In the News

Self-Leadership – Marketing by Example

by John Melchinger and featured in Broker World Magazine
January, 2007:

As the new year dawns, I’ve been thinking about a situation that has become worse for many advisors in the past few years and, unfortunately, shows no sign of abating. Advisors are faced with so many urgent situations that the urgent messes with the important. As advisors wade through the quagmires of minutia and immediacy, more important issues are placed on the “back burner.”

The logic observable in this reality is compelling. It reminds me of the observation coined when efficiency experts were running procedures and staff into death webs of efficiency ennui: “Efficiency is doing the right things the right way. Effectiveness is doing the right things the right way.” If you set clear priorities and concentrate on effectiveness,

Pacific Select – No Linsco Merger

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News
September, 2006:

Pacific Select Group, LLC, in an internal email to its network of registered representatives and advisors last Monday, dismissed rumors of a merger with Linsco/Private Ledger Corp. which according to numerous industry insiders, had been courting broker/dealers aggressively.
But any deal involving the two may yet happen, one industry recruiter said.

Pacific Select’s five-sentence denial in the internal e-mail of an immediate deal with Linsco of Boston and San Diego was a clear indication of the former’s desirability and the latter’s voraciousness, observers say. In the e-mail, Pacific Select conceded that it had been approached about a sale.

“LPL is on a mission. It has an insatiable appetite for expansion,” said Larry Papike,

Auld quits NEXT Financial, Joins Rival

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News
August, 2006:

New York – Jeff Auld, who has played a pivotal role in establishing NEXT Financial Group Inc. as one of the nation’s fastest-growing independent broker-dealers, is leaving to join rival Berthel Fisher & Company Financial Services Inc.

Mr. Auld, who is president of Houston-based NEXT Financial Group, will depart Aug. 31 to become president of Berthel Fisher in Marion, Iowa.

Mr. Auld, 48, joined NEXT Financial Group in 2000 and is credited with almost single-handedly driving its growth, largely through his ability to recruit new representatives. His impending departure comes as NEXT Financial Group, like many other independent-contractor broker-dealers, is scrambling to find an executive to lead its recruiting efforts (InvestmentNews,