Articles / Resources

FINRA Sweeping BDs on Comp Practices

16:13 20 August in In the News by rafferty

August 19, 2015 By Melanie Waddell, ThinkAdvisor   Self-regulator wants BDs to answer its questions on how they manage conflicts of interest in compensation by Sept. 18 The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is sweeping broker-dealers for information on conflicts of interest they have related to their compensation practices. The self-regulator wants BDs to answer 19 questions in writing by Sept. 18. The scope of FINRA’s review is limited to a firm's retail accounts, and will cover activity between August 2014 through July. As FINRA stated in its Annual Priorities Letter, “conflicts of interest represent a recurring challenge that contribute to compliance and supervisory breakdowns which can lead to firms and registered representatives, at times, compromising the quality of service they provide to clients.” While FINRA states that it has “observed instances of positive change since we issued the Report...

As RCAP Shares Crash, Cetera Recruiting and Retention Could Suffer

22:59 11 August in In the News by rafferty

August 11, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   The firm's stock has plummeted 80% this year; the reorganization news isn't helping Shares of RCS Capital (RCAP) continue to weaken in the wake of its announcement on Thursday that it is selling its troubled wholesale distribution unit to Apollo Global Management (APO) for $25 million and forming AR Global Investments, which will be owned 60% by Apollo and 40% by RCAP. Investors and analysts are not happy. The stock is down over 80% year to date. It fell about 9% on Tuesday to close at $2.36, after dropping 30% on Monday. When the company–which includes Cetera Financial Group, 11 broker-dealers and 9,500 advisors–shared its recent earnings and reorganization news on Thursday, its shares also declined about 30% to about $4.25. (It hit a two-year high of about...

Investor Warning: Keep an Eye on J.P. Turner Brokers After Shutdown

22:44 10 August in In the News by rafferty

August 10, 2015 By Susan Antilla, The Street   Management of J.P. Turner Associates, a small Atlanta-based brokerage that sports 37 fines, censures, arbitrations and injunctions on its regulatory record, said in late July that the firm will shut its doors this fall. InvestmentNews first reported that Larry Roth, CEO of Cetera Financial Group, a brokerage network that includes Turner, said it was "winding down" Turner's operations. It's a win for the investing public, although it does come with some caveats. When it came to violating securities laws, Turner was a doozy. In recent years, three of its managers -- counting the firm's former president -- were suspended or barred from the business by regulators. One supervisor was suspended from acting as a principal for two months when it came to light that a rogue broker under his charge had done...

A Slowdown In The Big Migration

22:30 10 August in In the News by rafferty

August 3, 2015 By Dan Jamieson, Financial Advisor Magazine   Perversely, independent B-Ds would benefit if advisors were feeling a bit more pain. That is to say, if equity markets were to sour, or if a major independent firm were to screw up, more advisors might be motivated to change firms. As it is now, though, things are going well and movement is sluggish. “It’s a very slow environment,” says Larry Papike, president of Cross-Search in Jamul, Calif., a recruiting firm for independent reps. “For the first time ever, firms are calling me, saying, ‘Send me some business!’” he says. Papike and others credit the lackluster pace to the IBD industry itself, which has done a good job of supporting advisors without any major slipups with technology or failed mergers that motivate advisors to find new homes. “There are...