Average: All Firms A.G. Edwards Edward Jones First Union Securities Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley Prudential Securities Salomon Smith Barney UBS PaineWebber Work Environment 8.32 9.30 8.97 8.14 8.16 7.75 7.86 8.41 7.98 Freedom from pressure to sell...

How much of a competitive threat are the CPAs in your neighborhood? At first glance, the numbers are intimidating. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants reports that almost 3,000 members have obtained the group's Personal...

There's a growing consensus among financial industry experts that the future will be driven by one's ability to attract, serve and retain the loyalty of affluent clients. Generally speaking, financial advisers are having limited success in this...

Despite some puzzling management decisions, Prudential Securities is a fine place to work, brokers say. The firm is led by young accountant types who have no concept of what happens when a broker talks to a client, one producer says. Adds another...

In the August issue, I discussed the individually managed account (IMA) as a product that can be used alone or in concert with other products to implement a high-net-worth individual's investment plan. There are multiple channels that can...

It was Friday, late morning, and George Blaumquist cast a woeful eye across his computer screen, watching the sag of his favorite stocks. It had been this way for weeks bids in free fall, phones in mock readiness, the glory days, now a wistful...

In 2010, when the estate tax is scheduled to go away at least for one year, it is replaced with an insidious carry-over basis system. Tracking tax-basis information for clients will require careful record keeping and revisions in estate-planning...

Merrill Lynch brokers might want to consider this New Year's resolution for 2002: Convert more clients to fee accounts and shed households under $100,000. The firm's new compensation package, distributed to producers Oct. 29 and effective in the...

I often hear advisers complaining that clients are more demanding, harder to satisfy, less forgiving and less loyal than ever before. I agree, but this is welcome news to me. Why? Because those traits make it much easier to establish new...

Imagine this scenario. A same-sex couple has lived together for years, maybe decades, when one partner dies. The family that disinherited the deceased person years ago now descends on the household, making off with everything not held in the name...