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At sketchy brokerages, FINRA is now part of HR

18:18 02 September in In the News by rafferty

September 2, 2021 By Lynnley Browning, Financial Planning Bad brokerages all too willing to look past an advisor's checkered past have a new hoop to jump through before potentially bringing them on board. Under new rules that began on Sept. 1, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, is forcing brokerages that want to hire financial advisors with sketchy records to undergo a “consultation” with the agency. The potentially uncomfortable sit-down could force a brokerage to apply for FINRA’s blessing to hire those brokers — with no guarantee the regulator would say yes. The brokerage industry's watchdog has new rules designed to rein in rogue brokers. The rules from FINRA, a self-regulating watchdog overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission, affect firms that want to hire a broker who within the past five years has acquired...

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Three Ways Regulators Throw Advisors Under the Bus

14:23 12 July in In the News by rafferty

Financial service is the only industry where you are guilty after being found innocent. Anyone can file a customer complaint against an advisor, and even after the claim is denied or closed with no action taken, a record of the complaint goes on FINRA’s BrokerCheck for the world to see. If an advisor wants to expunge the frivolous claim, you need to spend $10,000 to $20,000 to hire a securities attorney to have it removed. This is just one of numerous issues advisors face with the regulator. Chronic regulatory overreach persists, yet it is tolerated with little pushback. Here are three particularly egregious areas of concern. For perspective, I’m including input from Jodee Rager, chief compliance officer and president of Geneos Wealth Management, and securities attorney Jim Eccleston. Guilty After...

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Midsize firm ProEquities picks custodian’s BD over its own

14:21 24 June in In the News by rafferty

June 22, 2021 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning A midsize wealth manager seeking to expand its advisory business is taking a novel approach from rivals by outsourcing broker-dealer services to its custodian. It’s a move that falls into the industry’s ongoing trend away from commissions and toward advisory fees, and illustrates a new twist in firms’ hunt for costs to cut as business models change. The move by ProEquities to replace itself with Pershing Advisor Solutions as the introducing BD for its primary type of RIA account, the Advisory Management Plus Platform, follows several years of discussions and due diligence among the firm’s executives on the best “transformational path” to take away from its “old transactional model,” according to ProEquities President Elizabeth “Libet” Anderson. While unrelated, the first wave of some 7,200 accounts...

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Berthel Fischer sees sharp decline in commissions, turns to building RIA

17:53 22 June in In the News by rafferty

June 21, 2021 By Bruce Kelly, Investment News Revenues have dropped sharply, as much as 40%, at the broker-dealer over the past seven years as the industry moved away from commissions from alternative investments to recurring revenue from managed money products. Berthel Fischer & Co. Financial Services Inc., an Iowa-based broker-dealer well known for selling high-commission alternative investments, has shifted its strategy to focus more on recurring revenues from fee-based assets at its registered investment adviser, according to the firm’s CEO and chair, Thomas Berthel. Annual revenues have dropped sharply, as much as 40%, at the broker-dealer over the past seven years as the industry moved away from commissions from alternative investments to recurring revenue from managed money products. The change in strategy began four to five years ago, Berthel wrote in an email to...