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.
This week, FINRA fined Merrill Lynch $1 million for making it hard for former brokers of the firm to fight back in bonus disputes. That’s pocket change for a financial services leviathan like Merrill, which has paid as much or more out to...
Don’t write off merger and acquisition activity for the registered investment advisor market in 2012 yet. Sure, market volatility and foggy economic prospects dampened dealmaking last year, according to Schwab Advisor Services. Those conditions...
Raymond James Financial (NYSE: RJF) reported fiscal 2012 first quarter revenue fell four percent to $782.5 million, while earnings were down 18% to $67.3 million.
Boston: “I’ve set up my first meeting with a CPA,” started Jay during our new advisors training session. He excitedly continued, “How do you recommend I go about conducting this meeting? How do I differentiate myself? I thought I’d start with my...
The Financial Services Institute has more than doubled its advisor membership from 15,000 in 2011 to 34,000 today. Many firms are subsidizing the cost of membership for their advisors, the institute says, and it reflects the fact that advisory...
The hottest trend in wealth management this year will be business development. This is unfortunate, because a lot of wealth management firms are terrible at developing business.
It will be tough this year to squeeze more revenue from existing as...
Much of the talk at the Financial Services Institute’s OneVoice 2012 conference in Orlando is about the challenge independent broker/dealers face by allowing advisors to have their own registered investment advisor. During a Tuesday panel session...
When families start looking to pay for college, some put their hopes in private scholarships – there are an estimated 1.5 million private scholarships out there, though how many are awarded annually is difficult to track. But only in a handful of...
