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In the News

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LPL, Edward Jones Pre-DOL Rule Shifts: Smart Moves or Overreaction?

15:49 18 March in In the News by rafferty

March 7, 2016 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   Industry watchers share their views on the merits and drawbacks of such an approach by several broker-dealers The financial-services industry is holding its breath in anticipation of the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary standard. A couple players, though, have chosen to exhale and roll out pre-emptive programs. LPL Financial (LPLA) announced Wednesday that it would cut prices and account minimums and launch a fund-only brokerage IRA option. And Edward Jones says it is in the pilot stage of a program to let clients with just $5,000 “get guided support.” Do such moves make sense? Industry recruiters and consultants have mixed feelings, though at least one consumer group is pleased. “It seems puzzling that a firm would roll out major changes to its platform in response to the DOL's fiduciary rule [when...

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The New Face of the Super OSJ

16:28 01 March in In the News by rafferty

March 1, 2016 By Diana Britton, Wealth Management Magazine   In the late 1990s, Pete Bush was working for Cetera Advisors under an office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ), as was most every other independent rep paying for the privilege of having a supervisor. These offices were mandated by FINRA to more effectively distribute the oversight of an independent broker/dealer’s scattered network of affiliated reps. Bush and a few others from the firm eventually decided it made sense to start their own OSJ; it remained small, just three partners and six advisors, and stayed that way until 2011. But to Bush it still felt like more like a burden than an efficient way to share back-office functions and compliance mandates. “I was questioning the sanity and the financial viability of being a Super OSJ,” Bush says....

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Does the MetLife Deal Signal the End of the Insurance Agent?

16:13 01 March in In the News by rafferty

February 29, 2016 By Diana Britton, Wealth Management   MetLife said goodbye to its insurance agents this week, with the announcement to sell its Premier Client Group to MassMutual for about $300 million. The move could lead other insurers to divest their captive broker/dealers, as they focus their product distribution elsewhere. “We could see more insurance broker/dealers go by the wayside, while those companies really concentrate on their core competency in manufacturing those policies and annuities,” said Bill Butterfield, senior analyst of the wealth management team at Aite Group. Many insurers have shed their independent b/ds over the years—AIG being the most recent. In April 2013, MetLife sold its independent b/ds, Tower Square and Walnut Street Securities, to Cetera for an undisclosed sum. But perhaps a newer trend is for firms to divest their captive b/ds, begging the question, who...