Apr 27, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
John Thiel, who rose from the trenches at Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor in Tampa, Fla. to head the firm’s private banking group, will soon lead some 15,000 advisors in Merrill’s U.S. brokerage unit as well, his boss Sallie Krawcheck said in an internal memo today...
Apr 27, 2011
By Kristen French
The Investment Management Consultants Association announced Wednesday that its popular CIMA certification is now accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), making it the first of the major wealth management designations to meet international ISO standards. The group has been working towards getting the accreditation for four years. IMCA expects that the CIMA certification will become the industry standard for all those who call themselves investment managers when all of the regulatory reforms now in the works fall into place. ...
Apr 27, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
Online options brokerage optionsXpress had been looking for a merger partner for nearly three years before it accepted an offer from Charles Schwab Corp. in March, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Growing competition in the industry was one reason the options company decided to put itself on the block, the registration statement shows....
Apr 27, 2011
By Diana Britton
Have you ever been recruited to a broker/dealer based on certain representations, then found that the firm couldn’t follow through on its promises?...
Apr 27, 2011
By Kevin McKinley
Many of your Boomer clients have elderly parents who are facing a seemingly unsolvable problem: how to produce enough income to cover increasing living costs without jeopardizing investment principal. But for families in the right situation, it’s possible to dramatically improve the cash flowing to the older parent, without risking the value of (or access to) her “rainy day” fund. Here’s how reverse mortgages can serve as an unorthodox solution to a common dilemma. ...
Apr 26, 2011
By John Aidan Byrne
UBS Wealth Management Americas (NYSE: UBS), rising from the ashes of its well-publicized disasters, had something to crow about this latest quarter (Q1 2011): The firm gathered $8.4 billion in net new client assets (figure includes interest and dividend income); pre-tax profit surged to $119 million compared to a loss of $33 million in the previous quarter...
Apr 26, 2011
By Diana Britton
Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP) said its first quarter net income was at $241 million, a 13 percent boost from $214 million a year ago. Meanwhile, the firm reported its best quarterly advisor productivity ever at $95,000, up 23 percent from 2010. Improving advisor productivity has been a focus at the firm for more than a year. ...
Apr 25, 2011
By Kristen French
LPL Financial reported net income of $49 million, or 43 cents a share for the first quarter of 2011, a 92 percent jump from the first quarter of 2010. Revenues grew 17.5 percent from the year ago quarter to $873.9 million. Nearly 70 percent of that growth was driven by increased sales activity, LPL executives said on a conference call. ...
Apr 25, 2011
By Diana Britton
Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP) plans to sell its independent broker/dealer unit Securities America, according to the company’s first quarter earnings report released today. Meanwhile, the firm is still in the process of finalizing a settlement with investors claiming SAI sold allegedly fraudulent private placements from Medical Capital Holdings and Provident Royalties...
Apr 25, 2011
By Jennifer Popovec
Americans are getting fatter and older by the minute. While that’s not happy news for us individually, it certainly represents an opportunity for healthcare real estate investment trusts...
Apr 25, 2011
By Brad Zigler, Alternative Investments Editor
Be careful. Not all products are actually ”managed”...
Apr 22, 2011
From the editors of Registered Rep: Must-reads from around the web for Friday, April 22, 2011....
Apr 22, 2011
By Diana Britton
60 Seconds with Don Schreiber, Jr., CEO and founder of WBI Investments in Little Silver, N.J. ...
Apr 22, 2011
By Lynn O'Shaughnessy
Today, it is very difficult for parents to know how much financial aid they might get from any particular college. That will change in October, when colleges will be required by federal law to place cost calculators on their websites...
Apr 21, 2011
By Kristen French
In a disappointing quarter for Morgan Stanley, the firm’s global wealth management group was, once again, a bright spot, with revenue, earnings and client assets up, though advisor headcount and pre-tax profit margins were down...
Apr 21, 2011
By Diana Britton
Raymond James Financial’s (NYSE: RJF) Private Client Group led the firm’s growth in the second quarter, posting a record $275 billion in client assets under administration, up from assets of $242 billion a year ago and $262 billion in the previous quarter...
Apr 21, 2011
By Matt Oechsli
Chicago -- “We’re holding small social events for clients; some bring a guest, and everyone has a good time, but…” Bob began. “We struggle with the followup. We’re not contacting any of the guests because we don’t want to appear salesy. Do you have any suggestions?” ...
Apr 20, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
Charles Schwab’s new advisor “franchisee” program, which was announced in February and will be rolled out at the end of this year, aims to hire financial advisors with entrepreneurial drive, but not too much entrepreneurial drive. The franchisee program would operate out of individual branches, turnkey operations largely funded by Schwab, located in areas that are underserved by the company’s existing network of employee-staffed offices that cater to retail investors, Chief Executive Walt Bettinger said during a conference call convened to talk about the program today. He was adamant about one aspect of the project: Each branch will operate in a single location and will be run by a single advisor. ...
Apr 20, 2011
From the editors of Registered Rep: Must-reads from around the web for Wednesday, April 20, 2011....
Apr 20, 2011
By Kristen French
Wells Fargo’s wealth management division reported stronger earnings, revenues and FA headcount in the first quarter, while cross-selling hit a record and client asset inflows were at their highest since Wells acquired Wachovia in late 2008...
Apr 20, 2011
By Anne Field
After switching broker dealers, a long-time advisor is looking to attract a handful of reps to his new branch and to publicize his association with his current b/d.
For advice, as usual, we asked our panel of experts for their opinions...
Apr 19, 2011
By Brad Zigler
“Close” may be good enough for horseshoes and hand grenades, but it just doesn’t cut it for exchange-traded product (ETP) returns...
Apr 19, 2011
By Alan Lavine
When you design a portfolio by market capitalization and investment style, do you consider the cash value and death benefits of your client’s life insurance policy in the mix? Some experts say you should. Why? The death benefits and steady growth of cash value over the years can improve an overall portfolio’s risk-adjusted rate of return when combined with bond values.
“Investment managers should realize there may be a place for life insurance as part of the fixed income part of a portfolio,” says Richard Weber, principal with The Ethical Edge Inc., a Pleasant Hill, Cal., consulting firm. “Fixed income investments have low correlations to stocks. Life insurance cash values don’t move in the same direction (as stocks or bonds) during a crisis.”...
Apr 18, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
TD Ameritrade saw 95 breakaway brokers sign up last quarter, bringing average initial assets of $30 million each to the custodian platform, Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk said today after the parent company reported record revenue and record new client assets. The number of breakaways, mostly individuals plus a few teams, was up 36 percent from a year earlier, he told Registered Rep., but it fell within a range that the company has seen for several quarters now. There was a mix of advisors from the wirehouses and independent broker/dealers, but the trend was edging toward more b/d advisors making the move, he said...
Apr 18, 2011
By Diana Britton
Father-daughter advisor team Martin Gelb and Sonya Gelb Choeff have jumped ship to Raymond James in Miami Beach, Fla., from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, as the fight for talent continues...
