Can the folks who market variable annuities and have gotten slammed by regulators for how they line their pockets in the process force the industry that the products to roll back prices and simplify mind-boggling fee schedules? Can they, in fact...

Separate accounts have been the product for the financial advisory business for several years. They are so alluring promising to align the interests of clients and reps by making the rep a fee-based asset manager rather than a commission seeker...

Can you name the Street's largest asset gatherer last year? Was it Merrill? Smith Barney? No, the title went to Charles Schwab. The pioneering discount broker, who was slammed by the tech wreck and suffered through protracted management struggles...

As the baby boomer generation slouches toward retirement age, advisors who serve them are in an increasingly precarious position. One problem is that the boomer clients are in the process of shifting from asset-accumulation to asset-withdrawal...

Those searching for evidence of the brokerage industry's progress towards true wealth management need look no further than registered reps' evolving attitudes towards life insurance. Reps historically have been reluctant to sell life insurance...

Citizens Financial Group is punishing its brokerage force for targeting elderly bank customers in the sale of its high-risk variable annuities. How? By taking away the things brokers love: Red Sox playoff tickets, limousine trips to Mohegan Sun...

The story of insurance sales in the brokerage industry is one of untapped potential. According to a recent survey by Registered Rep. and The Hartford Life Insurance Co., 69 percent of registered reps are licensed to sell life insurance products...

Despite the recent onslaught of negative regulatory and media attention to variable annuities, sales of these products have not suffered. In fact, they have continued to grow over the past three years, even as sales of fixed annuities have slipped...

For registered reps, annuities, one of the most lucrative and complex items in an advisor's repertoire, can appear to be a cure-all for clients. Clients seem to love them, because of the guaranteed income even if they don't understand them. Many...

At its second annual Business Experience Conference, held at the Sundance Resort in Utah, Waltham, Mass.-based Commonwealth Financial Network had 50 financial representatives compete to write the best directions for building a teepee. They also...