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.
Five years ago, Tom Carstens began working with a new client, a successful executive making $3 million a year. At first glance, he seemed to promise a virtual avalanche of new business. But, after 12 long months, the client had agreed to make...
Not long ago, becoming a registered investment advisor (RIA) was hardly considered a rep's best career move. In the early years of this decade, many of the registered reps switching to a Series 66 RIA designation had been bounced from major...
Anthony Sasso, who lives in Tinton Falls, N.J., with his wife, knows he's not Harbor Lights Financial's biggest client. He's 70 and recently retired. Sasso is no millionaire, and, as a result, has to keep a tight rein on his spending. To make a...
The bitter public battle over the Pritzker family fortune offers a fishbowl view into how large sums of money can strain family ties. The Pritzkers, who own the Hyatt chain of hotels, among other holdings, recently put to rest a very public battle...
A decade ago, if you entered the financial services business and wanted to deal with the public, you had limited choices. You could go to a wirehouse or regional brokerage, where company policy (and regulatory oversight) forced you to concentrate...
Two years ago, Dennis Miller was climbing toward the icy summit of Pico Orizaba, Mexico's tallest mountain. At 18,000 feet, he lost his footing on the ice and tumbled half a vertical mile, shattering his leg in the fall. With rescue efforts...
A few years ago, Eric Lutz got a call from a distraught client about a talk she'd had with her daughter's kindergarten teacher. It seems the kids had been discussing their February break vacations, and the client's daughter had made fun of those...
Brokers tempted to leap at a lucrative job at another firm are often held back by inertia, but in increasing numbers they are finding the powerful force they need to get moving: hungry branch managers. Managers, of course, have always been some of...
Keep it simple, stupid: That's the idea behind Wachovia Securities new grid one that offers a round 50 percent payout to brokers, once they pass a $9,000 production threshold. The simplified grid is meant to be easier for advisors to understand...
The 1984 movie Repo Man had a number of irreverent things to say about society, but none so memorable as its nose-thumbing at the nation's obsession with branding. As the movie's antihero, Otto, wends his way through the car-repossession business...
