In the News

Some Indies Starting to Add Group Benefits

00:00 01 May in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News May, 2006: Group benefits have been a missing link in the independent channel, said Jonathan Henschen, president of Henschen & Associates, a recruiting firm in Marine on St. Croix, Minn. This is great news for advisers that medical coverage can now be offered on the broker-dealer level. New York - In a dramatic shift in the way independent-contractor broker-dealers treat their affiliated registered representatives, some leading firms are beginning to offer benefits such as health insurance. The firms making the moves, which include Securities America Inc. of Omaha, Neb., and the broker-dealers in the AIG Advisor Group Inc., could reap short-term recruiting advantages by offering benefits while other firms catch up, said one industry recruiter. About 45 million people do not have health insurance, according to published...

Advisors Cheer Overhaul at Ameriprise

00:00 01 May in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News May, 2006: New York - Turning another page on its history, Ameriprise Financial Inc. is dramatically simplifying the payout grid for its brokers and advisers, essentially doing away with a complicated system that stressed a number of sometimes movable parts. Gone is the payout grid with as many as five components, some of which could vary, including the number of financial plans an adviser wrote each year or the growth of advisers' assets. Now, the firm's 7,441 independent contractor registered representatives who run franchises have two components to their pay: assets under management and insurance, and gross dealer concession. The changes bring Ameriprise more into line with the rest of the brokerage industry, said advisers who were pleased with the moves. Ameriprise just last year spun...

Lincoln Looks to Bolster National Recruiting

00:00 01 April in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News April, 2006: New York - After years of little or no national recruiting presence, Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. has gone outside the firm to bolster its recruiting staff. Last Wednesday, Chris Flint, who had been senior vice president for branch office development with Securities America Inc. of Omaha, Neb., joined Lincoln of Fort Wayne, Ind. Mr. Flint is senior vice president, head of producer recruitment, at Lincoln. Like the other brokerage executives at the firm, he is based in Philadelphia. Lincoln's addition of Mr. Flint, a 10-year veteran at Securities America who rose through the ranks, clearly is a step in a different direction, industry observers said. In fact, the move caught some in the industry off guard. Until now, most recruiting at Lincoln has been done...