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Registered Rep.
November 1, 2005
John Churchill |
The Money Squeeze There's one thing that stands between the big retail brokerage firms and the high profit margins that the executives of these firms and their investors seek: the financial advisor.   |
Registered Rep.
February 1, 2005 |
By the Numbers Top 10 Broker/Dealers, by Advisor Headcount: Merrill Lynch... Wachovia... Smith Barney... Morgan Stanley... etc. |
Registered Rep.
February 1, 2006
Kevin Burke |
Hired and Fired Up The biggest brokerage businesses are showing that even in a modest market upswing they now have in place a strategy for delivering stronger and steadier sales and earnings growth. |
Registered Rep.
February 1, 2006
Kristen French |
Both Sides Now Brokers who hold dual licenses -- both the Series 7 and Series 65 licenses -- will have to take fiduciary responsibility on some accounts. But they can also sell investments, after they make it crystal clear that they're doing so. |
Registered Rep.
May 1, 2007 |
The Great Reckoning Whatever the specific business impact the Merrill Lynch ruling may have, many see the return to pre-1999 rules as a chance for the brokerage industry, which has long avoided fiduciary duty for business and regulatory reasons, to overcome those obstacles and embrace it. |
Registered Rep.
June 1, 2007 |
The Great Re-Sell How will registered reps re-position themselves with clients who have fee-based brokerage accounts? |
Registered Rep.
September 1, 2004
Will Leitch |
For Advisors, 2003 Was a Better Year The fortunes of advisors took a turn for the better in 2003, according to the annual report from the Securities Industry Association. |
Registered Rep.
January 1, 2006
John Churchill |
More, More, More Faced with growing competition from other advice providers and fewer inherent advantages in the way of products and platform capabilities, wirehouse brokers will feel pressure to do more fee-based business and to make wealthier clients a bigger part of their practice. |
On Wall Street
April 1, 2010
Howard J. Stock |
Back Office Move Has Advisors Up In Arms -- Some Bolt Questions surround what will happen to BAI clients when Merrill moves their accounts from National Financial to Merrill Lynch. |
Registered Rep.
December 1, 2004
David A. Gaffen |
Meet the New Boss, Different From the Old Boss November's news that Bob Mulholland was leaving Merrill Lynch wasn't entirely a surprise. He had been co-head of the 14,000-strong retail brokerage unit, but Merrill insiders figured all along that only one boss would prevail. |
Registered Rep.
July 18, 2007
Kevin Burke |
Merrill Reports Strong Revenues, Adds 270 Advisors Merrill Lynch's retail brokerage arm turns in another strong quarter, as fee-based revenue continued to climb to record levels. |
Registered Rep.
August 26, 2010
John Aidan Byrne |
Neck And Neck, Morgan and Merrill On Hiring Sprees Both firms say they plan to add net financial advisors in 2010, adding to stated plans to sign up 2,000 trainees each this year. |
Registered Rep.
February 2, 2006
Kristen French |
Brokers Learning to Play by New Rules It's no longer business as usual on Wall Street. Starting yesterday, broker/dealers must follow a new SEC rule that requires them to disclose at certain times that they may not be acting in their clients' best interest. |
Registered Rep.
January 6, 2009 |
Sontag Takes McCann's Job At Merrill More shocking to Merrill Lynch advisors than the sudden departure of their leader is the disappearance of the "MER" logo from their computer screens. |
Registered Rep.
January 1, 2006
Halah Touryalai |
The Winner's Curse Many advisors independent b/ds recruit have now unrealistic expectations: They want full technical and marketing support, as well as help understanding products and asset managers. |
Registered Rep.
May 1, 2006
Kevin Burke |
Failure to Launch Last year, Merrill Lynch's deal to buy Advest was regarded as a savvy transaction. Eight months later, with about 100 reps left, the deal math looks considerably worse. But Merrill may soon have an opportunity to see if it can do better. |
Registered Rep.
March 1, 2008
John Churchill |
Fix Advisor Laws! Laws should reflect the fact that the differences between registered reps and registered investment advisors have largely evaporated. |
Registered Rep.
October 1, 2010
John Aidan Byrne |
Who Will be Number One Among the Wirehouses? A good old-fashioned Wall Street fight for retail assets -- and a fierce tussle over which firm can call itself the Number One retail wealth management firm on Wall Street -- is brewing. |
Registered Rep.
