May 28, 2010
By Jake Zamansky
The Cato Institute recently reported that there are no less than 28 “studies” recommended in the Senate’s version of the financial regulatory reform bill. Of all these “studies,” the most wasteful and harmful is the proposed SEC study on a broad application of the fiduciary standard for brokers....
May 28, 2010
By Bill Singer
Seventy-nine-year-old widow Lois Pillen alleged that in 2007, various securities were purchased in her Wachovia Securities LLC account without her authorization. The FINRA Arbitrator found Respondent Wachovia liable for and $26,000.00 in compensatory damages plus interest; and ordered Wachovia to pay Pillen $225 in costs....
May 26, 2010
By Christina Mucciolo
After 28 years with Edward Jones, and 14 years as the firm’s chief market strategist, Alan Skrainka was let go from the firm on Friday. According to a Jones spokesperson, Skrainka was ousted due to “his use of written materials without giving attribution.” ...
May 26, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Paying retention bonuses to top brokers to keep them from jumping ship is a pricey strategy that only works some of the time, a report released today by Aite Group shows. Aite surveyed 400 advisors in wirehouses and independent b/ds in the fourth quarter of last year....
May 26, 2010
By Kristen French
Story updated at 4:21 p.m.
The future of Sallie Krawcheck, head of Merrill Lynch’s thundering herd of retail financial advisors, is suddenly the subject of much speculation. ...
May 24, 2010
By Halah Touryalai
The financial crisis left some serious emotional scarring on the ultra rich. In fact, they trust the government less since the downturn, and believe the U.S. and global economies will continue to deteriorate, according to a recent Barclays Wealth survey....
May 21, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Mean-variance theory, like a lot of other fondly-held beliefs, has come into question since the financial crash in the fall of 2008. ...
May 20, 2010
By Kristen French
The Senate voted 60-40 Thursday to end weeks of debate on Christopher Dodd’s financial regulatory reform legislation. Hotly debated proposals to extend the fiduciary standard to brokers did not make it into the final version of the legislation....
May 19, 2010
By Anne Field
Asking for referrals—and getting them—can be as natural as any other part of your business m.o. But it can’t be an after-thought. It requires a well thought out, soup-to-nuts strategy, one that makes you—and your clients—more comfortable with the process....
May 18, 2010
By Alan Lavine
As more wirehouse registered reps join RIAs or start their own, as income tax rates rise, and as Baby Boomers continue their march into retirement, expect investments in no-load variable annuities to grow. ...
May 14, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
Though it recently wrapped up a national advertising campaign for Merrill Lynch, Bank of America continues to ramp up branding of the division, with an extension of the Merrill New York Yankees sponsorship as well as recent visits to Merrill offices by BofA personnel to monitor marketing materials. ...
May 14, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
Legislators in Congress are reportedly considering creating a kind of Roth IRA version of the estate tax. On The Money, a blog of the congressional newspaper The Hill, this week said lawmakers are considering whether to let taxpayers have the option of paying estate taxes in advance so they don’t owe that money when they die. ...
May 13, 2010
By Christina Mucciolo
After Edward Jones lost two top producing reps and increased production expectations last month, some media outlets and recruiters made a lot of noise about rising advisor defections at Edward Jones. The truth is, Edward Jones attrition remains enviably low. Below, a wide-ranging interview with managing partner Jim Weddle....
May 13, 2010
By Kristen French
With news Thursday that a preliminary criminal investigation has been launched into some of Wall Street’s biggest firms concerning potentially misleading sales of CDOs to clients, the fiduciary train is set to gain additional momentum in Washington. ...
May 12, 2010
By Stan Luxenberg
Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is riding high. At a time when many investors are abandoning actively managed stock funds, DFA’s passive portfolios have been attracting a steady flow of cash. ...
May 11, 2010
By Susan Konig
BOMs are increasingly considered a cost of goods sold on the P&L statement. Consolidation is forcing them out of the business, or, if they are lucky, they are being pushed back into production. Or they can take a pay cut....
May 7, 2010
By Kristen French
FINRA Chairman and CEO Richard Ketchum thinks broker/dealer firms need to bulk up on disclosure regardless of whatever rulemaking comes out of Congress on the fiduciary issue. He also said that there need to be shock absorbers in the market for the kinds of drops that occurred in trading Thursday....
May 6, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
A growing number of websites is offering consumers tools for budgeting, goal planning, and investment trading. A few of these personal financial management (PFM) sites are drawing big numbers of clients. ...
May 6, 2010
By Kristen French
A number of senators, Republican and Democrat, are scrambling to get on the fiduciary bandwagon following last weeks' Goldman Sachs hearings. A flurry of amendments have been, or will be, introduced this week that would apply the fiduciary standard more widely....
May 5, 2010
By Kristen French
Squeezed by investor lawsuits, rising compliance and insurance costs, as well as departing advisors and clients, more of the industry’s smallest independent broker/dealers will fail or merge with other firms this year, say industry observers....
May 4, 2010
By John Aidan Byrne
UBS Wealth Management Americas saw further net client asset outflows in the first quarter, but the pace slowed to $6.53 billion from the roughly $10.98 billion of client assets withdrawn in the fourth quarter. Improving market conditions softened the blow as total client assets hit $721.6 billion in the brokerage unit of the Swiss banking giant, a 4 percent increase from the fourth quarter. ...
Apr 30, 2010
By Jerry Gleeson
The nest eggs of high net worth Baby Boomers got clobbered during the financial crisis. Between 2007 and 2008, their investable assets plummeted by 22 percent, to $5.3 trillion, according to recent research by the Corporate Executive Board. Something else is missing, too, the board says; a sense of urgency among boomers about preparing for retirement in light of the collapse....
Apr 29, 2010
By Christina Mucciolo
Edward Jones, now about 90 years old, “has prospered by dispensing buy-and-hold wisdom to small clients in small places.” That’s how we put it on our April 2006 cover story on the firm. But now Edward Jones is doing something very modern and very Wall Street: Like other firms, Jones is lighting a fire under its advisors’ feet to increase production. ...
Apr 28, 2010
By Bill Singer
Why did the SEC miss a 2002 letter that warned about the Stanford Ponzi scheme? An SEC internal investigation blames "institutional influences" within the SEC. The SEC investigation report release date? The day the SEC brought the fraud case against Goldman. ...
Apr 28, 2010
By Stan Luxenberg
During the rough markets of the past decade, Marathon Value Fund (MVFPX) the fund returned 6 percent annually during the ten years through April 13, outdoing 97 percent of its large blend competitors....
Oriented to Small and Value Stocks, DFA Has Rocked—and Attracted Assets. Will It Be a Victim of Its Own Success?
