With the job cuts, branch closings and refocusing currently under way at Charles Schwab & Co., there's one area that seems to be safe. Despite the firm's move to replace former CEO David Pottruck with founder Charles Schwab in July in an effort to...

Heard the one about what a redneck divorce and a tornado hold in common? (One way or another, someone's losing a trailer.) Or maybe you've run across one of those humorous trailer trash tests featuring questions like, If your front porch were to...

It's a paradox confronting brokers all over the country: In a business climate that calls for ever-increasing advisor-client intimacy, financial professionals are measuring their words more carefully than ever. Consider the case of an advisor we...

In the name of client freedom of choice and the of personal financial information, you won't have to steal client addresses and phone numbers any more when switching firms that is, if you work for Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney or UBS Securities. In...

Defined-benefit plans are making a comeback but with a twist. The employer-managed retirement vehicles were a staple benefit at large companies until the mid-1990s, when many fell victim to aggressive cost-cutting. Now, capitalizing on rules set...

Like any other rep, Ron Carson, whose $870 million practice rates him as one of America's top brokers, is vulnerable. This is the conclusion he drew from a 2002 incident in which he was hit with a $12 million complaint. He was accused of a garden...

A large number of brokers labor under a group of myths and misconceptions that keep them from managing their careers effectively. They may want or need to change firms but hesitate to do so out of fear of amorphous that might arise. Or maybe they...

As the stock market is recovering, sales force growth is returning to the top of the management agenda in retail securities firms and life insurance companies. Excluding acquisitions, there are two fundamental sales force growth strategies...

Style drift has become shorthand for freelancing fund managers buying whatever the heck they want. Craig Callahan of ICON Funds says this is a misconception. Craig Callahan knows his views on style drifting are not popular, and that's just fine...

Louis Stanasolovich, a financial planner with Pittsburgh-based Legend Financial Advisors, recently had to scramble to find errors-and-omission insurance when his former carrier, Evanston Insurance, pulled out of the E&O market entirely. He...