Articles / Resources

How to Avoid Manager Absenteeism

16:50 02 March in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

March 1, 2016 By Jon Henschen, as featured in March 2016 issue of Investment Advisor Magazine   Midsized broker-dealers are especially vulnerable as growth pulls managers in too many directions In Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great,” he presents a concept he calls the Flywheel Effect. The Flywheel Effect illustrates that businesses are like a heavy flywheel. Management's job is to get the flywheel moving as quickly as possible because its velocity generates superior results over time. To get the flywheel to move from a standstill takes tremendous effort. With continuous hard pushing, the wheel starts to move slowly. Over time and with continuous pushing, the flywheel picks up momentum. You get to a point where the weight of the flywheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it....

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....

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...

DOL Fiduciary Rule Will Accelerate Broker-Dealer Closings

16:55 22 February in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

February 22, 2016 By Jon Henschen, as featured on ThinkAdvisor and FSI NewsBrief   Since 2008, we’ve seen a steep and consistent drop in the number of broker-dealers. As reported by data aggregator Fishbowl Strategies, we were down to 4,578 BDs in 2010. By February of 2014, that number was down to 4,181. We ended 2015 with 4,034 broker-dealers, with the largest segment of firms closing by far being equity trading firms. September 2015 turned out to be a false flag of hope where we had 14 new firms admitted and only 5 firms withdrew. Nevertheless, fourth quarter results continued the downward trend. Looking at the fourth quarter of 2015, we had 16 new firms that were admitted and 53 firms that withdrew. Of the 53 that withdrew, 32 were equity trading firms, 12 were private...