April 29, 2005
Kristen French |
Raymond James Fined, Drops Fee-Based Brokerage---Will Others Follow? Following the NASD fine of Raymond James for pushing fee-based accounts on the wrong clients, the next question is how the settlement will affect other firms that offer the same accounts, including wirehouse giants Morgan Stanley, Merrill and Smith Barney. |
Registered Rep.
November 6, 2008
Christina Mucciolo |
Bank Run It might be time to reconsider the stereotype of the bank broker. |
Registered Rep.
April 15, 2011
Kristen French |
Merrill Earnings Strongest Since Bank of America Takeover Bank of America's Global Wealth and Investment Management division, which includes Merrill Lynch, reported its highest earnings since Bank of America's takeover of Merrill in late 2008, as asset management and brokerage fees rose. |
Registered Rep.
December 19, 2008
Christina Mucciolo |
Merrill Tweaks Grid; Lowers It For Smaller FAs Merrill Lynch executives released the 2009 Financial Advisor Comp Plan -- with good news and bad. |
Registered Rep.
October 20, 2005
John Churchill |
Merrill Call Center Under Microscope The financial firm's brokerage call centers, its service centers for less complicated and less profitable accounts, are under investigation by the NASD for past improprieties. |
Registered Rep.
December 1, 2002
David A. Gaffen |
Manning the Phones When wirehouses and other major brokerages introduced the notion of call centers a couple of years ago, brokers were suspicious. Although they understood the logic behind the move, it was a difficult adjustment. But call centers are here to stay and brokers are learning to live with them. |
Registered Rep.
June 1, 2010
John Aidan Byrne |
Bank of America Ramps Up Online Brokerage Bank of America is making a push into electronic brokerage services, a menu that includes free online trading and a new platform called Merrill Edge, set to debut in late June. Some say the new services will steal business from Merrill advisors. |
Registered Rep.
August 1, 2006
Kristen French |
The Way We'll Be While it's clear how the financial services industry got here, it's not so easy to predict where we're going. Here's a look at three major forces that will likely shape the industry over the next five to 20 years: The Age of Retirement... The Margin Squeeze... RIA Revolution... |
Registered Rep.
December 12, 2006
Halah Touryalai |
Smith Barney Pay Package: Perks Balance Cuts? This week, Smith Barney will become the first firm to make a change to its payout grid as a result of the securities industry's recent battle over broker overtime pay and so-called chargebacks. |
Registered Rep.
November 30, 2010
John Aidan Byrne |
Report: Merrill Edge Threatens Online and Regional Brokers, Not Its Own FAs A new report by research firm Aite Group this week, sees Bank of America Merrill Lynch's recently expanded online brokerage business -- as a serious challenge to the online business of powerhouses such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments. |
Registered Rep.
March 16, 2012
Kristen French |
Wire Houses Minting Fiduciary Advisors -- Or Are They? None of the firms will go on record as to whom specifically in the rank and file is adopting the standard, nor will they provide much detail on what that training looks like. |
BusinessWeek
August 30, 2004
Amy Borrus |
Brokers Aren't Advisers The line between brokers and advisers was clear for decades. But in 1999, the Securities & Exchange Commission blurred that line. Now, to protect investors, the SEC must redraw a clear line. |
Registered Rep.
April 15, 2009
Kristen French |
Bank of America Launches Client Referral Program It's one of several referral programs the bank is putting together as part of its integration with Merrill Lynch, including one that would offer leads from the commercial banking division to certain Merrill Lynch advisors. |
Registered Rep.
August 25, 2006
Kevin Burke |
Merrill Fighting Back Against Recent Defections The recruiting war for top brokers remains fierce. The latest evidence of the fight to win million-dollar producers involves the industry's biggest firms. |
Registered Rep.
July 18, 2006
Kevin Burke |
Merrill's Brokerage Unit Records Huge Second-Quarter Gains Merrill's global private client group (GPC) registered a pretax earnings increase of 53%, to $701 million, in the second quarter ending June 30, up from $457 million in the same period in 2005. |
Registered Rep.
July 1, 2004
Gregg Wirth |
It's the Advice, Stupid The NASD's probe definitely has many brokers and branch managers in the industry nervous. They are unsure exactly what regulators are looking for, what constitutes a violation and what, if any, penalties could be levied. |
Registered Rep.
