The CBM Group, a New York-based consultancy, has amassed data about the performance of reps and other sellers of financial products, from which it has created a new way of measuring broker performance. The method ranks a rep against his or her...

Jessica Bibliowicz's assistant pops her head in the door with big news: Lenox Advisors has agreed to sell its high-end financial advisory business in Manhattan to National Financial Partners. This acquisition Bibliowicz's 101st brings her company...

Hispanics are missing out on one of the greatest things in the world the ability to retire with savings, says Salomon Smith Barney financial consultant Al Martinez. Not being able to retire is very sad. It is a lesson learned from family...

Following the downfall of what was the nation's seventh-largest company and the demise of the 401(k) assets of its employees, there's good reason to phone investors. Diversification. We've been proactive if a client has too much in a company stock...

One would think firms that give financial advice would have great returns on their own employees' savings plans. Sadly, no. According to a report titled Reinventing Retirement Income in America from the National Center for Policy Analysis in...

The nature of the investment business is to look forward. We always seem to be asking, What will the market do this year? Where are stocks headed? But you can learn a lot about the futility of such questions by looking back. Check out the...

When E-Trade opened for business a decade ago, it promised clicks, not bricks. Now it's eating its online hype and partnering with retailer Target to enter the physical realm. After testing the waters in six markets, E-Trade and Target expect to...

Let the Enron debacle serve as your own personal wake-up call. Concentrated portfolios have been in vogue over the last couple of years. But the Enron debacle shows just how dangerous they can be. Thousands of Enron rank and file watched their 401...

Good news for brokers planning to change jobs: Their employers can no longer freeze the accounts of clients who want to follow them to their new firm. The bad news, however, is that defectors still face landmines when trying to transfer clients'...

When the brokerage business was simpler, it was common for us to find that a key problem for poorly performing brokers was their inability to stay focused. However, the complexities of the fee-based advisory brokerage model can make even top...