A controversial NASD initiative that would give investors easy access to complaints against brokers is undergoing some change, but it’s looking increasingly likely to come to fruition. In April of 2003, NASD laid the groundwork for the so...

The Investment Company Institute has responded in kind to a recent study that found that mutual fund investors shoulder exorbitant management fees. The original report, by professors John Freeman and Stewart Brown, concluded that equity fund...

Assuming the top job at Edward Jones is a bit like playing left field for the Boston Red Sox for the first time: Nothing an executive has done before quite prepares him for the particulars of the new position. When Douglas Hill inherits the...

It's fair to argue that the attention devoted to the market timing and late trading scandals is way out of proportion with their actual monetary impact on investors. But, for better or worse, John Q. Investor seems to have decided that the entire...

Let's face it: Asset management is a commodity. Just look at the hundreds, even thousands, of mutual funds that you have the ability to put clients in. So, just how, exactly, does your firm choose which funds or managed account managers to put on...

The Parabrokers I read Introducing the Parabrokers (October, 2003) with great interest. I work at a wirehouse for an advisor who manages $120 million in assets and generates over $900,000 in gross. I have been with her through two roller-coaster...

Whither income-oriented investments or is it wither? Investors living on the proceeds of their investments face hard times, as many retirees are fast discovering, while watching their monthly checks dwindle. Money market yields offer thin fare ...

In the Nov. 2003 issue, the story Playing Hard to Get stated that A.G. Edwards had its Client Choice initiative. In fact, the plan is being and is still running. Also in the November issue, in the Going Independent" supplement, an LPL executive...