.5 billion, up from $3.1 billion a year ago....
Jul 18, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
Client assets at Advisor Services hit $697.8 billion, up 17 percent YOY, while net new assets reached $10.6 billion, up 4 percent. ...
Jul 18, 2011
By Alan Lavine
Might some of your single clients unknowingly need life insurance? “One typical reason young people (in their 20s and 30s) buy life insurance is to protect their insurability,” says Ronald Klein, assistant vice president at Sun Life, Wellesley, Mass. “It is also a good tax-free way to save for the long term.”...
Jul 15, 2011
By Kristen French
SIFMA sent a letter to the SEC Thursday that recommends a new fiduciary standard that would be more rules-based and that would depend on individual client contracts for its application. ...
Jul 14, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
VWG Wealth Management, with assets of $700 million, is the fifth wirehouse team this year to join HighTower Advisors, a Chicago-based hybrid RIA with national reach and $18 billion in AUM. HighTower signed up three Merrill Lynch teams in Palm Desert, Calif,, Naples, Fla. and Portland, Me., and another Morgan Stanley team in Palm Desert....
Jul 13, 2011
By Nate Wendler, RR stock analyst correspondent
Google has successfully developed an ecosystem which incentivizes both hardware and software developers to devote maximum resources to the Android platform. “The reason hardware vendors like Android is because Google shares revenues from applications and ad sales. That makes it very unlikely for any cell phone or tablet manufacturer to not adopt Android....
Jul 12, 2011
By Charles Paikert
For single-family offices, a recent Securities and Exchange Commission ruling marked the beginning of an identity crisis writ large–one that will reshape the family office business and may ultimately benefit wealth and asset managers....
Jul 12, 2011
By Kristen French
Under an SEC order issued today, it will require considerably more wealth or assets for an investor to qualify to pay an investment adviser performance fees. The higher thresholds, mandated by Dodd-Frank reform, are meant to take inflation into account and will go into effect September 19. ...
