Eliot Spitzer may have less than a month left as New York State's attorney general, but the governor elect says there may be at least one more high-profile enforcement action against a major Wall Street firm before he leaves his post in January...

Shelf Space No No: The Hartford Financial Services Group agreed to pay $55 million to settle SEC charges that three subsidiaries of the firm failed to disclose their use of client mutual fund assets to pay brokerage firms to market The Hartford...

At the end of October, former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Coventry First, one of the largest life-settlement firms in the U.S., for alleged bid-rigging and other types of fraud. Not exactly an auspicious development for the...

The rich are different, as they say. And that applies to how they talk and how they want to be talked to. We're all successful and travel in affluent circles. But I know that I'm not the only one letting affluent opportunities slip away for fear...

Right now your retired clients face a number of conundrums as they search for reliable sources of income. The interest paid by conservative fixed-income investments is barely keeping pace with the rising cost of retirement expenses, and that's...

The end of each calendar year provides a natural setting for serious prospecting. Full-year performance and other results are easy to present to potential clients and their accountants, who can quickly make comparisons among competing advisors...

It takes time and tenacity to become a great branch manager who can attract and the big producers and successful teams. Recruiting skills are among the key criteria brokerage firms use to evaluate and compensate managers. The brokers you meet are...

Whenever a fund company introduces a new product, it is invariably heralded as the biggest thing since night baseball. Financial advisors are told that the great bulk of their clients have had this serious, unmet investment need. And, the...

Sometimes I wonder if there is a secret plan to socially engineer smaller NASD firms out of business. When I look around our industry, I see independent/regional firms crushed under the weight of an ever-growing number of poorly drafted...

Q: I've been a certified financial planner and investment advisor rep for six years, but have worked in the industry for 15 years. I'm planning a client-appreciation event and I've been polling my clients. They say that they'd like to get together...