Articles / Resources

Expected boom in breakaways a dud so far

21:04 14 February in In the News by rafferty

February 12, 2013 by Andrew Osterland, Investment News Improved financial markets and retention money could be keeping wirehouse reps in their seats Jeff Spears, like every other executive recruiting wirehouse brokers to the independent channel, was hoping that business would pick up for his firm this year. Mr. Spears is the chief executive of Sanctuary Wealth Services LLC, which provides business support, back-office services and investment solutions for independent advisers and those interested in going independent. With another year amortizing off the typical seven-year retention packages given to thousands of wirehouse brokers after the financial crisis, Mr. Spears expected a new wave of advisers would be ready to jump ship from their Wall Street firms this year. “Everyone is saying it's a great environment for recruiting these advisers, but so far, the first quarter has...

Broker-Dealers Fight For Advisors, Scale

17:55 12 February in In the News by rafferty

by Mike Byrnes January 31, 2012 Financial Advisor The Financial Services Institute (FSI) hosted its most widely attended OneVoice conference ever this week in San Diego. A common theme in many sessions was the future of the broker-dealer industry and how it was going to impact the B-D executives in attendance. A Few Recruiters’ Perspectives A panel of recruiters shared their thoughts on the industry, from their unique perspective dealing in broker-dealer negotiations with advisors. Jodie Papike, an executive vice president at Cross-Search, says that service is important to advisors and one of the things that gets them to move to a broker-dealer. "A lot of advisors get frustrated with the service," she said. Ryan Shanks, the founder and CEO of Finetooth Consulting, said the advisors ask themselves, "Am I really tapping in to all...

FINRA Seeks Second Round of Comments on Markups, Commissions Plan

00:08 06 February in In the News by rafferty

February 5, 2013 by Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne After proposing to end the 5% threshold on markups and commissions, FINRA now asks for feedback on retaining it After being deluged with comments against its plan to end a 5% threshold on commissions and markups, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is giving broker-dealers yet another chance to weigh in. As part of the process to develop a new, consolidated rulebook—merging the NYSE rule book with FINRA’s—FINRA released a second request for comment via a Regulatory Notice on Thursday regarding its proposed rules governing markups, markdowns, commissions and fees. The regulatory agency said that in response to the first round of comments received, it is now proposing several changes to the proposed rules, including amendments to retain the 5% markup policy in NASD IM-2440-1 (Mark-Up Policy); revise certain...

Faking It: Our Third-Annual IBD Report Card Survey

21:44 04 February in In the News by rafferty

February 4, 2013 by Diana Britton, Wealth Management .com In our third annual Independent Broker/Dealer Report Card Survey, reps turned out to sing the praises of their firms. But who are they kidding? The IBD business is in a tight spot. When you’re a parent, you always want to shield your child from the brutal realities of the world. You want them to maintain that wide-eyed innocence for as long as possible. But sooner or later, they realize: It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. Same goes for the independent broker/dealer business. In REP.’s third annual Independent Broker/Dealer Report Card Survey, fielded at the end of last year, 2,873 advisors turned out to advocate and endorse their firms, giving them high overall scores in categories from compliance to compensation and benefits. But the results seem to belie the pressures that...