Home of the Registered Investment Advisor
By Joyce Hanson
Source: Advisor One
The U.S. finance industry has taken a beating for its role in the economic crisis, but according to Corporate Responsibility (CR) magazine, there are still 10 good guys, relatively speaking, in the Finance sector. In its sector-by-sector top 10 list of America’s most transparent large-cap companies, CR announced the best corporate citizens in the Financials/Insurance/Real Estate sector along with those in nine other categories.
This report comes from the recent Women Advisors Forum in New York where regulatory reform was a hot topic. Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, the managing director of public policy and communications for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, gave a keynote address about the impact of Dodd-Frank on financial advisors. She discusses the debate between Rupublicans and Democrats over how much regulatory control is needed, the question of how to “harmonize” regulations for RIAs and broker-dealers, and the yet-to-be-decided uniform fiduciary standard. Read More
The December issue of RIA Central is ready to download. It is loaded with terrific content provided by Bill Cates, the referral coach; David Loeper’s latest article on Ethics; Part 2 of The Four Pillars of Perpetual Portfolio Planning by Eqis’ William Nelson, Ph.D and Scott Winters; and much more. We hope you enjoy it!
Here’s a sample plan that you can customize to your own needs. We’ve filled in some of the areas so you have a better idea of how to complete yours.
BUSINESS PLAN
Objective
To build a highly efficient million-dollar asset management business that provides career fulfillment for me and my staff/team members.
Value Proposition/Mission Statement
To help high net worth individuals and small businesses manage and protect their wealth through professional money management services. Read More
The November issue of RIA Central Magazine is ready to download! Content includes a great article on the “six commonalities” of Billion-Dollar RIAs. What are those commonalities and what are their differences in their practices? What is their secret formula? The answers to these questions mark the line in the sand for those wishing to follow in their footsteps.Download the Magazine:http://riacentral.s3.amazonaws.com/mag/RIA_Central_Magazine_Nov_2010.pdf
Dear Consulting Colleagues,
I’m reaching out to you because I’m concerned that you may have misplaced your faith in those who are performing investment manager due diligence for you. As many of you know, I’ve worked on consulting analytics for more than 30 years, and have seen significant advances in the tools that could and should be used in separating the winners from the losers, also known as investment manager screening. The problem is that the finest tools are not being used by many investment manager researchers. The active/passive luck/skill debate rages on largely because the old tools cannot accomplish the very basic task of accurately identifying winners. The crying need for real due diligence was dramatically demonstrated by the Madoff Mess1, which revealed problems that extend well beyond hedge funds to plain old vanilla long-only managers. For the most part, client facing advisors trust others to screen investment managers, and this trust is being placed more and more in outsourced due diligence. I’ve been to these service providers, and gotten almost nowhere, although some have updated their tools. Read More
We conducted a survey a few weeks back on your thoughts regarding referrals and how important they are to your practice. As many of you know, we have partnered with Nancy Imholte on a coaching program designed to help you actually ask for referrals the right way. We’ll be providing more details on the program next week. In the meantime, listen to Nancy’s podcast and her interpretation on the survey results. Also, don’t forget to register for our webinar with Nancy next week. If you’re interested in finding out about the coaching program first, you should sign up for our priority notification list. Read More
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
What do you do when your best referral source is approached by one of your own colleagues – behind your back? This month’s Ask Zig will show you how to nip that problem in the bud before it becomes major office drama.
Finders Keepers: How to handle a referral source hijackingDear Zig,I’ve been with my RIA group in Fresno for five years, and for the most part, we have a collegial and cooperative team. Before this incident, I would have said we have a high level of trust here, and have been very open about sharing processes, programs and even referrals when the situation warrants. So imagine my anger when I learned that one of my colleagues, Peter, had taken a long-standing referral source of mine to lunch to talk about new ways they could work together. I found out about it when my source called me afterwards to make sure I was behind the idea. Which, of course, I knew nothing about. I am so angry that I can’t see straight! Where do I begin to set Peter straight on the rules of the road behind honoring referral sources? Read More
By all accounts, 2009 was a tumultuous and challenging year throughout the financial services community. With competition for clients and assets increasing among advisers, those who were able to offer a broader array of products and services may have been better positioned to weather the storm.It has often been burdensome for advisers to offer both fee-based products and commission-based investment vehicles on the same platform. However, recent technological advances, coupled with clarity from regulators, have eased these burdens, paving the way for a new breed of adviser.
The dually registered or hybrid adviser is able to offer fee-based products to some customers and brokerage-based solutions to others while remaining within the confines of a seamless and consolidated environment. A hybrid adviser is registered with FINRA through an affiliated broker-dealer and with the Securities and Exchange Commission or state as a registered investment adviser. Read More
