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In the News

The Hartford Breakup: What It Means for Woodbury Reps

21:45 22 March in In the News by rafferty

by John Sullivan and featured in AdvisorOne
March 22, 2012

“It’s part of a trend of large insurance companies parting ways with their broker-dealers,” a research director with FA Insight said

One day after announcing its exit from the life insurance and annuity businesses and the potential sale of Woodbury Financial Services, The Hartford remains mostly mum on the details moving forward.

Industry recruiters and watchers, however, have plenty to say about what they believe to be the reasons behind the move and its potential impact on the advisor space.

“It’s part of a trend of large insurance companies parting ways with their broker-dealers,” said Dan Inveen, director of research with Tacoma, Wash.-based FA Insight. “It’s tougher to earn money off of annuity-based products,

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Lincoln to hit some RIAs with up to $20K in new fees

00:56 16 March in In the News by rafferty

March 15, 2012
by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News

Lincoln Investment Planning Inc., a fast growing independent broker-dealer, is hitting its reps and advisers who run their own RIAs with a new, annual supervision and compliance fee of up to $20,000.

Lincoln executives sent a letter this week to those reps and advisers who have their own registered investment advisory firms to inform them of the new fee.

The supervisory fee will range from $5,000 to $20,000 and is based on the number of advisers at each practice, the assets managed – and Lincoln Investment’s opinion of the risk, according to Ed Forst, the firm’s CEO.

The fee hike, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1, will affect about a dozen offices of Lincoln Investment Planning reps and advisers,

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FINRA to Restructure BrokerCheck, Giving Investors More Power

16:42 02 March in In the News by rafferty

March 2, 2012
by Melanie Waddell and featured in AdvisorOne

 

Proposed changes include not only unifying BrokerCheck and the SEC’s IAPD system, but also divulging broker/advisor test scores

Brokers and advisors take note: the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) plans to revamp BrokerCheck to not only make it easier for investors to track down information about their broker—including “unifying” the search capabilities for BrokerCheck and the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database—but to also expand the types of information investors can get about their broker.

Until recently, FINRA noted that BrokerCheck was the only regulator that provided a comprehensive, online tool that enabled investors to check the backgrounds of financial service industry professionals. In 2010, the SEC expanded the IAPD database—which had previously only included information on investment advisor firms—to include information on investment advisor representatives.

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