If you are a manager or a supervisor of financial advisors, we have a new newsletter that is aimed directly at you. How do we know? Because you told us.
As Americans donate to tsunami disaster-relief efforts, the brokerage industry is chipping in as well. According to the SIA, there is no organized, industrywide effort to raise relief funds, but individual firms are doing their part.
What, no more golf balls? No free fancy lunches? Dinner? No drinks? Financial advisors who grew accustomed to the little and sometimes not so little treats that mutual fund wholesalers lavish on them may have noticed a certain lack of swag lately...
Two years ago, Dennis Miller was climbing toward the icy summit of Pico Orizaba, Mexico's tallest mountain. At 18,000 feet, he lost his footing on the ice and tumbled half a vertical mile, shattering his leg in the fall. With rescue efforts...
A few years ago, Eric Lutz got a call from a distraught client about a talk she'd had with her daughter's kindergarten teacher. It seems the kids had been discussing their February break vacations, and the client's daughter had made fun of those...
A NASD proposal to require that reps with three or more formal complaints against them receive extra supervision from their firms elicited a hue and cry from major broker/dealers when it was first announced in late 2003. Both reps and their firms...
A recent survey of U.S. household investing habits revealed an interesting point. A study by Forrester Research showed that between 1999 and 2003, the number of people who do their own financial research but also seek professional advice has risen...
To virtually no one's surprise, regulators have begun scrutinizing how 529 plans are peddled. In December, the SEC and NASD sent a letter of inquiry to Edward Jones and American Funds, requesting information on how those firms sell the college...
Every rep in our business should not be ashamed to show his personal holdings to his clients. You'd be amazed at how many wouldn't dare. They buy junk for themselves. Standish McCleary of Legg Mason, Oct. 1989.
An A.G. Edwards rep sat down at his desk last November to a huge pile of mail. The usual assortment of bills, junk mail and account statements awaited him, but so did something else: a sponge. Specifically, a sponge emblazoned with the name of a...
