Last month we discussed the benefits of limited partnerships and limited liability companies as estate planning tools. This month we will look at the recent Hackl case, which struck terror in the hearts of estate planning professionals and their...
Think you're safe buying an investment grade bond for your client? Guess again. Rating downgrades are coming at a record pace. By increasing client asset allocation into bonds, brokers may not necessarily be reducing risk, even when restricting...
The truth about sales assistants: They are far more than "the help." Sales assistants have taken on more responsibilities than ever, including maintaining warm relations with clients. Our annual survey of sales assistants takes the measure of an...
After a long, hot and depressingly slow summer, clients returned from vacation last month, and with them, came that annoying paperwork that takes far too much of your time. How can you cut through the morass of documents and spend more of your day...
The financial planning industry has quietly passed. Evidence is mounting that financial planning-oriented broker/dealers are turning from financial planners to wirehouse brokers.(Registered Rep., March 1991.)
You're all set for that TV news interview. You've prepped, you're pumped and you've told your friends to tune in. Then you get the dreaded call from compliance. The interview is off, they say. Your firm won't let you talk to the press. The...
Now that millions of shareholders have awoken from the bubble to realize they have been mugged by the stewards of the companies in which they had invested, corporate governance issues are suddenly hot topics at cocktail parties. It's also getting...
Despite repeated denials by UBS CEO Marcel Ospel, there is persistent speculation that the Zurich-based bank has been preparing a formal takeover bid for Merrill Lynch. Merrill's name has been bandied about in takeover talk for the past few years...
What does your business card say? I'll bet it doesn't say stockbroker, but financial consultant or financial advisor or some other permutation on that theme. If you're an independent advisor, that's an accurate description of your role and not a...
With arbitration cases on the rise, many brokers are shaking in their wingtips about the prospect of being dragged through a legal process that, because of the current environment, some believe is heavily slanted toward the client, in the words of...
