In this section we present key findings and insights from our survey questions on practice management and operations, including services offered, the most time-consuming activities, professional designations, custody relationships and documentation trends.
It's January. Everyone wants to become his "ideal self," you know, tackle all those bad habits and really kick it hard. So, as a service to our loyal readers, we asked several branch managers and compliance experts for advice to help other BOMs...
Branch managers are busier than they ever have been. Sure, compliance issues have grown. (Outside of the firearm industry, can you think of a more regulated business?) But it's not just the increased compliance burden brought on by the popping of...
More and more reps are becoming certified financial planners (CFPs). Trouble is that many wirehouse brokers with CFPs don't actually act as fiduciaries, as the designation currently requires. Should a wirehouse CFP be able to use the prestigious...
Don't take this the wrong way, but brokers wirehouse reps in particular tend to be a worried lot, regularly complaining about their firms even in the best of times. Indeed, they seem to be more prone to conspiracy theories than the general public...
The NASD fined Chase Investment Services and MetLife Securities for failing to establish internal controls to supervise the sale of 529 college savings plans. The two firms were fined $500,000 apiece and ordered to reimburse customers who were...
The expense ratios of the lifecycle funds cited in Spinning Their Wheels (October 2006) represented gross expense ratios and not the net expense ratios that are normally used when examining fund fees. Two of the fund names were also cited...
Mark Sutton, chairman and CEO of U.S. operations for UBS, has announced his resignation after 16 months in the position. Sutton says he plans to pursue other business opportunities and personal interests. Robert Wolf, chairman of the firm's...
Last year, Leven Brown, a Scottish stockbroker with Edinburgh-based Bell Lawrie rowed solo 5,000 miles across the Atlantic in five months. Now the 34-year-old descendent of Christopher Columbus, and recent father, is going to cross the pond again...
