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.
Wealth management teams have at least one thing in common with sharks: If they're not moving forward, they're in danger of dying. Last month, the first installment of this two-part series on team leadership described four stages of advisory...
The phrase helping people quit dredges up all manner of images, most of them having to do with substance-abuse therapy. For many advisors that's apt, because the process of easing a client into retirement can feel like an intervention at times...
But a lot had to happen before they could take their place in the driver's seat. For starters, the neophytes (who were in their 20s at the time) needed to demonstrate to their father they had the right stuff to handle such a lofty position...
With other firms rapidly improving their recruitment offers to top candidates, Morgan Stanley is guarding against getting left in the dust. Industry recruiters say the firm has in recent weeks increased the upfront cash offered to top producers...
In a prelude to its annual World Wealth Report, which tracks the investing and spending habits of ultra-high-net-worth investors, the consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young says the super-rich increasingly are behaving like institutions when it...
The rumors are proving true: The larger brokerage firms, including Raymond James and Wachovia Securities, are warming to the idea of letting reps dabble in more independent-minded pursuits. On March 1, Raymond James Financial announced its...
There aren't a lot of $50 million clients out there, so when one comes around, there's going to be competition to win his business. One such situation arose a couple years ago, after Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter merged but while the two were...
Andrew Duff, CEO of Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, likes to tell a little story to his troops about why Piper's 1998 marriage to neighboring U.S. Bancorp ended up an amicable divorce in 2003. An affluent Piper client was seated in a conference room...
Last May, Paul Sikorski earned his degree from the School of Intestinal Fortitude when he and his two partners opened their own broker/dealer for business. The road to graduation was an arduous one, comprising a year of document gathering and...
Attention shoppers: Those of you looking to purchase a financial advisory practice should be prepared for an arduous search. For every practice sporting a For Sale sign, there are 30 or 40 potential buyers out there, according to FP Transitions, a...
