MEDIA REVIEWS - December 8-15, 2011

I've tried to summarize the cover story of this month's issue of Financial Planning magazine, which is the largest software survey in the history of the advisory profession. But with all the charts and graphs and tables and comments, it would be a lot better to read the original than to go with my cliff notes.

This is also a good time to figure out how you're going to handle the cost basis reporting process with your back office. And my own column looks not only at the brokerage industry's efforts to use FINRA regulation to kill the RIA competition, but how Mary Schapiro has consistently been at the center of its initiatives. Maybe it's just a coincidence...