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.
Christine Moriarty, a certified financial planner based in Bristol, Vt., recalls one client, a computer business owner, who had been trying to live on a tight budget without any form of long-term planning. He was wreaking havoc on himself. He had...
BROKERAGE SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTS INADEQUATE Serving small businesses is a top priority for brokerage firms these days, but you wouldn't know it from the quality of their offerings, says one recent study. Corporate Insight, a research and...
Apparently, apart from spoiling kids' morals, rock and roll (videos) also ruined their financial discipline. Well, no, maybe not. But, due to poor spending and savings habits, the finances of the MTV Generation are in much worse shape than those...
Registered Rep. recently caught up with Debby McWhinney and spoke with her about the rivalry between the registered investment advisor (RIA) firms that Schwab caters to and Wall Street wirehouses. Here is an excerpt: Registered Rep.: With a lot of...
I recently worked on a court case where a series of small but horribly egregious errors were made in client financial plans. Twelve clients who had invested an aggregate $10 million with a broker at a national wirehouse were suing the broker after...
Brokerage firms have lobbied for a new self-regulatory organization (SRO) model for years, saying the current system of two cops on the beat is redundant and, therefore, too time consuming and expensive. Now that SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has...
In an early November broadcast to the firm's U.S. financial advisors, Morgan Stanley retail head James Gorman announced the rollout of a new compensation program for 2007 one that will increase the firm's spending on compensation by millions of...
Most financial advisors consider themselves retirement experts. Sure, most of them know the minutiae of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s and, indeed, most would be able to explain to a client why a 403(b) or a SEP-IRA might make...
File this under, It had to happen: the electronic collection plate. According to Donald Trump, writing in his Trump University blog, some Southern Protestant churches are installing ATMs in their lobbies. Trump predicts that if the ATM strategy is...
When did you know you wanted to become an investment advisor? When I was 17 years old, a friend introduced me to the stock market. We bought 10 shares of stock and made some money, and I was hooked. The stock was Armour Meat warrants. We bought it...
