Financial advisors have long complained that 529 college savings plans aren’t profitable products for them to fuss with: The average account size is too small, the account opening process is too time consuming and, until recently, there was...
Ryan Beck & Co. of Florham Park, N.J., may be acquired by St. Louis-based regional brokerage Stifel Nicolaus.
The possibility of an early retirement is a dream for any client. Indeed, the words “early retirement” conjure pretty images from magazine advertisements (golfing, traveling, grandkids). But what happens when early retirement occurs...
New York Attorney General and Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, is asking a Northern California court to disapprove the settlement terms of an overtime suit against UBS.
Merrill Lynch has launched a new benefit program for its army of 15,700 brokers that will provide financial assistance to their families in the event of their death. The added death benefits include a lump-sum payment based on a flat 36 percent of...
If you were starting from scratch with a reasonable budget to create a complex of software and quick Internet references for assisting with an efficient trusts-and-estates practice, what should you include on your wish list?
Getting your clients a piece of global M&A action—2006 has seen a near-record $3.6 trillion in deal activity—doesn’t have to involve ponying up massive minimums (and fees) for shares of a private equity fund or fund of funds...
Studies indicate stock options have contributed significantly to the sharp rise in the number of households worth $25 million and more. That means there's a growing number of executives who qualify as clients for the services of top-flight wealth...
With 2006 drawing to a close, it’s time to look under the hood of your practice to analyze what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. The goal is to figure out how to run your firm more efficiently and profitably. And, sometimes...
The New York Attorney General’s Office announced today that it is suing UBS Financial Services for allegedly defrauding thousands of customers through its InsightOne fee-based brokerage program.