In the City of London, there are at least two doorways worthy of a visit from anyone interested in finance. One belongs to the Bank of England, an elegant, imposing building on Threadneedle Street, where the men who search the bags of visitors...

A small-town, Midwestern Edward Jones rep is sitting at his desk on a brisk Friday morning in January, checking his messages, returning some emails, preparing for the day's meetings. His assistant comes through on the speakerphone. One of his...

Freedom has its price, the saying goes, and perhaps nowhere is that price more frequently calculated than in the brokerage industry. Year after year, captive financial advisors, dreaming of independence and of the promises of an untethered...

Time was, the perfect stockbroker was equal parts salesman and stockpicker, but these days you have to throw a good measure of lawyering into the mix. Trouble is, professional-grade legal expertise does not come easy, and a little knowledge in...

When you're talking to married clients, are you directing your eye contact solely to the husband? Do you slow your speech to the point of condescension when you address the wife? Many reps particularly male ones do, but sales and training experts...

Contrary to other large wirehouses, Smith Barney does not plan on aggressively expanding its sales force at this time, according to Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Smith Barney. Krawcheck, speaking at the Investment Management Consultants Association...

A few years ago, two longtime clients, both owners of their own businesses, announced they were splitting up. But each wanted to retain Koprowski, director of financial planning at Delessert Financial Services in Waltham, Mass., as financial...

In May's Outstanding Broker Awards package, a story about Michael Hull of Smith Barney erroneously reported that Paula John was the director of the supporting fund for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. She is, in fact, one of two vice presidents for...

Branding is not easy just ask Ford Motor Company, the American automaker that famously introduced its Pinto in Brazil, oblivious to the fact that the name would translate locally as tiny male genitals. When applied to a product as esoteric as...

2004 has been a good year for investors thus far, but you'd hardly know it to look at the number of arbitration filings. Through the end of the first quarter, the NASD handled 2,059 new arbitration case filings. That's a 10 percent drop from the...