Feb 16, 2012
By Kristen French
When Lyle LaMothe, former head of retail brokerage Merrill Lynch, stepped down suddenly last May after 20 years at the firm, there were plenty of questions about his departure. ...
Feb 16, 2012
By Diana Britton
Despite a bad year for its institutional group caused by the uncertain market environment, financial services firm Stifel Financial’s 2011 results were propped up by the stability in its global wealth management segment, which reported record net revenues of $908 million, a 7.7 percent jump over 2010. ...
Feb 16, 2012
By David Geracioti, Editor-in-Chief
Brad Hintz, of Bernstein Research, says Ameritrade and Schwab will need a while before their businesses really get cranking:...
Feb 16, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
Minneapolis—“We’ve got to make a change in our support personnel,” John explained with a rather painful expression. “My personal assistant just isn’t capable of communicating clearly with the other players on the team.”...
Feb 15, 2012
By Diana Britton
Morgan Keegan has lost seven financial advisors since December, FINRA filings show. They follow some 190 other advisors who fled over the past six months, after corporate parent Regions Financial Corp. ...
Feb 15, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
In addition to his careers as a writer and financial planner, Carl Richards is adding a new position: “chief storyteller,” as he puts it. With the kind of story he has to tell, it’s a title that works....
Feb 15, 2012
By Joshua Brown
Financial advisors are feeling pressure to get on the social media bandwagon. But will canned content and compliance-approved writings drain the life out of a spontaneous, free-flowing medium?...
Feb 15, 2012
By Matt Oechsli
Elite advisors have turned mapping their affluent clients’ social network into an art form....
Feb 14, 2012
By David Geracioti, Editor-in-Chief
Yesterday, I posted a story about the American Association of Individual Investors’ (AAII) market sentiment indicator turned bullish. ...
Feb 14, 2012
By Diana Britton
Forget the wirehouses, the regionals, or the insurance broker/dealers. Independent broker/dealers: your biggest competition may be a custodian....
Feb 14, 2012
By Anne Field
A carefully designed compensation model is key to a successfully run practice. Here’s how to make pay work for you instead of against you. ...
Feb 13, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Raymond James Financial said it is moving its registered investment advisor unit out of Raymond James Financial Services, its IBD division, and setting it up as a separate division with its own president. ...
Feb 13, 2012
By Kristen French
President Barack Obama issued a proposed budget Monday that would give the Securities Exchange Commission an 18.5 percent increase in funding in 2013, raising its total budget to $1.566 billion from this year’s $1.321 billion. But getting that through Congress will be another matter. Could it change the debate over switching in an SRO to oversee investment advisers?...
Feb 13, 2012
By David A. Geracioti, Editor-in-Chief
I was reading Michael Santoli’s column in Barron’s this week. Santoli makes an interesting observation. The American Association of Individual Investors poll — a gauge of retail investors’ market optimism/pessimissm — crossed into the bullish reading, with a score of 51.6% bullish against 20.2% bearish. Historically, this is bad news. ...
Feb 13, 2012
By Stan Luxenberg
Since 2009, Build America bonds have given yield-starved investors a bit of hope for their fixed-income portfolios. These subsidized munis may continue to be good options, if you understand the risks....
Feb 13, 2012
By Susan Konig
It’s no secret that many branch managers feel their firms now view them more as “costly overhead” rather than as talented coaches and leaders who can greatly benefit their firms’ bottom lines. ...
Feb 10, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
The partners at Merrill Lynch’s Beirne Wealth Management Group in Milford, Conn. had talked off and on over the years about leaving the wirehouse, John Beirne Jr. told me, but it took a new sales policy from the company headquarters last April to push the practice out the door....
Feb 10, 2012
By David A. Geracioti, Editor-in-Chief
Last week I attended the TD Ameritrade Institutional Annual Conference and was treated to a rousing, animated lecture by Prof. Jeremy Siegel of Wharton and WisdomTree ETF family. ...
Feb 10, 2012
By Diana Britton
Family ties run deep, to a certain point. I recently came across a Supreme Court filing against Raymond James Financial Services and Dwight Wanken, a branch manager, that exemplifies the dangers of the family business....
Feb 10, 2012
By Sean Cunniff
Benjamin Franklin once said, “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”...
Feb 10, 2012
By Kristen French
What does energy have to do with money? Aside from your monthly electric bill, or the Exxon or PetroChina stocks you may have in your investment portfolio, you might think, not a whole lot. But Chicago wealth manager Julie Murphy Casserly would disagree....
Feb 10, 2012
By Mark Miller
The spoils of the 401(k) market have always gone to the large players – big retirement plan providers providing the best, most efficient plans to big plan sponsors. But small is starting to look beautiful....
Feb 9, 2012
By Jerry Gleeson
Last year’s market volatility apparently didn’t discourage retirement savers from sticking to their plans, but it didn’t encourage more frugality either....
Feb 9, 2012
By David A. Geracioti, Editor-in-Chief
The Occupy Wall Street movement may be on a winter hiatus, but not in The Nation — one of America’s oldest continuously published magazines. In its Feb. 13th edition, The Nation features a story by a former Marine and failed Merrill Lynch advisor who hammers, brutalizes, really, our country’s financial system....
Feb 9, 2012
By Jodi Johnston
Free booze, five-star food and exotic locales: It’s no wonder some brokers are wistful for the annual conferences of old. The days of wine and roses are no more, but that doesn’t mean conferences have to be boring. With the right mix, you might actually get some work done. ...
