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July 30, 2012 Online Chatter, Investment News "Richard Ketchum, the CEO of Finra, earns $2.25 million, and the top 10 executives at Finra earn a total of $10,466,750. Finra has more executive vice presidents than the Obama administration has czars. Why not pay for the expenses out of upper management's inflated compensation or cut the excessive layers of management?" -Jonathan Henschen ...
July 26, 2012 by Diana Britton, WealthManagement.com While most insurance firms have been selling off their broker/dealer subsidiaries, AIG has reportedly emerged as the most likely buyer of Woodbury Financial Services. But reactions to the potential deal were mixed. Insurance firms go through cycles of buying and selling broker/dealer businesses. They’re currently in a sell cycle; ING, Genworth and Western & Southern have all divested their b/d units. But things may be turning: Woodbury Financial Services, owned by The Hartford, is on the block. One of the likey acquirers? Another insurance firm—AIG. “The insurance-owned broker/dealers are getting thrown into this bag where everyone’s making these generalizations that they’re not as good and they’re all going to sell off eventually because we’ve seen that pattern,” said Jodie Papike, executive vice president at Cross-Search. “For AIG to...
by Diana Britton, in Yield of Dreams, Wealth Management.com July 20, 2012 Broker/dealers and advisors who sold non-traded REITs to their clients after the market meltdown have been running scared of the potential impacts of those investments, given the negative headlines focused on non-traded REITs. But some suggest that this is not the next Madoff. In the wake of more stringent net asset value reporting requirements, many prominent non-traded REITs saw their valuations plummet, including Cornerstone Core Properties REIT Inc., Inland Western REIT, and Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I. But unlike Madoff, these were not fraudulent investments. Their losses were simply a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Such REITs raised capital and bought assets in the height of the market, as did many homeowners and day traders, said...
July 20, 2012 by Bruce Kelly, Investment News Announcement of a deal for the 1,600 reps and advisers is expected before indie B-D's national sales conference next month The American International Group Inc. has emerged as the likely buyer of Woodbury Financial Services Inc., an independent broker-dealer being shopped by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., according to two sources with knowledge of the impending sale. If a deal comes to pass, Advisor Group — AIG's network of three independent broker-dealers — would experience substantial revenue growth. The three broker-dealers, FSC Securities Corp., Royal Alliance Associates Inc. and SagePoint Financial Inc., last year combined to produce $895.4 million in total revenue, according to InvestmentNews' most recent survey of independent broker-dealers. The acquisition of Woodbury, which generated $253.7 million in gross revenue last year, would increase Advisor Group's top line...