It’s that time of year again. With February just around the corner, many parents of college-age children are scrambling to complete their financial aid applications. While technically there is no official deadline for the federal form, called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid Form (FAFSA), most schools need to receive the application by March 1....
A.G. Edwards is not the first brokerage firm to encourage its brokers to continue their education, but the firm has come up with a novel twist: Its education program now serves as college credit....
A new study by AXA Financial says Americans are more confident about their retirement—and better prepared for it financially—than the citizens of other developed nations....
In his annual economic predictions last year, Bob Doll, president and chief investment officer of Merrill Lynch Investment Management hit .700. If he is anywhere near as accurate for 2005, we’re in for a rocky year....
As Americans donate to tsunami disaster-relief efforts, the brokerage industry is chipping in as well. According to the SIA, there is no organized, industrywide effort to raise relief funds, but individual firms are doing their part....
When Edward Jones was accused last year of steering clients to certain mutual fund families without disclosing that the firm received multimillion-dollar payments from those funds, it denied the charges....
Tom Matthews, president of Smith Barney’s global private client group, is retiring from Smith Barney, firm officials announced today. Matthews, who had been with the firm for nearly three decades, started as a financial consultant and eventually served as second-in-command of the group....
The NASD did its part for the U.S. troops today, fining Texas broker/dealer First Command $12 million for misleading its mostly military clientele about the costs of the 50 percent upfront sales charge attached to its systematic investment plan....
Gaining access to high-net-worth clients is priority No. 1 for many brokerage firms these days, but it takes years of hard work to grow an organization of qualified wealth managers. So firms—such as Wachovia (Tanager), Schwab (U.S. Trust), Lehman Bros. (Neuberger Berman)—are buying them instead....
The SEC narrowly succeeded in passing a final rule requiring hedge fund advisors to register under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940. The commission says the measure will benefit all involved parties, including investors, but many observers say the SEC is biting off more than it can chew....
If there’s one thing to be learned from “all weather” investment strategies such as muni laddering, it’s this: there is such a thing as too conservative....
The New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm is flexing its muscle, hoping to squeeze confessions out of Wall Street firms that failed to deliver prospectuses to customers....
The nation’s largest discount brokerage firm, Charles Schwab & Co., is cutting 19 retail branches in favor of smaller, one- or two-broker boutiques, a move the company says will cut costs and more effectively serve clients. Analysts think it will help the firm, which has been hurt by a slow year in retail-investor trading....
Perhaps it was the recent victory of President Bush that heartened this business friendly crowd, or the tranquil Boca Raton setting, but the annual SIA conference exudes an oddly serene tone....
It may come as no surprise to many brokers, but more than half of American investors look to them for more than just transactional assistance, according to new research....
Citigroup has been hit with another fine, this time for improper marketing of hedge funds. The NASD fined Citigroup Global Markets $250,000 for sending out more than 100 pieces of sales literature between July 2002 and June 2003, which, among other things, improperly used hypothetical returns in charts, failed to include adequate risk disclosure and cited potential rates of return without underlying evidence for it....
Separately managed accounts (SMA) have been touted as the next big thing, the Holy Grail even, for the financial services industry for a few years now, but myriad inefficiencies still hamper the effective delivery of the best of these products to more than just the wealthy investor—and, even, broker/dealer. ...
In a rare public appearance Thursday, Stan O’Neal, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch, took indirect aim at regulators and perhaps even New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in particular....
The SIA’s Mutual Fund Reform Conference, held in New York City’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on Tuesday, had an unexpected guest in the form of NASD Chairman and CEO Bob Glauber...
The latest move to influence the SEC’s much awaited decision on the fate of the proposed “broker-dealer exemption rule” came today from the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association representing 50 million Americans in 300 different consumer groups. The CFA sent a comment letter to Chairman Donaldson, suggesting the nature of the services, not the compensation model, is what is important. And the current exemption misses this point. ...
But if RJFS loses and is found to have failed to supervise a rogue broker, will it be beset with class-action lawsuits that could severely weaken the franchise?...
By Mindy Diamond, of Diamond Consultants, (a regular contributor to Registered Rep.)
Wirehouse brokers with hybrid books of business—those with both retail and midmarket institutional accounts—could soon be on the endangered species list, if the recent actions of Merrill and UBS are any guide....
The NASD will be increasing its use of unsolicited phone calls to clients within the course of investigations into broker/dealer activities, an official from the agency said at a conference Tuesday. ...
Cannon’s Concepts For Professionals: A Complete Library of Essential Financial Concepts
This reference book was updated for 2008 and now contains over 900 pages of information on essential financial concepts and wealth management strategies for your work with wealthy clients. The book not only contains brief summaries of each topic, but it also contains many useful diagrams and charts that can be used with clients when explaining difficult financial concepts. The information in this book meets current FINRA/NASD guidelines....
