Entries from January 2012
Fiduciary Delays
Will the SEC EVER decide how to implement the fiduciary issues mandated by Dodd-Frank?
[Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS: January 24-31, 2012
By golly, Brian Hamburger is right. And so is Mitch Anthony.
Compliance attorney Hamburger says that all these social media policies that the broker-dealers have created are hurting their reps more than helping them; the whole point of social media is to make authentic connections and let your personality show. How can you do that when the home office asks you to select from a list of pre-approved tweets or Facebook updates? He points out that there are plenty of monitoring software programs--and says that reps are not automatons like in that long-ago Apple Computer commercial.
Mitch Anthony points out that a lot of clients and investors are frightened to get back in the water (the investment markets) because the media has given them a very scary view of what happens when you go back in (think: Jaws). It doesn't matter that they, themselves haven't had their financial leg torn off; they vicariously experienced the worst. Your only hope to bring them back is to have a talk about what they really experienced vs. what they think happened out there.
[Read more »]
Compliance attorney Hamburger says that all these social media policies that the broker-dealers have created are hurting their reps more than helping them; the whole point of social media is to make authentic connections and let your personality show. How can you do that when the home office asks you to select from a list of pre-approved tweets or Facebook updates? He points out that there are plenty of monitoring software programs--and says that reps are not automatons like in that long-ago Apple Computer commercial.
Mitch Anthony points out that a lot of clients and investors are frightened to get back in the water (the investment markets) because the media has given them a very scary view of what happens when you go back in (think: Jaws). It doesn't matter that they, themselves haven't had their financial leg torn off; they vicariously experienced the worst. Your only hope to bring them back is to have a talk about what they really experienced vs. what they think happened out there.
[Read more »]
Rates and Politics
Lessons from Willard M. Romney's newly-released tax return.
[Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - January 16-23, 2012
It's worth looking at Financial Planning magazine's list of the 50 largest RIA firms, if only to notice how many family offices are moving into the RIA space (at the top of the AUM list), and to notice that there are a lot of firms these days with more than $1 billion under management.
Toward the back of the magazine, Don Trone expresses out loud what I think everybody is thinking: that the Wall Street lobbying money has won the fiduciary battle, and the SEC will create a least objectionable standard that deviates from a principles-based approach and waters down consumer protection. What can you do in response? What else? Create your own higher standard and live by it. And maybe wonder how it's possible that our government and its regulatory bodies are so easily bought and paid for... [Read more »]
Toward the back of the magazine, Don Trone expresses out loud what I think everybody is thinking: that the Wall Street lobbying money has won the fiduciary battle, and the SEC will create a least objectionable standard that deviates from a principles-based approach and waters down consumer protection. What can you do in response? What else? Create your own higher standard and live by it. And maybe wonder how it's possible that our government and its regulatory bodies are so easily bought and paid for... [Read more »]
An Interesting Time to Be An Investor
What does it mean when stock dividends yield more than government bonds?
[Read more »]
Hostages in the Debt Negotiations
Will a small band of investors hold up the resolution of the European debt crisis?
[Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - January 8-15, 2012
Any magazine that features an article by Harold Evensky and Wade Pfau, in the same issue, deserves your attention. Evensky points to other articles that the Journal has run (including three by Pfau) that are relevant to our thinking about retirement distribution planning. Pfau, meanwhile, looks at safe withdrawal rates using YOUR capital market return assumptions, and you wish he would have produced just one more table for you to use in your practice.
Meanwhile, Dan Moisand makes a very pointed argument about FINRA, which is similar to arguments I've made. The question is not whether he's right, but whether the SEC and Congress are paying any attention at all. [Read more »]
Meanwhile, Dan Moisand makes a very pointed argument about FINRA, which is similar to arguments I've made. The question is not whether he's right, but whether the SEC and Congress are paying any attention at all. [Read more »]
Too Much AND Too Little
Our regulatory system is failing us not once but twice.
[Read more »]
Hybrid Platform
TradePMR was created to be a reliable steward of your clients' money. It has evolved into something much more ambitious.
[Read more »]
Decision Point
How can you prepare for the Next Big Shift in the advisor environment?
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PLAN B
It's time to consider an alternative SRO in case Congress grants FINRA's regulatory desires. As it happens, we already have something to work with.
[Read more »]
A Turbulent Year in Review
In the end, all the drama of 2011 was, from a portfolio standpoint, much ado about nothing.
[Read more »]
MEDIA REVIEWS - January 1-7, 2012
Is it really possible that two-thirds of all advisory firms don't have an adequate succession plan in place? You knew the number was surprisingly high, but not THAT high...
Meanwhile, the battle lines are drawn over the SEC's interpretation of a fiduciary standard; the brokerage firms and FSI's independent BDs seem to have closed ranks with the insurance companies, versus the RIA community's desire to see a "strict" fiduciary standard that would require the elimination of conflicts of interest like selling proprietary products and mostly recommending investments that pay front-end commissions. And the FSI's support of FINRA regulation of the RIA world is especially disappointing; the independent BDs have more first-hand knowledge of FINRA's faults, its arbitrary enforcement and favoritism toward the Member Firms than anybody else.
If you expect to buy or sell $20 million worth of securities in any given trading day, make sure you check out Tom Giachetti's column in this issue of Investment Advisor. His lament that the rules are coming out fast and furious is right on target, but what can we do about it?
[Read more »]
Meanwhile, the battle lines are drawn over the SEC's interpretation of a fiduciary standard; the brokerage firms and FSI's independent BDs seem to have closed ranks with the insurance companies, versus the RIA community's desire to see a "strict" fiduciary standard that would require the elimination of conflicts of interest like selling proprietary products and mostly recommending investments that pay front-end commissions. And the FSI's support of FINRA regulation of the RIA world is especially disappointing; the independent BDs have more first-hand knowledge of FINRA's faults, its arbitrary enforcement and favoritism toward the Member Firms than anybody else.
If you expect to buy or sell $20 million worth of securities in any given trading day, make sure you check out Tom Giachetti's column in this issue of Investment Advisor. His lament that the rules are coming out fast and furious is right on target, but what can we do about it?
[Read more »]
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