It’s impossible to know what the sum of the day’s testimonies, questions and comments will lead to, especially considering that whatever bill emerges would need to also pass a Democrat-controlled Senate. Whatever the outcome, it’s likely to be drawn out, but some compromises may be getting made. ...
by Kevin Nichols, Director of Marketing at The Oechsli Institute
Ashley is a veteran advisor who has been invited to her company recognition trip with thirty of her fellow top performers. To the others who heard her question, she made a valid point. But they are missing the big picture. Social Media isn’t just a “hip” way to reach clients or prospects; it’s a tool that can be used in the midst of shaky markets for broadening your reach by positioning yourself as a calming presence. ...
LPL Financial (NASDAQ: LPLA) kicked off its annual conference in Chicago on Monday by ringing the opening bell of the NASDAQ stock exchange and announcing some new initiatives aimed at supporting advisors. In particular, the firm is slashing transaction charges for equities and ETFs from $15 to $9 a trade and footing the bill for all its 12,600 advisors to have a one-year membership to the Financial Services Institute, said Bill Dwyer, president of national sales and marketing at LPL, during the opening session Monday. ...
Securities America met with plaintiff’s attorneys on Thursday to negotiate a resolution to investor claims against the company related to its sale of allegedly fraudulent private placements. The outcome of the mediation was unknown at press time, as key players involved didn’t return phone calls. Other media outlets have not reported on the results. Will the asset class become demonized unfairly?...
“It is very unsettling. They have 2,000 reps that are trying to figure out what to do next. It also poses some interesting questions for the industry . . ."
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Securities America will face a federal court judge Friday to decide whether the independent broker/dealer gets preliminary approval for a $21 million settlement agreement related to allegedly fraudulent private placements sold by the company. Firm says FA retention is nevertheless still strong....
It was a good quarter for Ameriprise’s Advice & Wealth Management segment. It posted total revenue of $1.03 billion, a record, up 15 percent year over year. Pre-tax operating earnings of $90 million were up 157 percent from a year earlier. ...
The truth is, asset managers haven’t gotten very involved in the debate surrounding the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, mostly because they say there are few issues that apply to them. According to Barbara Novick, founder of BlackRock and a member of the firm’s Government Relations Steering Committee, the financial services industry has mostly been represented by bankers and broker/dealers. ...
If you believe in the “politicians-are-idiots” theory, you’ll love gridlock. After all, the economy and stocks tend to do better under divided government....
LinkedIn has some cool data analysis on Wall Street job trends. Many of the refugees from the collapse of late 2008 ended up at Barclay’s, which grabbed 10 percent of laid off talent, according to a blog entry on LinkedIn. Other big beneficiaries include Credit Suisse, which took 1.5 percent and Citigroup, which took 1.1 percent of individuals who were laid off. Some had speculated that those laid off in the downturn left the financial industry all together, a hypothesis belied by LinkedIn’s data. (via The Big Picture.)...
Thanks to Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, if your clients' money market funds are threatening to break the buck, the board of the fund may elect to suspend redemptions....
After a painful year in 2008, some advisors and investors are falling back in love with hedge funds, but the terms of the relationship are changing. ...
With the decade ending tomorrow, the chorus blaming bankers—and only bankers—for the economic “lost decade” will finally grow crescendo. (Lots of think pieces will appear online and in papers everywhere.) Naturally, politicians play the populist claptrap card to fan the flames of blame and envy. In truth, naturally, there is plenty of blame to go around, but it was not just the bankers’ irresponsibility that brought us here. ...
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro announced the release today of the Office of the Inspector General’s report on the Bernard Madoff fraud. In short, the SEC screwed up in every way possible. Along with the announcement, Schapiro outlined how the agency is reforming itself. ...
The SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee, which was formed to give investors a greater voice in the SEC, has “agreed upon an ambitious and wide-ranging agenda.” Or so says a press release issued by the SEC today. For more, please go to VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David Geracioti. ...
The SEC yesterday charged Nashville-based broker/dealer Morgan Keegan for misleading thousands of investors about the risks of auction rate securities (ARS). Further, the SEC alleges that the firm pushed illiquid auction rate securities on thousands of clients long after it knew the market had frozen. The firm announced it had received a Wells Notice from the SEC last week....
It’s an old story, the brouhaha over auction rate securities. But today’s SEC announcement (it settled with TD Ameritrade over ARS) is another reminder: When your brokerage tells you it has dreamed up a new security for you to sell to your high-net-worth clients, best make sure you really—really, really—know what the devil it is you are selling. ...
Morgan Keegan & Co., a unit of Regions Financial, Morgan Asset Management and three employees each received a “Wells” notice from the SEC, the company stated in a Form 8-K filed by Regions on July 9. ...
More than nine months after one of the oldest and largest money market funds suffered such severe redemptions that the net asset value of its shares fell below $1, the SEC is proposing structural and regulatory changes for money markets so it doesn’t happen again. ...
The SEC today indicted four individuals for helping Bernie Madoff in his colossal Ponzi scheme. One of the individuals was a registered rep and a second was an investment advisor. If the allegations are true, the men and one woman are quite wicked—or kept themselves willfully (“recklessly,” says the SEC) ignorant. ...
You know that your industry has a problem — a serious trust issue — when a New York Times columnist today sums up the case against financial advisor Matthew Weitzman thusly: “So most readers of this newspaper could be victims in other similar situations.” Please go to VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David A. Geracioti....
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