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Author: rafferty

Marine Resident Recognized

22:33 28 June in In the News by rafferty

June 28, 2012 by Phillip Bock, Country Messenger Jon Henschen of Marine on St. Croix was recently named one of the 25 most influential people in the financial services industry by Investment Advisor magazine, a leading trade publication in the field of financial services. Henschen, whose home-business Henschen & Associates, LLC. is also based in Marine on St. Croix, has more than 20 years experience in the industry, and his insight into the interworking of the broker-dealer realm has been published by Blomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and Investment Advisor. Henschen's company acts as an independent recruiting firm that specializes in helping advisors find independent broker/dealers. Henschen said he has contracts with approximately 90 broker/dealers and helps independent firms find the one who is right for them. "We kind of take...

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Breaking Out: A New Era in Insurance

15:29 04 June in In the News by rafferty

June 1, 2012 by Diana Britton on Wealth Mangement.com Insurance firms constantly go through cycles of acquisition and sale when it comes to their broker/dealer subsidiaries. But the current sell cycle is different, and it may shake up how the business works. Many things go in cycles—the moon, the weather, agriculture, birth and death. When it comes to buying and selling broker/dealers, insurance companies have also tended to go in cycles. Or they did. Insurance companies first started acquiring broker/dealers in the 1980s. That’s when Home Life Insurance bought Sentra Securities, and when Pacific Life kicked off a string of b/d acquisitions with its purchase of Mutual Service Corporation in 1987. But these marriages were not to last. Home Life sold off Sentra in 1991, and Pacific Life divested three of its b/ds in...

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So why did Schwab X out brokersXpress?

23:17 17 May in In the News by rafferty

May 17,2012 by Bruce Kelly, Investment News Some 325 brokers and registered investment advisers are hustling to find new homes in the wake of The Charles Schwab Corp.'s announcement last week that it is closing down brokersXpress LLC, an independent broker-dealer for reps and advisers who trade options. “This was not a cost cutting effort,” said Schwab spokeswoman Susan Forman. “It was more of a philosophical decision.” The company will focus on fee-based RIAs who use its custodian group, Schwab Advisor Services, rather than on brokers who charge a commission for trades, Ms. Forman said. Schwab bought optionsXpress Holdings Inc. last year for about $1 billion; brokersXpress was part of that deal. Ms. Forman said the purpose of that acquisition was to enhance Schwab's options and derivatives offering for retail clients. She called brokersXpress “an extra, if...