sidebar

Connect: 319-210-7700

archive

compliance Tag

Wealth Management logo

Broker/Dealers Speak Out on Regulatory Vexation

16:41 11 December in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

December 9, 2019 By Jon Henschen, WealthManagement.com Working in recruiting, the growth segment of financial services, it has always baffled me that FINRA can dictate the number of advisors that small and midsized broker dealers can bring on in a given year.  Imagine a broker/dealer being able to allot the amount of assets financial advisors can bring on in a given year, as if the broker/dealer knows better what the advisor can handle in asset growth. Even more perplexing is the fact that large broker/dealers have no restriction on mergers, acquisitions, branch offices or rep count, while small and midsized firms have restrictions on all of these. FINRA can use growth allotment as a weapon to penalize a firm, as one recruiter colleague of mine can attest. This recruiter called me for help in...

Wealth Management logo

Anatomy of a Fiduciary-Friendly Broker/Dealer

16:51 30 September in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

September 25, 2019 By Jon Henschen, WealthManagement.com More choices and lower pricing can protect your clients’ interests and safeguard your practice. Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) are required to adhere to a fiduciary standard when implementing financial plans, but to date, the same requirement has not been applied to investment advice. Effective October 1, 2019, CFPs will be required to adhere to a fiduciary standard on investment advice. Enforcement will begin on June 30, 2020. How great an impact this will have on CFPs is unknown, as the CFP Board has no data on the number of CFPs not adhering to a fiduciary standard on investment advice. In our recruiting discussions with CFPs, we have certainly had discussions with financial planners that do not adhere to a fiduciary standard on financial advice and some that follow...

ThinkAdvisor logo

Avoid Guilt by Association

17:26 12 March in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

March 12, 2018 By Jon Henschen, ThinkAdvisor ‘Clean advisors’ can and should avoid ‘dirty broker-dealers’; do your homework to avoid big headaches. As an advisor, you relentlessly perform risk assessments for your clients’ portfolios. Yet, one aspect of risk assessment you may ignore is the downside of being an advisor with a clean compliance record who is tied to a broker dealer with problematic compliance and financials. Compliance issues at the broker-dealer level are an area of concern rarely explored by advisors, but they should be. Is your broker-dealer home to a high number of advisors with numerous compliance or credit disclosures? As the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority drills down on anything and everything, a broker-dealer in poor standing with FINRA can make life more difficult for all its advisors — even if you may...