His life is like a history book, having spanned 17 presidents, the sinking of the Titanic and the first radio broadcast.And yet C. Howard Wilkins Sr., a 91-year-old Prudential Securities rep in Wichita, Kan., continues to work five days a week.In...

In a move that goes against the grain of broker compensation trends, Philadelphia-based regional Janney Montgomery Scott has increased payouts on agency stock business and managed accounts.Beginning this past month, payouts jumped from 37 percent...

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...