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.
One problem with focusing on big-game clients is that sometimes they grow too big a fact one West Coast wirehouse broker learned the hard way. The client in question was a good one who got even better when he sold his business, netting a cool $150...
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal described a probe securities regulators have launched into fee-based accounts. I paid extra attention, because charging a percentage of assets under management is the advice-and-compensation model I view...
The brokerage business is good or better, at least. The market is climbing slowly, firms are showing a profit and hiring again (albeit after massive layoffs), and, according to industry studies, affluent investors are in search of advice. The bad...
For years, the biggest gripe A.G. Edwards reps harbored about their firm concerned the technology platform. Specifically, reps say, their workstations have been less than robust, providing subpar information and breaking down far too frequently...
Doctors and financial advisors have a lot in common, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than on late-night television. There, sandwiched between nightmare-date shows and infomercials, lurk the ads from the ambulance-chasing lawyers and from...
On Jan. 15, 2003, a phone call abruptly transformed me from a freelance contributing editor to Registered Rep. magazine into an infantry officer bound for Iraq. As a national guardsman, I was aware that I could be called up for duty. After a few...
As advisors set their sights ever higher, one of the most sought-after types of client is the family office, with advisor notions of the ideal falling just this side of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. Like any rare and elusive species, family...
I know my assistant is getting paid far too much, mused Jerry. She is getting 2.5 percent of my production, making her the highest paid assistant in the office. She's got an 8:30-to-4:30 mentality, and she acts as though her bonus is an...
Back in 1981, when Philip J. Purcell helped engineer the odd-sounding merger of Sears Roebuck and Dean Witter, he had a vision. He knew the 401(k) legislation encouraging people to invest for retirement would create a voracious appetite for mutual...
Brokers looking for a home at a regional firm find their options quite limited these days. Many regionals have been swallowed up, or, in the case of Wachovia, have done the swallowing on their own. But, recruiters say, one regional is separating...
