Entries from August 2010
The Once and Future Challenges
As the advisory business changes and evolves, it will create new operational challenges. Here's a preview, and some advice on how to address them.
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Bob Veres E-Column: The Fiduciary Acquisition Model
If you're looking for more scale in your advisory practice, this may be the best news you'll hear all year.
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Boringly Powerful
The keys to financial success may not be as complicated as we think they are.
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Overwork and Underspend
Is it possible that Americans are TOO productive and thrifty?
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MEDIA REVIEWS - August 24-31, 2010
Roy Diliberto puts his finger directly on several of this reviewer's own pet peeves, so naturally I think his column is highly relevant and worth reading in this month's issue of Financial Advisor, although I had to subtract points because he found a way to express them better than I do. Joel Bruckenstein offers a review of the newest features in Morningstar WorkStation, and the magazine's cover article tells you how a former CEO of U.S. Trust has created an interesting financial services firm--chiefly by raiding his old place of employment.
I've also reviewed several articles from The Economist. One tells us that the recessionary trough in the U.S. economy was deeper than anybody realized at the time, which may be why the fiscal stimulus wasn't quite as effective as economists were expecting. The magazine also says that Britain is embarking on a huge restructuring of its government, slashing the size of the government's bureaucracy, decentralizing how things are managed, and generally offering an experiment for the rest of the world to watch closely. And in another cover article, the magazine warns that many federal governments around the world are dipping their hands deeply into the workings of their economies, trying to stimulate job growth by taking over, propping up or otherwise investing in various industries. The article does a decent job of showing why this might not be a great idea. [Read more »]
I've also reviewed several articles from The Economist. One tells us that the recessionary trough in the U.S. economy was deeper than anybody realized at the time, which may be why the fiscal stimulus wasn't quite as effective as economists were expecting. The magazine also says that Britain is embarking on a huge restructuring of its government, slashing the size of the government's bureaucracy, decentralizing how things are managed, and generally offering an experiment for the rest of the world to watch closely. And in another cover article, the magazine warns that many federal governments around the world are dipping their hands deeply into the workings of their economies, trying to stimulate job growth by taking over, propping up or otherwise investing in various industries. The article does a decent job of showing why this might not be a great idea. [Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - August 16-23, 2010
This month's issue of the Journal of Financial Planning includes a couple of nice columns, one on the protocol for your relations with people who have recently lost a loved one, another on how to hire younger advisor employees. But the real fireworks this month is a blockbuster expose by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi on how Congress chewed up the financial reform bill, and how it's far less protective of the public than it was originally intended to be. Both Republicans and Democrats participated in the watering-down of the measure, and although there is no mention of fiduciary, you get a glimpse of how hard it is to get meaningful consumer protections through Congress in this environment.
It makes for depressing, and very enlightening, reading. [Read more »]
It makes for depressing, and very enlightening, reading. [Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - August 8-15, 2010
It IS interesting that LPL chose this rather unfavorable market environment to launch its initial public offering, although the environment IS somewhat better than the past two years. Kudos to Financial Planning magazine for at least asking the question. Joel Bruckenstein's cover article looks at the new technology platform that is under construction at Schwab Advisor Services, and then gently points out that the company executives might be making... misleading claims when they say they're the first out of the gate with an integrated solution. (To be charitable, maybe they're unaware of Fidelity's and Pershing's already-functioning platforms...) But the fact that Schwab has finally taken up the challenge is good news; a technology arms race among institutional custodians will benefit all advisors in the long run...
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Fixing the SEC
This is the second of two comment letters sent to the SEC as part of its feedback collection process on fiduciary standards and regulation of brokerage houses and financial advisors.
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The Point
Round one of the lobbying for a fiduciary standard is over; Congress has essentially punted the ball to the SEC for further study. Round two begins with the SEC asking for feedback from... just about everybody with a pulse. What follows is a comment letter to our regulators--with an invitation to all of you to submit your own.
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Flat Fee Future
Capital Analysts may be pioneering the back office/custodial business model of the future--and it follows closely the way many advisors are charging for their own services.
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