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...

Financial advisors who fancy themselves wealth managers are having trouble walking the talk. This is the most significant finding of our recent research into the business of wealth management. In past columns, we've argued that adopting a wealth...

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...

In even the closest of families, there's always a tension between a trust's current income beneficiary and the remainder beneficiaries over the investment strategy. In general, the income beneficiary wants the assets in the trust invested heavily...

Creating a constructive outlook for the coming year. William Blake once wrote, If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. At the risk of trivializing his statement, Blake's wisdom means something to...

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...