Narrow Your Focus to Get Bigger Clients 

Mar 29, 2006,

By John Churchill

Not all wealthy clients are created equal. Yes, we know, some are a lot richer than others. But seriously. According to new research, despite years of effort by financial advisory firms to force reps to focus on millionaire clients, less than a third of financial advisors have clients among this category....

Broker/dealer Recruiting and Retention (Transcript from “New York Times Job Market Roundtable” with Registered Rep.) 

Mar 28, 2006,

By David Geracioti

NEW YORK TIMES JOB MARKET ROUNDTABLE: “Best Practices in Recruitment and Retention of Financial Planners,” Fall, 2005 (Some of the ideas addressed in this roundtable formed the basis for our March cover story, “Our Diversity Problem,” By Halah Touryalai.)...

SEC Targets Investment Traps Set For Seniors 

Mar 27, 2006,

By Kristen French

The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on investment seminars aimed at taking advantage of seniors, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced Friday at the annual consumer assembly of the Consumer Federation of America....

New Legg Mason President Marks the End of an Era 

Mar 24, 2006,

By Halah Touryalai

Asset-management firm, Legg Mason, announced on Thursday that its founder, Raymond “Chip” Mason, is stepping down as president....

Investment Fraud Suit Brought By Brokers Blocked By The Supremes 

Mar 23, 2006,

By Kevin Burke

If you listen to your firm’s analyst and your client loses money, who is to blame? You, the client, the analyst or the firm? ...

Merrill To Gorman: Quit Poaching Our Reps And BOMs 

Mar 23, 2006,

By Kristen French

Is James Gorman, the new head of retail at Morgan Stanley, brazenly poaching employees from his old firm, Merrill Lynch?...

Morgan Sees Weak Retail First Quarter Followed by Brighter Future 

Mar 22, 2006,

By Kristen French

Morgan Stanley reported bad news on first quarter retail earnings today. Both pre-tax income and margins declined steeply for its brokerage business, but in a conference call this morning chief financial officer David Sidwell expressed optimism about the future of the business unit. ...

Is Pension Bill on Home Stretch and Are Advisors on Board? 

Mar 22, 2006,

By Kevin Burke

Congress is moving forward on adding an amendment to the three-decade-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that could have a significant impact on the way registered representatives do business....

SEC and U.S. Attorney’s Office Indict Traders and Executives in ‘Squawk Box’ Scheme 

Mar 21, 2006,

By Halah Touryalai

The SEC has charged 11 more individuals in a fraudulent scheme involving the use of squawk boxes to front run institutional trades....

Former Prudential Broker Barred for Market Timing 

Mar 21, 2006,

By Kevin Burke

A federal judge barred for life a former Prudential Securities broker for failing to respond to an order instituting proceedings (OIP) issued by the SEC over fraud charges....

Gorman Streamlines Morgan, Brings on Merrill Friends 

Mar 16, 2006,

By Kristen French

In his first step as head of retail brokerage at Morgan Stanley, James Gorman has streamlined the firm’s regional office structure -- reducing regional offices to four from eight and cutting out one layer of management. To head up the new regional offices, he brought on two former colleagues from Merrill Lynch and selected two others from inside Morgan Stanley. ...

Bear Stearns Fined $250 Million for Securities Fraud 

Mar 16, 2006,

By John Churchill

The SEC hit Bear Stearns with a $250 million penalty for securities fraud for facilitating market-timing and late trading for certain institutional customers to the detriment of others....

NASD Fines Merrill $5 Million in Settlement Over Improper Supervision Charges 

Mar 15, 2006,

By John Churchill

Merrill Lynch agreed today to pay a $5 million NASD fine to settle charges that the firm’s brokerage client call centers were out of control....

SEC Fines Merrill $2.5 Million In Settlement Over Obstruction Charges 

Mar 15, 2006,

By Kevin Burke

Merrill Lynch agreed Monday to pay an SEC fine of $2.5 million to settle charges that it had impeded a government investigation into its business practices by dragging its feet on turning over email records....

Total Coverage 

Mar 15, 2006,

By Halah Touryalai

The market for insurance protection against kidnapping and wildfires is limited. Yet, when you throw in coverage against employee lawsuits, identity theft and other high-end risks advisors may have something different to offer their affluent clients that make providing these specialty insurance products worthwhile. At least, that’s what a number of insurance companies are banking on....

Stan O'Neal Meets Black Brokers; Somehow That "Proves" He's "Sexist" 

Mar 10, 2006,

By Halah Touryalai

File this one under, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Over the past few months, Merrill Lynch executives have met with African-Americans financial advisors to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging systemic racism on the part of the firm....

NYSE Reg. And NASD: Merge ‘Em?; A Senate Committee Opens Hearings on SROs 

Mar 9, 2006,

By Halah Touryalai

Are there too many redundant regulators crawling all over Wall Street brokerages? Or, put another way, are federal securities laws crafted in the 1930s still effective 70 years on? And, more important, is a privately owned, for-profit NYSE Group able to “self-regulate” itself without being mired in conflicts? And, as reps, should you care?...

Selling Short No Longer a Shortcoming 

Mar 8, 2006

Short-sellers have been blamed for the Great Crash of 1929 (turns out unfairly) and all kinds of market manipulation in the years since. But, as investors learned in the three-year bear market, it may not be so smart to be un-hedged all the time. Retail investors with money have been able to go to hedge funds, but what of the common investor, those who don't count themselves as accredited investors? Now, it seems, the hedge fund is coming to them....

NASD Proposal on Wholesalers Attracting Attention 

Mar 3, 2006,

By Kevin Burke

Today marks the end of the comment period for the NASD proposal requiring more stringent rules governing gift and entertainment practices on Wall Street and, while the NASD won’t say what the response has been until Thursday, the proposal is getting attention. ...

Third Wirehouse Coughs Up Millions In Overtime Cases 

Mar 3, 2006,

By Halah Tourylai

Yesterday, Morgan Stanley became the third wirehouse, after Merrill Lynch and UBS, to settle class action suits with California brokers over overtime pay in the past seven months – the second in three weeks. ...

NASD Promotes Its Online Education Program 

Mar 2, 2006,

By John Churchill

The NASD is showing its pride over the popularity of its 10-month old online regulation and compliance educational programs. Still, from the student prospective, it’s tough to tell how much of an impact the programs are really having....

Broker Fights for His Reputation—and Wins (Some of It Back) 

Mar 1, 2006,

By Kristen French

Philip Spartis, a former highflying Salomon Smith Barney broker, last week won a $1 million defamation judgment against lawyer Stuart Goldberg in an Arizona court. Goldberg had claimed Spartis, who used to handle accounts for executives of WorldCom, was working together with fallen telecom analyst Jack Grubman in a scheme to rip off his clients. Goldberg made the allegations in extensive comments on his Web site....

Perky Purcell Gets Money for Life 

Mar 1, 2006,

By Kristen French

Morgan Stanley will never really get rid of former CEO Phillip Purcell—at least not while he’s alive....

Wrapping up the Exchange-Traded Funds Business 

Mar 1, 2006,

By Kristen French

The competition over exchange-traded funds wraps is heating up. Three of Wall Street’s largest wirehouses—Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and UBS—have over the past 12 months joined a generally limited field offering the wraps....

Morgan Grants Stock Worth $29 Million to Gorman 

Feb 24, 2006,

By Kristen French

In a regulatory filing Wednesday, Morgan Stanley disclosed that it had granted James Gorman, the new head of the firm’s retail brokerage unit, around $29 million in company stock, plus options on another 302,128 shares....