Making a profit in smaller qualified retirement plans has been difficult for advisors because of high costs. However, it's gotten easier in the past couple years, thanks to the emergence of shares, or retirement shares. Advisors using A shares...
At most publicly traded national broker/dealers, about 35 of employees are financial advisors, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Which means A.G. Edwards is positively overflowing with reps 45 percent of all workers at the 15,400-strong firm...
In a survey of nearly 800 affluent investors by PNC Advisors, about half worry their children will grow up feeling entitled and almost as many (44 percent) say their kids are spoiled. Then again, just 29 percent of respondents say they've...
The bitter public battle over the Pritzker family fortune offers a fishbowl view into how large sums of money can strain family ties. The Pritzkers, who own the Hyatt chain of hotels, among other holdings, recently put to rest a very public battle...
From being selected as one of Registered Rep.'s Outstanding Brokers in 1981 to celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Heartland Value Fund this year, Heartland Advisors president Bill Nasgovitz has always stuck by this principle: Ignore the...
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...
Estate taxes may be the bane of wealthy families, but they are a boon for wealth managers because clients need their help with trusts, gifts and investment vehicles that minimize the impact of estate taxes. So the Bush Administration's proposal to...
A decade ago, if you entered the financial services business and wanted to deal with the public, you had limited choices. You could go to a wirehouse or regional brokerage, where company policy (and regulatory oversight) forced you to concentrate...
Banc One Is No. 1 in Fine Size: The NASD fined Banc One Securities $400,000 because the firm didn't put into place the proper procedures that would prevent late trading and market-timing in mutual funds held by customers. This, amazingly, is the...
Sometime or other, 40 percent of Americans will hear the words It's malignant. The good news, for both patients and investors, is that pharmaceutical companies are pioneering new, more effective cancer treatments all the time. The deadliest form...
