Who would have thought that a piece of regulatory paperwork could rank among an advisor's best friends? But it's true. The piece of paperwork in question is the client account form. It's important because the financial services industry relies on...

Five years ago, Dave was a rookie rep in a UBS training class, but the former muni-bond trader could easily have been mistaken for an instructor. At 43 years old, Dave (not his real name) was an anomaly at the time an experienced businessman...

The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would stiffen rules governing the way mutual funds, high-cost loans and other financial products are marketed to military personnel. The House bill, called the Military Personnel Financial...

Eight years ago, Jed Schlanger got an inspiration: to focus on small business owners whose companies produced tangible goods. I felt I'd get a vicarious thrill from working with people who made something real, he says. So, Schlanger, who heads The...

The industry's focus on high-net-worth clients has been a boon to many advisors, but the high energy focus required to succeed in the high-net-worth game is not always easy to sustain. An advisor I know named Marsha admitted: Sometimes I wonder if...

The pioneering ways of registered investment advisors (RIAs) are coming back to bite them, according to a report from Cerulli Associates. Once on the cutting edge of financial planning and fee-based client relationships, RIAs are now just one of a...

When regulators began attacking rapid trading of mutual funds, many funds rushed to slap on redemption fees. The SEC encouraged the practice, proposing last year that anyone who sells a fund within five days of purchasing it should pay a 2 percent...

Every advisor is different, but a striking number have the exact same three priorities when switching firms: a big transition deal, a fertile source of high-net-worth referrals and a 90 percent payout rate. It goes without saying that the vast...

For E. W. (Woody) Young, one day stands above all others for showering his lady clients with love: Feb. 14. Each Valentine's Day, Young, who runs Quest Capital Management in Dallas, hosts a lunch for his unmarried female clients. Though such a...