There are big changes ahead in investment products and channels, predicted Tiburon Strategic Advisors Managing Principal Charles “Chip” Roame on Wednesday at the Tiburon CEO Summit in New York City. Low-cost indexed securities will account for 25 percent of all investable assets in the next three to five years, up from 6 to 7 percent now, he said. Hedge funds will claim another 25 percent of the share, up from 9 to 10 percent currently, he added. ...
Mergers and acquisitions seem to be crawling back to the top of RIA principals’ to-do lists this year, as the first quarter’s numbers show record activity. What is your financial advisory practice worth?...
In recent months the chorus of skepticism regarding Chinese economic and stock market performance has reached a greater crescendo. But there are plenty of bulls left....
I’ve been full of optimism when it comes to U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) --- and have been since December 2008. People called me crazy, but I was right. Here is my story....
Providers of income securities for retirees and those close to retiring may have their work cut out for them, according to new findings by Cogent Research. ...
Banking on a wave of mergers in 2010, the major custodian firms are in a race to offer the best M&A tools to their RIAs so that the assets of selling firms don’t walk out the door to a rival custodian. M&A in the RIA world had dried up but is starting to bounce back, say executives, as firms look for ways to cut costs and begin to grow again. Succession planning has also been a big issue in the financial advisory industry in the past few years, and will continue to be, as the average age in the industry is over 55. ...
Worried that big budget deficits will lead to inflation, plenty of advisors have been recommending Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). But for all the virtues of TIPS, they can be volatile creatures. ...
Forget high-tech. What financial advisors are looking for in computer work stations these days is smooth tech, the ability to simplify the complex and sometimes mind-numbing tasks that are part of their daily lives, according to executives at Morningstar and Thomson Reuters. ...
Deborah McWhinney's plan to turn Citi's bank brokers into fee-only investment advisors has triggered a mass exodus. But paring down the small bank brokerage unit or farming out wealth management entirely may be McWhinney's master plan....
FINRA shut down Gunn Allen Financial Monday morning for failing to meet net capital requirements. The Tampa-based independent b/d, which has had a history of legal and regulatory trouble, was warned on Friday that it would have to cease operations if it didn’t shore up its capital over the weekend. ...
The Certified Financial Planner designation is about to become more challenging to obtain. The Board of Standards this month approved a new prerequisite for its two-day certification exam: a 45-hour capstone course on financial planning. But representatives of the three largest CFP education programs—The American College, the College for Financial Planning, and Kaplan University—balked at the proposal....
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been carefully signaling that the Fed stands ready to raise interest rates this year if the economy continues to mend. For bond funds that could be bad news. ...
The much-anticipated revival plan for UBS Wealth Management Americas will cap off a series of recent organizational changes garnering support from an important constituency: advisors at
the beleaguered brokerage, Registered Rep. has learned.
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Banking reform legislation introduced Monday by Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd would give the SEC greater enforcement muscle over RIAs, and would require it to conduct a study examining the effectiveness of extending the fiduciary standard to brokers. ...
The hottest trend over the past 18 months has been the breakaway broker, a wirehouse advisor who leaves his firm to either become an RIA or to affiliate with an independent broker dealer. ...
Senator Christopher Dodd plans to introduce his financial regulatory reform bill Monday without Republican support. He’s still hopeful that negotiations with Senator Bob Corker (R.-Tenn.) will succeed, however, he said in a statement Thursday morning. Previous negotiations with Senator Richard Shelby (R.- Ga.) fell apart last month. ...
New rules aimed at preventing registered investment advisors from pulling off ponzi schemes take effect Friday. Among other things, RIAs firms that hold clients assets in custody will be required to undergo annual surprise audits, conducted by independent public accountants. ...
You know things are getting hairy when clients starting turning guns on their financial advisors. A disgruntled client opened fire on a financial advisor and his son in Dallas, Texas Monday afternoon. According to a colleague of the financial advisor, the gunman, Robert Mustard, 60, was unhappy about a bad investment he made in some Fannie Mae bonds. ...
The mainstream press on the left and the right is lately beating the drum for the fiduciary standard. It’s hard to know whether this kind of media attention will change any minds in Washington, but it could certainly influence brokerage clients, many of whom have already been migrating to investment advisers who act as fiduciaries on the RIA side of the business. ...
A new website is trying to cash in on the social networking craze and resolve some of the thorny regulatory questions that social networking sites raise for financial advisors. ...
Want to “socialize” with other financial advisors? Discuss how to sell your book? Have a question about marketing yourself to high-net-worth investors? These and many more topics are being discussed right now on RegisteredRep.com’s Advisor Forums.For more, please go to AdvisorForums
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