When the scandal craze that has gripped the securities industry first got its kick in the pants two years ago from Eliot Spitzer and his crew, few in the industry recognized how deep it might go. Sure, some nefarious conflicts of interest would be...

They're coming to get you. As the number of arbitrations filings increases, so too do the odds that you will be called to appear in a regulatory hearing. The complaint may not even be against you; registered reps are often summoned to testify...

In recent years, Prudential Securities has fended off numerous challenges to the legality of its deferred compensation plan, known as MasterShare, but it might have more than the usual amount of trouble shaking Yaakov Holansky's case. The trouble...

Ryan Beck, a regional firm concentrated in the Northeast, is stepping up efforts to improve its name recognition and is also getting more aggressive in recruiting. The firm is paying more in its transition packages, a signal that it's not just the...

There were a number of reasons why Melinda Stephens, a nine-year veteran of the securities industry based in Los Angeles, switched broker/dealers last year. But one of them was because she was worried about her own security namely, the level of...

Soft dollars is a heavily debated topic these days, particularly among the fund managers who shoulder the commissions load. A new study from The Journal of Portfolio Management asked chief investment officers at 72 asset management firms what they...

The military genius Sun Tzu said, Every battle is won before it is ever fought. I'm not sure how many kids Sun and the missus sent off to State U., but his wisdom is easily applied to the process of paying for college. The key to helping clients...

Sam Vetas, one of Morgan Stanley's top producers in Salt Lake City, Utah, has moved to UBS Securities, where he will be a senior vice president, remaining an advisor. After 13 years at Morgan Stanley, Vetas' practice had grown to more than $100...

Since the early 1980s, the will for married people has changed very little, but beginning next year, couples will be well advised to revisit those estate documents. In 2005 a provision of the 2001 Tax Act kicks in, reforming the way federal and...

The SIA Soft Dollars and Institutional Brokerage Conference took aim at a wide range of issues related to soft-dollar payments in the brokerage industry, but most of the conference's attendees were there to find out one thing: Can the practice be...