Regulation and Compliance issues for Wealth Professionals can be challenging to navigate especially when the SEC is involved. Catch the latest news and analysis on compliance updates that impact financial advisors.
What does an advisor do when clients at his firm are routinely charged an undisclosed commission on top of fees and he suffers for not falling in line? Q: I work for a major wirehouse. Like most others in our industry, we offer fee-based accounts...
Brokers must take tests. It's a fact of Wall Street life. That some people will go too far in an effort to pass them is sadly a fact of industry life, too. Here are a few of the more egregious examples: That's an Old Photo of Me Dmitry Verkhovsky ...
Congregation Con man: James Upshaw didn't need fancy performance charts in order to convince 144 people to entrust him with a combined total of $3.2 million he just assured them his financial advice came directly from God. Upshaw, a thief with...
After stepping into the ring last spring with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer over fund disclosure practices, American Funds recently knocked the AG on the canvas; Edward Jones, another Lockyer target, hasn't been so lucky. In November...
Eliot Spitzer may have fired the final cannon blast in his 27-month assault on the mutual fund industry. The crusading New York attorney general reached a settlement with Federated Investors last month that required the company to pay $100 million...
Q: I had an oral contract with my partner that I would inherit his $40 million book when he retired in two to three years, but he was laid off in the middle of the transition period and now my branch manager has told me that I won't get the book...
Over the years, planners have found several techniques useful in helping non-U.S. families pass wealth to the next generation: offshore personal investment companies (PICs), settlor-directed revocable trusts, controlled foundations, irrevocable...
The gross estate of a nonresident alien1 (NRA) is determined in the same manner as the gross estate of a U.S. resident or citizen, although it's generally limited to property situated, or deemed to be situated in the United States at the time of...
Many wealthy people today spend substantial amounts of time in various countries and many may eventually find themselves becoming tax residents of the United States. So U.S. trusts and estates practitioners shouldn't be surprised if a client...
With the accelerating globalization of economic relations and the compression of travel and communication distances between countries, increasing numbers of U.S. citizens and residents find themselves holding property in jurisdictions outside the...