Oct 12, 2011
By Stephen Boswell & Kevin Nichols
Las Vegas: “I’ve listened to a few of your webinars on social prospecting,” started Shawn, a new advisor at a recent conference. “The concepts make sense and they are all solid ideas, my problem is that I’ve only been at this for a year and some of my prospects don’t feel I have enough experience. They ask tough questions, I fumble, and they all want to ‘think about it’. I don’t really see a way around this. ”...
Oct 11, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
A widely regarded executive at one of the largest registered investment advisors in the country has jumped ship to start her own practice with another, much larger RIA. Lori Van Dusen, formerly executive director at Convergent Wealth Advisors in Potomac, Md., set up her own RIA in the Rochester, N.Y. area under Focus Financial Partners, effective Oct. 10. The practice, LVW Group, will specialize in wealth management for institutional investors, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and family offices. ...
Oct 11, 2011
By Charles Paikert
U.S. Bank’s aggressive bid to boost its wealth management business kicks into high gear this month with the opening of the first offices of Ascent Private Capital Management, the bank’s new ultra-high-net-worth division targeting clients with a net worth of $25 million or more, in Denver and Minneapolis....
Oct 11, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
At least two national ad campaigns have been launched this year promoting segments of the financial advisory business, but don’t look for leaders in the broadly diverse industry to collaborate on a unifying campaign a la “Got Milk?” anytime soon. Observers of the business say its competitive nature and balkanized structure make the launch of an overarching national promotion difficult. ...
Oct 10, 2011
By Susan Konig
As the market volatility that re-emerged this past August continues, advisors in your branch are likely feeling the kind of pain and anxiety they did at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. ...
Oct 7, 2011
By Stan Luxenburg
Retirees have long struggled with a difficult question: How much can you spend each year without going broke? ...
Oct 6, 2011
By Andrew J. Haigney
The brokerage business is dead. With commission rates hovering around zero, making a living by buying and selling securities on behalf of customers is a thing of the past. Some brokers are reinventing themselves as investment advisers within brokerage firms, but many are fleeing brokerage firms and landing at registered investment advisory firms (RIAs)....
Oct 5, 2011
By Matt Oechsli
Chicago—“Our firm keeps telling us to bring in more affluent clients, they’ve created all these new wealth management tools. But there’s a disconnect between the realities that I’ve got to do, day to day, and the support I’ve got,” Joe groaned. “So how realistic is it to be able to build the 21st-century financial practice you described?...
Oct 5, 2011
By John Aidan Byrne
The U.S. wealth management arm of UBS is accusing some headhunters of playing dirty tricks. That’s as the business, UBS Wealth Management Americas (WMA), rides out the sensational trading scandal at the London offices of UBS, pushing forward with recruitment plans and gathering assets, people familiar with the firm told Registered Rep. ...
Oct 4, 2011
By Charles Paikert
In theory, working with professional athletes sounds like a wealth manager’s dream come true. The players are famous, have a lot of money and usually need a lot of help. But be careful what you wish for, say veteran observers: working with professional athletes can also be a nightmare.
...
Oct 3, 2011
By Diana Britton
The industry will shape the future of social media regulation, as FINRA auditors get out in the field and see how reps are using social media, said Stephen Selby, director of regulatory services for LIMRA, during a webinar Friday afternoon. ...
Oct 3, 2011
By Lynn O’Shaughnessy
How much will college cost us?
That's the question all parents want to know, but traditionally they have been left in the dark until each spring when the acceptance letters and aid awards arrive in the mail. When students receive awards that are skimpy—or none at all -- they are in trouble since it is too late to apply elsewhere.
...
Sep 30, 2011
By Charles Paikert
Kristi Kuechler, the former president of the Institute for Private Investors and a high-profile figure in the ultra-high-net-worth world, has been named a partner and managing director at Lattice Strategies, a San Francisco-based investment manager, Registered Rep. has learned....
