Articles Written by Jon Henschen

Is Private Equity IBDs’ Savior or Sorcerer?

By Jon Henschen

As featured in the August issue of Investment Advisor magazine

Private equity firms have increased purchasing activity of BDs, but it’s a mixed bag for the firms being bought

Several years ago, I attended a third-party recruiter gathering hosted by an insurance-owned broker-dealer that was working to attract advisors. During the day-long meetings, the president of this broker-dealer brought up private equity (PE) with a grimace on his face and proceeded to talk about it in terms of deep disdain. His narrative was that as recruiters, we should avoid PE-owned broker-dealers and instead funnel our candidates to the safety and stability of an insurance-owned broker-dealer. In a twist of fate, a PE firm now owns this broker-dealer.

Which Broker-Dealers Will Survive? Malcolm Gladwell Offers Some Answers

June 16, 2016

By Jon Henschen, as featured on ThinkAdvisor

Determining the ideal elementary school class size has been a hotly debated topic for a number of years. The prevailing wisdom is that smaller is better. But is that always true? In his book “David and Goliath,” author Malcolm Gladwell uses the “Inverted U Curve Principle” to demonstrate the ideal class size.

I’d argue that the U Curve provides interesting insights into the ideal size for a broker-dealer, and suggests which BDs will survive in the current market and regulatory atmosphere.

But first, let’s explore Gladwell’s research.

Gladwell explains that there are three parts to the inverted U curve, and each part follows a different logic.