July 20, 2005
John Churchill |
Wall Street's Second-Quarter Results: It Could Have Been Worse The big financial services players have released their second-quarter earnings, and most private client divisions didn't do as badly as analysts were expecting -- thanks, in part, to an improving equity market. Charles Schwab... Merrill Lynch... etc. |
Registered Rep.
April 1, 2007 |
Turf Wars Over Advice The age-old debate between the b/d and investment advisor (RIA) industries over who should be able to provide advice and when, and whose regulatory regime offers better investor protections, is far from over. |
Registered Rep.
October 1, 2005
Matt Barthel |
Insurance and the Generation Gap Reps historically have been reluctant to sell life insurance because of the steep learning curve associated with the products, and there is evidence that many still are hesitant to put forth the effort necessary to grasp the products' nuances. |
Registered Rep.
August 13, 2007
Halah Touryalai |
Merrill Grabs Advisors Producing $5.5 million From Rival UBS Merrill Lynch won big last week in the aggressive industry-wide recruiting war for top advisors. |
Registered Rep.
March 12, 2004
John Churchill |
Huge Growth in Fee-Based Brokerage Fee-based brokerage showed faster growth than any other segment of managed accounts over the last four years, according to a new report from Cerulli Associates. |
Registered Rep.
April 8, 2005
John Churchill |
`Merrill Rule' Debate Not Over The SEC unanimously voted to allow Series 7 holders, or registered reps, to position themselves as financial advisors -- with certain caveats. But once again the SEC seemed to hedge its bet. So the debate rages on. |
Registered Rep.
August 31, 2004
David A. Gaffen |
Sharp Words for the NASD By Raymond James' Averitt Dick Averitt of Raymond James Financial Services had some particularly harsh words for the National Association of Securities Dealers over fee-based accounts in a speech at RJFS' semiannual financial conference on Monday morning. |
Registered Rep.
November 18, 2005
Kristen French |
Smith Barney Cuts Pay for Smaller Brokers The new pay scale was announced to brokers internally in October and will take effect in January. |
Registered Rep.
June 21, 2006
Kristen French |
Morgan Stanley Retail Reports Second-Quarter Gains Finally, some good news for Morgan Stanley's retail brokerage. The unit reported strong second-quarter gains Wednesday, including an impressive surge in advisor productivity, which hit an all-time record for the firm. |
Registered Rep.
August 10, 2004
David A. Gaffen |
Fleeing Brokers Can Take Some Client Info Three of the nation's largest brokerage firms have agreed to make it easier for registered reps to take clients with them when they change firms, eliminating a lot of the cloak-and-dagger antics that brokers often suffer when making a move. |
Registered Rep.
July 26, 2011
John Aidan Byrne |
Online Brokerages Still Grabbing Market Share From Wirehouses Online brokerages continue to take market share from the wirehouses, according to a new report. |
Registered Rep.
September 1, 2005
Janet C. Arrowood |
Calling in a Specialist For reps wishing to sell more insurance, there is an option: leaning more heavily on an insurance specialist. Insurance is something that most clients need, and by supplying them with it, the advisor is fulfilling the most important part of his calling. |
Registered Rep.
December 1, 2006
John Churchill |
Of Two Minds An internecine argument at the FPA gets to the heart of one of the industry's more vexing problems: Should brokers be able to position themselves as financial planners? |
Registered Rep.
October 17, 2006
Kristen French |
Retail Brokerage Has Strong Third Quarter The third quarter shaped up pretty well for the retail brokerage divisions of the big Wall Street firms. Market technicians say we're in the midst of a bull market, and that means things are looking even better for the rest of the year. |
Registered Rep.
November 4, 2011
Kristen French |
Indie Exodus: Overhyped? In 2009, in the wake of arguably one of the biggest financial crises this country has seen since the Great Depression, over 3,000 financial advisors left Merrill Lynch, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo to start life over at an independent broker/dealer or RIA firm. |
Registered Rep.
September 15, 2008
Kristen French |
Merrill Lynch Sells Itself To Bank of America: Update 3 The biggest question, now that BofA has agreed to buy Merrill Lynch, is what Bank of America will do to hold onto Merrill Lynch's dearest asset -- its approximately 17,000 financial advisors. |
