Trader Talk

After alerting broker-dealers to compliance problems involving anti-money laundering rules, the SEC charged a prominent firm with running afoul of the law. The BD of one of the largest retirement plan recordkeepers failed to file adequate suspicious activity reports for more than three years, the regulator says. GWFS Equities — an affiliate of Empower Retirement
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What’s on advisors’ bedside tables? We asked industry leaders and wealth management executives what books they would recommend about business, finance or economics. Some told us that they would suggest reading books on innovation or even life hacks, because they’re useful for practice management (and managing the rest of your life). Here are their suggestions.
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Wealth management leaders often flaunt the concept of “return on investment” when wielding money around firm initiatives — including recruiting and hiring. When dealing with cold dollars and cents, ROI represents a prudent measure to assess if you’ve earned more than you invested. Yet when it comes to investing in human capital, ROI requires much
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J.P. Morgan, Commonwealth Financial and D.A. Davidson brought new advisor teams on board; RBC announced two new complex directors and recruited a $460 million team from Wells Fargo; Raymond James and Neuberger Berman hired new executives; plus news from the fintech world, financial crimes, retirement data, and more in quick takes from the week in
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A billion-dollar quartet of financial advisors including a former mayor with a specialty in socially responsible investing dropped their wirehouse of ten years for RBC Wealth Management. Advisors Michael Gara, Bruce Berman, Chad Goerner and Dustin Illgen of Princeton Financial Partners left UBS for RBC’s branch in Princeton, New Jersey. The team managed $1.6 billion
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Sales of variable annuities reached their highest quarterly level in more than five years, with the hottest flavor of the insurance-like contracts driving the upswing, according to preliminary data from a research group. Registered index-linked annuities (RILAs), insurance-industry jargon for consumer contracts that are tied to stock indexes but that allow investors to set the
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President Biden’s Department of Labor dealt the independent broker-dealer community a setback when it rescinded a Trump-era regulation regarding independent contractors, a favored business structure for registered reps. The original rule would have made it easier for businesses to deem workers as independent contractors. It was not sector-specific, instead relying on what the DoL calls
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The COVID pandemic, and more than a year of preventative lockdowns, have transformed the way we interact. As the world gets vaccinated and moves closer to normalcy again, investors should take note of these 5 trends, which took off during the pandemic and are likely to continue. An accelerated technological revolution Technological innovation is a
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Freaking out over looming tax increases for your wealthy clients? You might not need to tear up their retirement plans just yet. Many rich Americans may have less cause than they realize to fear President Biden’s proposed tax hikes, which threaten to slash long-standing benefits for investment profits and estates passed on to heirs. Advisors
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Tech is taking over financial services — but which trends are here to stay? In this session, Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City, speaks with Chana Schoenberger, Editor-in-Chief of Financial Planning, about what’s innovative and exciting in fintech right now. Among the topics we’ll discuss are: – What
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CI Financial is back at it — this time scooping up a $5.7 billion RIA in its second largest acquisition since entering the U.S. market. The Canadian asset manager announced May 10 that it was buying Dowling & Yahnke, a San Diego-based RIA serving over 1,300 individuals, families and non-profits. The deal is expected to
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Alexandra Armstrong, one of the first individuals to obtain a CFP certification, still remembers walking into Ameriprise more than 25 years ago and asking for a $10 million donation. Armstrong, now 81, and the late financial planning pioneer Don Pitti didn’t have a formal business plan for the seedling non-profit foundation they were launching, and
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These are exciting times for financial advisors seeking independence in wealth management. Rising capital markets, increased consumer demand, innovative technologies and products and creative practice management models have created a surge in demand for advice. “The wealth management industry and the regulations that guide its practices should move toward a modern framework that allows advisors
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