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 ...

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Part of the fallout from the regulatory onslaught of the past three years has been a drastic overhaul in how mutual funds are sold. Regulators exposed longstanding marketing practices that quietly boosted the profits of money managers and...

The recent acquisitions of Legg Mason's retail brokerage by Citigroup and Advest by Merrill Lynch brought an interesting recruiting problem into high relief: Raiding. Simply put, there are some brokers who are too hot to touch: groups or teams who...

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...

is a word that no trustee wants to see next to his name. Yet one consequence of recent natural disasters, most notably Hurricane Katrina, will be a surge of litigation against trustees for failing to adequately insure the assets under their...

Trustees face many challenges as we begin the year 2006. First, trust institutions are grappling with the anti-money laundering (AML) and bank secrecy act (BSA) requirements of various federal agencies. Second, all trustees both institutional and...

Many estate planners these days see the estate planning marketing glass as half empty and leaking. An ever-increasing portion of their clients and prospects even the wealthy ones simply don't find traditional estate tax planning either necessary...

There is trouble brewing in independent broker/dealer-land. Operating costs are rising, recruiting efforts for advisors are starting to resemble an arms race and marginal reps will continue to be culled. In short, independent b/ds face the broad...