MEDIA REVIEWS - June 8-15, 2010

Several of the articles in the June issue of Investment Advisor received "high" relevance ratings, not because you need to go back and read the whole article, but because they include something of interest, which I highlight here. In that category, put the Waddell article on Congressional action--it's helpful to know that SEC chair Mary Schapiro is lobbying for the power to impose a fiduciary standard, and the Financial Services Institute (the independent broker-dealer trade group) is lobbying hard against all things fiduciary. Olivia Mellan's interview with Dr. Robert Butler suggests that the U.S. medical system and the business sector are both ill-prepared for dealing with the aging baby boomer population, the latest installment of Michael Patton's series has some interesting things to say about his brokerage experiences, and Bob Clark's column introduces a platform that makes alternative investments accessible at a retail level. And you should know in passing that Bob Ketchum, CEO of FINRA, just will not stop talking about a fiduciary standard in the BD and brokerage business models, even if he seems a bit naive about what, exactly, the term "fiduciary" actually means.

The articles that you might consider reading in their entirety include the broker-dealer survey rankings, not to learn who is bigger than whom, but to get a picture of which firms are growing and who isn't, who seems to support fee-revenue activities and which firms have astronomically high turnover in their field force. Mark Tibergien, Angie Herbers, Dan Inveen and Eliza DePardo all provide thoughtful practice management advice, and the Dan Skiles article on when and how to upgrade to Windows 7 could have some immediate practical significance.