Advisors of a certain age might remember an old Heineken beer ad campaign based around this phrase: Just being the best is enough. The idea, of course, being that the beer was so good it sold itself. A surprising number of advisors subscribe to a...
When Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter got married back in 1997, the idea was to create a Wall Street powerhouse: a white shoe investment bank (Morgan Stanley) with a nationwide, albeit work-a-day, distribution network (Dean Witter). That, at least...
Not-So-Hot IPO: The NASD fined San Francisco-based Thomas Weisel Partners $1.75 million for levying what the NASD deemed exorbitant commission charges on IPO shares. The firm sometimes charged commissions of more than $1 per share for attractive...
The mutual fund fees known as 12b-1s have morphed into something few envisioned when the SEC created them 25 years ago. With regulators now poised to address that transformation, many reps are sweating about the future of a reliable income stream...
Smith Barney is facing a new round of sex-discrimination suits. A quartet of financial consultants from California has filed a national class-action lawsuit against the firm in a San Francisco federal court. The suit alleges systemic sexual...
In 1984, Julian Mayo was a trainee at Schroders, an investment bank, when he was sent to investigate a little-known automaker in a town called Ulsan on the southeast coast of Korea. The Asian nation was still under dictatorship, which meant army...
Q: Many firms use third-party investment research to cover companies their own analysts don't or to supply a second opinion. As part of these arrangements, the firms often enter into contractual agreements with unregistered third parties. The...
Roland Pritchett, one of Morgan Stanley's top producers out of its Atlanta branch, has moved to UBS across town. Pritchett, who had been working for Morgan's private wealth group, is a $2.5 million producer with assets under management topping ...
In 1970, Legg & Co., a venerable brokerage firm based in Baltimore, made a momentous strategic decision. It merged with an eight-year-old local upstart, Mason & Co. and made Raymond Mason its CEO. Under Mason's leadership, the firm grew from a...
Hope springs eternal, eternally, it seems. So what if the dollar fell, oil soared and job growth stalled as 2005 started. Investors still expected double-digit market returns. According to the SIA's annual investor survey, the median annual...
