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.
When LPL Financial, a self-clearing independent broker/dealer, rolled Pacific Life's broker/dealers onto its self-clearing platform in 2009, many advisors protested. But for Jennifer Tanck, president of Independent Financial Partners, an LPL...
Independent broker-dealer WFP Securities went out of business fighting claims they put clients into risky private placements and non-traded REITS. Yesterday, they got a bit back.
RIA custodians like Schwab and TD Ameritrade may be stealing business away from the IBDs. According to a report by Cerulli Associates, 76 percent of dually-registered advisors' assets were held as fee assets under their own RIA in 2011, up from 72...
When it comes to what they are paying their advisors, investors are clueless. A 2011 survey by Cerulli Associates and Phoenix Marketing International found that 31 percent of investors were not sure how their advisors were compensated, while...
National Planning Corporation has expanded its recruiting team with the addition of Scott Montgomery and Keith Mistretta as vice presidents of new business development. Montgomery joins from FirstPoint Partners, a consulting and recruiting firm...
Fool Me Twice Robert Pinkas was not deterred the first time, SEC charges suggest. The regulator says Pinkas stole $173,000 from a fund client to cover the costs of defending himself in a separate investigation. Pinkas then lied to the client about...
In a year that saw roller-coaster market moves, the nation's top custodians seemed to do all right in their efforts to lure new assets and advisors to their platforms. All four major custodians logged growth in breakaways in 2011, although some...
Two broad findings highlight how the economic challenges we’ve been experiencing over the past few years have fundamentally changed the relationship between the affluent investor and financial advisors.