Sep 30, 2011
By Diana Britton
When selecting hedge funds for your clients, don’t look for home runs, said Mark Willoughby, principle and wealth manager of Modera Wealth Management, during an fi360 webinar this week. Hedge funds and other alternative strategies can provide a reasonable rate of return and lower or negative correlations to stocks and bonds, but they can also carry greater risk. ...
Sep 29, 2011
By Anne Field
Five years ago, John Vance was looking for ways to boost revenues at Vance Wealth Group, the Valencia, Calif.-based practice that he’d started two years before. Doing so, he realized, meant introducing more efficient systems and delegating more to his staff. But, as he drilled down further, Vance realized one area was particularly important: his process for handling new clients—specifically, the first three months or so of the relationship. ...
Sep 29, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
As Americans continue to struggle with finances, a consortium of financial planners will sharply broaden an annual outreach next month to consumers looking for free professional advice. The second annual Financial Planning Days, as the program is called, will be held on Saturdays throughout October in 31 cities across the country, up from 21 a year ago. ...
Sep 27, 2011
By Jerry Gleeson
The cost of inefficient technology integration at registered investment advisor practices may be more than you would think. A white paper commissioned by NFP Advisor Services Group and prepared by Aite Group says that a primary advisor at an RIA spends 20 percent more time on operations-related tasks (performance reporting, fee billing, and data reconciliation, for example) than on client prospecting and acquisition. But firms that move to fully integrated tech systems can boost their efficiency by an additional half-day per staffer per week, time that can be devoted to more business development, the report says....
Sep 27, 2011
By Charles Paikert
The Internet is freewheeling “ether,” where, it seems, anyone can say anything about anyone or anything. Wealth managers are becoming increasingly concerned about how to effectively manage their valuable, but vulnerable, reputations. They are even concerned about how their clients are being portrayed online. ...
Sep 27, 2011
By Joshua Brown
Yesterday, I came across a data-free screed on Registered Rep. lambasting the financial advisory community in general and the way it is compensated specifically. The piece was written by Andrew J. Haigney, Managing Director of El Cap Investment Consultants, and it was very heavy on generalities about how fees for advice equate to “a destruction of value.”...
Sep 26, 2011
By Kristen French
UBS top brass sent out a blitzkrieg of reassurances to its prized financial advisors Monday to keep them in their seats and get them to reach out to potentially nervous clients. The effort follows the double whammy of bad news about the bank out in the past week—first the $2 billion loss brought on by a rogue trader and then the resignation over the weekend of CEO Oswald Grubel, who had long said the UBS Wealth Management Americas unit is not for sale. On Monday, interim UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti and UBS Chairman Kasper Villiger sent a memo to advisors re-emphasizing that the US wealth management division is not for sale, a rumor that has been persistent despite continued denials by executives at the bank. Meanwhile, Bob Mullholland got on a call with branch managers and emphatically repeated that it is not for sale and that advisors should get in front of their clients. ...
Sep 26, 2011
By Stan Luxenberg
Health stocks have faced strong headwinds. The sluggish economy has caused patients to postpone elective surgery, while pharmaceutical companies have been hurt by healthcare reform and expirations of patents on blockbuster drugs...
Sep 26, 2011
By Andrew J. Haigney
Readers of our work know that we’ve been outspoken critics of the investment management industry...
Sep 23, 2011
By Diana Britton
Most financial advisors are taking a wait-and-see approach to President Barack Obama’s tax proposal announced Monday, but some say it could pay to prepare clients for some kind of tax reform anyway...
Sep 22, 2011
By John Aidan Byrne
Financial advisors at the U.S. brokerage arm of UBS, which is reeling from a
$2.3 billion trading scandal, have been told by their CEO Bob McCann that the “situation is frustrating and unacceptable...
Sep 21, 2011
By Kristen French
Merrill Lynch’s John Thiel announced in an internal memo Wednesday plans to shake up leadership in the US wealth management and private banking divisions of the firm. The news comes just two weeks after Bank of America announced a major reorganization of its own leadership, giving the boot to global wealth management group head Sallie Krawcheck. ...
