|
|
Industry
|
The Self-Directed Investor Is Back Off The Sidelines, Cerulli Warns |
|
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 14:14
|
|
Tags: client satisfaction | investing As noted by the talented Steve Higgins here, after close to a decade on the defensive, independent investors have returned to the market -- and Cerulli analysts warn that the trend could play against advisors looking to give those investors some help.
If you're a private wealth advisor, please join Advisors4Advisors (A4A) to get its full benefits. Register now, and we will donate $20 of our $60 membership fee to Bubbles The Clown’s financial literacy program, and you can post an icon on your website saying you support Bubbles' 501(c)3 charitable organization. Plus, get other membership benefits, including: - Analysis daily of issues affecting advisors
- Aggregation of news from dozens of sites targeting wealth managers
- Reviews by advisors of practice management applications
- 30 independent experts blogging on advisor business issues
- 24/7 access to webinars with 50 hours of CFP® CE and 100 hours of IMCA CE
Register Now |  |
Assets in self-directed brokerage accounts surged 42% in the two years following the 2008 crash and now clock in at $3.7 trillion.
That may not look huge compared to the $12 trillion in advisor-led accounts, but the fast rate of growth here reveals that retail clients are once more feeling confident that they can go it alone.
The "independent investor" effectively stopped being a force in the industry in the aftermath of the 2000-1 bear market, paving the way for various advisor models to renew their dominant position in the marketplace.
The timing is also on the ominous side, Cerulli points out.
Self-directed investors admitted defeat after the turn-of-the-century downturn because they ran out of money and confidence. As they rebuilt their savings, they were less inclined to do it themselves and more eager to seek out professional help.
This time around, the ranks of self-directed investors soared while Wall Street was melting down. Clearly the wirehouses suffered from an overall erosion of confidence, but these disgruntled clients didn't pull out of the market entirely.
They simply decided that they could do it as well as the professionals, at a lower cost.
We now have a full trough-to-trough cycle since the 2000 bear market pushed these people back into the arms of advisors. The experience has taught all advisors a great deal and, presumably generated some impressive history of outperformance.
If the 2008 crash pushed them back out and today's market is skittering along, that long-term track record may be the best marketing advantage that advisors have.
Sometimes the independent investor beats the market and thrives. Sometimes he or she doesn't. But being able to keep sight of long-term goals and plans is where the advisor shines in any market environment.
That's what "staying the course" really means. It's not a commandment to stick with the advisor in a bad market any more than it's an invitation to chase augmented returns when things look good.
Read more...
|
|
|
UBS Sues Departing Advisor Team For Taking Client Files With Them |
|
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 16:15
|
|
Tags: recruiting In an unusual deviation from the recruiting protocol, UBS has sued an advisory team who went to Wells Fargo and apparently took more than their share of the firm's account information with them.
If you're a private wealth advisor, please join Advisors4Advisors (A4A) to get its full benefits. Register now, and we will donate $20 of our $60 membership fee to Bubbles The Clown’s financial literacy program, and you can post an icon on your website saying you support Bubbles' 501(c)3 charitable organization. Plus, get other membership benefits, including: - Analysis daily of issues affecting advisors
- Aggregation of news from dozens of sites targeting wealth managers
- Reviews by advisors of practice management applications
- 30 independent experts blogging on advisor business issues
- 24/7 access to webinars with 50 hours of CFP® CE and 100 hours of IMCA CE
Register Now | |
UBS says David Kinnear, Kathleen Bakas, and staff migrated "confidential trade secret information" when they moved.
Since the Swiss bank was one of the first to sign the recruiting protocol that protects migrating advisors who take their own clients' contact information with them, this seems to be a lot more than just copying the CRM files.
Not many details are available, but UBS wants FINRA to give its claims expedited treatment.
Maybe Kinnear, Bakas, and company took other UBS advisors' accounts or some other form of proprietary documentation -- training files? Procedures?
On their own, they generated about $3.7 million a year, which could translate to around $400 million in AUM.
UBS can definitely survive losing that. They've proved in the past that they're willing to let the assets move with the advisors -- after all, they tend to be on the winning end of the endless game of wirehouse musical chairs.
Let's watch this one. Whatever they took, UBS wants it back. And for the time being, recruiting from UBS may slow down, whether the recruiting firm is an independent RIA or another of the wirehouses.
Read more...
|
|
Latest CFP Board Disciplinary Actions Show The Group Is Fighting A Lot More Than Just Planner Bankruptcies |
|
Thursday, February 16, 2012 17:27
|
|
Tags: CFP Board A minority of the 20 planners disciplined by the CFP Board of Standards filed for bankruptcy in recent months, proving the wisdom of the board's decision to change the way it treats such cases.
