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.
There were a number of reasons why Melinda Stephens, a nine-year veteran of the securities industry based in Los Angeles, switched broker/dealers last year. But one of them was because she was worried about her own security namely, the level of...
Harlan Kappel isn't a typical financial planner. For starters, Kappel, with American Express Financial Advisors in Dallas, declines to advise clients on asset allocation, portfolio diversification, mutual fund investments and the like. Indeed, he...
Stephanie Villalba is a high-ranking Merrill Lynch executive, but on a recent business trip, she found herself in a more humble position. While flying on the firm's corporate jet with some male colleagues, Villalba, who heads up Merrill's European...
A-B-C. A: Always. B: Be. C: Closing. Always be closing, always be closing. So go the not-so-gentle words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin's character in Glengarry Glen Ross. In the movie, Baldwin is trying to light a fire under a group of...
There's no doubting that technology has made the lives of independents easier. The ease with which computers and other devices can be untethered from a home office give indie reps more autonomy than they've ever enjoyed before. Without the right...
The good news is, there are more high-net-worth individuals than ever. As always, though, there's a catch. Those people want more of everything more expertise, more risk management and more of their advisors' time. According to the annual World...
The tale of Gina Guzzone is one that would do Franz Kafka proud. All the elements are there the mazelike system of bureaucratic roadblocks, the surreality and the preoccupation with financial security. Most of all, though, Guzzone's is a tale of...
Watch the expressions on the faces of your friends as you lie down on your beach blanket and pull out the 688-page tome, A History of Interest Rates. Nope, it is not a sexy title for a book. Yet, the book is a classic. As one hedge fund manager I...
Daniel Yasharel learned his most important lesson about the financial advisory business even before he became a full-fledged member of it. It was 1992, and Yasharel was working as an insurance agent. He'd sold a policy to a client who called him...
Freedom has its price, the saying goes, and perhaps nowhere is that price more frequently calculated than in the brokerage industry. Year after year, captive financial advisors, dreaming of independence and of the promises of an untethered...
