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.
If you're a fiduciary and don't want to get sued and fined pay close attention to litigation expert Dominic J. Campisi. Campisi, a partner in the San Francisco law firm of Evans Latham and Campisi, has been defending fiduciaries for about three...
When the Wall Street research scandal drew to its close last July as the SEC exacted a global settlement from the top investment banks many reps wondered how it would change their lives. In addition to coughing up a total of $875 million in fines...
Q: I joined my current firm in October 2003 and signed a contract that stipulated ticket charges would be $15. After only six months, the firm raised ticket charges to $25, and after another three months to $35. Because I complained and showed the...
A.G. Edwards is not the first brokerage firm to encourage its brokers to continue their educations, but the firm has come up with a novel twist: Its continuing education classes now qualify for college credits. Offered through the A.G. Edwards...
Training is everythingcauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. Mark Twain To this famous quote brokerage firms might add: Financial advisors are but Avon salesmen transformed by their wirehouse-sponsored tutoring. Such is the...
I underwent a grueling arbitration hearing this year. The complainant's attorney claimed I'd acted in a fiduciary capacity by purchasing and allocating a variable annuity for my clients. I maintained I had no fiduciary responsibility but had...
Greener pastures await at another broker/dealer: I'm outta here. Adios. Sayonara. Kiss mywell, you get the idea. It's a heady moment when a rep leaves his firm. It also often sets in motion a series of showdowns over client ownership and...
Q: Recently I have been offered a forgivable loan as part of a transition package. I've taken loans before, but I've never seen one of the requirements in this one: forgiveness tied to production. It's a four-year loan, one-quarter of the loan...
It seems so trivial, just a turn of phrase: Can Series 7 stockbrokers bill themselves as financial advisors without getting a Series 66, the license that technically separates advisors from salesmen? Since 1999, brokers have been able to do just...
What, no more golf balls? No free fancy lunches? Dinner? No drinks? Financial advisors who grew accustomed to the little and sometimes not so little treats that mutual fund wholesalers lavish on them may have noticed a certain lack of swag lately...
