Psychologists the world over say vacation is important because, The brain needs a break, but it's surprising how few advisors give their minds a true rest during their time off. It's my experience that those who have built strong financial...
Rollovers inspire yawns in most advisors and not just because the word reminds them of their mattresses. Over the years, the subject of rollovers has been overexposed. But there is good reason for that: They are an incredibly important segment of...
Perhaps it was inevitable: After a couple of years of ownership changes, management musical chairs and shifting business plans, Quick & Reilly has finally succumbed. Bank of America, which inherited Quick as part of its acquisition of FleetBoston...
How can you build the ideal portfolio? For many advisors, the answer can be summed up in one word: Markowitz. In the 1950s, Harry Markowitz changed the financial world by describing how diversification could help investors control risk and achieve...
A-B-C. A: Always. B: Be. C: Closing. Always be closing, always be closing. So go the not-so-gentle words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry Glen Ross. In the movie, Baldwin is trying to light a fire under a group of...
When Mike DiGirolamo, former head compliance officer at Raymond James Financial, was first contacted by the NASD about how the firm determined whether fee-based or commission-based accounts were appropriate for customers, he was surprised. That...
Things went from bad to worse for Greg Kinkead, a 10-year veteran advisor based in Las Vegas. In 2002, several months after switching wirehouses, Kinkead received five complaints on his previously spotless U4 form. None of the claims specified...
Merrill Lynch's purported shopping of its investment management unit has some juicy implications for the nation's largest brokerage operation, but it also could be a signpost of a much more important event a history-making shift in Wall Street's...
Q: My firm encouraged in a documentable way the conversion of A-share mutual funds into a new class that could be held in wrap accounts (and be charged the wrap fee). It is now asking for written reasons from advisors as to why certain low...
Wachovia Securities continued the restructuring of its sales and marketing group by naming Keith Gregg its new national sales director. Gregg, previously Wachovia's regional director of the northeast and California, will run the firm's independent...