If you're a private wealth advisor, please join Advisors4Advisors (A4A) to get its full benefits. Register now, and we will donate $20 of our $60 membership fee to Bubbles The Clown’s financial literacy program, and you can post an icon on your website saying you support Bubbles' 501(c)3 charitable organization. Plus, get other membership benefits, including: - Analysis daily of issues affecting advisors
- Aggregation of news from dozens of sites targeting wealth managers
- Reviews by advisors of practice management applications
- 30 independent experts blogging on advisor business issues
- 24/7 access to webinars with 50 hours of CFP® CE and 100 hours of IMCA CE
Register Now | |
Most of the censures related to flawed professional practices: unsuitable recommendations, misleading marketing materials.
Bankruptcy was only a factor in nine of the cases, which carried penalties ranging from letters of admonition to permanent loss of the right to bear the CFP mark.
The worst cases were truly stunning in their failure to live up to fiduciary standards. One planner went around in-house compliance rules and had his FINRA license suspended for repeat infractions.
The very existence of these infractions proves two things. First, the expansion of the financial planning approach has brought the service mark to a broader pool of advisors -- with different business models.
And as the approach broadens, the aspirations of everyone in the profession may not be so lofty as they once were.
Read more...
|
|
Raymond James Puts "Major Focus" On Building Its RIA Custody Business |
|
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 15:30
|
|
Tags: Raymond James Having established itself as a multi-channel force in the brokerage world, Raymond James is turning toward ways to bring RIAs into the fold.
If you're a private wealth advisor, please join Advisors4Advisors (A4A) to get its full benefits. Register now, and we will donate $20 of our $60 membership fee to Bubbles The Clown’s financial literacy program, and you can post an icon on your website saying you support Bubbles' 501(c)3 charitable organization. Plus, get other membership benefits, including: - Analysis daily of issues affecting advisors
- Aggregation of news from dozens of sites targeting wealth managers
- Reviews by advisors of practice management applications
- 30 independent experts blogging on advisor business issues
- 24/7 access to webinars with 50 hours of CFP® CE and 100 hours of IMCA CE
Register Now | |
Raymond James currently has about 100 advisory firms on its books, accounting for $7 billion in custody.
Break the numbers down, and you'll see that the typical RJ RIA is mid-sized, with maybe $70 million in client accounts.
But now that Raymond James is segmenting the custody business into its own business unit, new chief William Van Law promises that he'll leverage the firm's famous technology to win more -- and presumably bigger -- advisors from leaders like Schwab, TDA, and Fidelity.
As he says, this may only be a 3% piece of the Raymond James operation now, but growing it is now a "major" focus for management.
Read more...
|
|
Health Savings Accounts Gain Traction |
|
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 14:49
|
|
Tags: healthcare After years of obscurity, health savings accounts (HSAs) are now being actively purchased by employers to help them manage benefit costs.
If you're a private wealth advisor, please join Advisors4Advisors (A4A) to get its full benefits. Register now, and we will donate $20 of our $60 membership fee to Bubbles The Clown’s financial literacy program, and you can post an icon on your website saying you support Bubbles' 501(c)3 charitable organization. Plus, get other membership benefits, including: - Analysis daily of issues affecting advisors
- Aggregation of news from dozens of sites targeting wealth managers
- Reviews by advisors of practice management applications
- 30 independent experts blogging on advisor business issues
- 24/7 access to webinars with 50 hours of CFP® CE and 100 hours of IMCA CE
Register Now | |
Bank of America and JPMorgan together, as two of the major advocates for the vehicles, currently administer around 1.1 million HSAs.
That's about 30% growth over the last 12 months and reflects, among other things, the rising cost of traditional employee health insurance and the looming start of various Obamacare reforms.
Like 401(k)s, HSA assets can theoretically be actively managed, which makes this a potential business opportunity for advisors who think they will be around for the long term.
Currently, banks have stepped up as the primary HSA managers, filling the accounts with in-house investment products.
Since these accounts are designed to be drawn down during an individual's working lifetime, average balances are still low -- on average, each participant has maybe $1,500 in his or her HSA -- so anyone looking to get into this market will need to find ways to achieve scale in order to be profitable.
If nothing else, offering HSA support as an add-on to small business consulting may be a differentiator for advisors who target entrepreneurs.
The assets may be at best an incremental boost to AUM, but they should prove sticky as business owners cope with new mandates to provide some form of health coverage.
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 90 |
|
|
