Canadian securities regulators released a long-anticipated proposal to create a uniform standard for financial planners.The proposal, floated in late December, aims at eliminating confusion among consumers by creating a competency test for all...
Prudential Investments Advisory Group's (PIAG) Advisor 2000, a marketing and training program for independent advisers, is being made available to Prudential brokers.PIAG provides outside advisers access to Prudential Investments' products...
The controversy over Salomon Smith Barney's Capital Appreciation Plan (CAP) is heating up.Four class-action suits have been served against the firm; the latest is a Jan. 4 filing in Florida. Former SSB reps have also filed in California, New...
Gathering assets and delivering advice for a fee are what count, and firms are rewarding brokers accordingly. Prudential Securities is a good case in point, instituting this year a higher payout for fee-based business. Last year, Merrill Lynch and...
Registered reps wanting to do advisory business get a bit of a break beginning this year with the rollout of a revamped Series 66 exam.The redesigned Series 66 has been dubbed "65 Lite" and is for Series 7 reps who want to add investment adviser...
Minneapolis-based brokerage John G. Kinnard & Co. was awarded a record 16.5 million dollars by a three-person NASD arbitration panel in December in a case that accused Dain Rauscher of a premeditated raid of Kinnard employees.According to the...
If you think investor expectations about account performance are unrealistic now, just wait a few years, says Merrill Lynch vice chairman Launny Steffens. You ain't seen nothin' yet."Without understanding what the appropriate benchmarks are, many...
Merrill Lynch has revamped its account-distribution policy as part of its settlement of a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit. The new policy establishes six criteria to determine which brokers are eligible for account distributions.A January...
Edward Jones has set up eight individual offices in affluent communities in outlining areas of England with investment representatives transferred from the United States.The reps, who gave up established businesses in the states, have signed on...
Anyone remember when firms were partnerships?"Sure, there was a time when they didn't allow corporations in this industry," remembers James Bradford Jr., senior partner with Nashville, Tenn.-based J.C. Bradford & Co. "Merrill Lynch was once a...