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.

This week, Smith Barney will become the first firm to make a change to its payout grid as a result of the securities industry’s recent battle over broker overtime pay and so-called chargebacks (when the firm charges the reps for things like...

Two groups of small broker/dealer firms are calling for Mary Schapiro to step down.

The private annuity was just stripped of it's most alluring benefit—capital-gains tax deferral. Long favored by the wealthy because it allowed them to avoid huge capital-gains taxes on appreciated real estate (or any other appreciated asset...

Small broker/dealer firms are trying to slow the proposed merger between the NASD and NYSE Regulation, saying that it’s being pursued too hastily and the consequences are not clear. In a letter to NASD committee members, the Financial...

Here is a new twist in the broker overtime pay lawsuits: The Department of Labor (DOL) says brokers are not entitled to overtime pay after all. Well, that is, unless the DOL is wrong, which it allowed could be the case. (No kidding.)