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Core Marketing Activities of Elite Advisors
By Matt Oechsli
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Chicago: “I listened to the audio of that Rainmaker Focus Group you’ve got posted on your website. It was awesome,” William gushed as he buttered me up for a skeptical followup question. “Do you have any current data on what these elite rainmakers are doing today?”
William is a coach in his firm’s training department, so his skepticism is warranted. Few advisors are bringing in new clients, much less new affluent clients.
But he was in luck, since our 2011 Q1 advisor research project addressed this issue. We uncovered exactly what elite advisors were doing to bring in new $1 million or greater clients.
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A Bond Bear Market? Not to Worry, Follow Vanguard’s Bogle’s System
By Stan Luxenberg
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Worried that interest rates could rise for years to come, some investors have been dumping their bonds. But the extreme bears are probably overreacting. Under most scenarios, bonds will deliver modestly positive returns in coming years. What sort of returns should investors expect for the next decade? To figure that out, consider a system that has long been promoted by John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard Group.
Instead of shifting allocations now to avoid soft bond markets, investors should maintain their long-term strategic allocations, says Michael Kitces, research director of Pinnacle Advisory Group, a wealth management firm in Columbia, Maryland. Kitces says that the main reason to hold fixed-income assets is diversification. Bonds often rise when stocks fall. Investors who abandon bonds now would have little protection if stocks crash. “It is very risky to make dramatic changes in your portfolio in anticipation of higher rates,” he warns.
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Merrill, Wells, Ed Jones Jack Up Trainee Hiring
By John Aidan Byrne
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Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), Wells Fargo Advisors (NYSE: WFC) and Edward Jones plan to ramp up trainee recruiting in 2011, Registered Rep. has learned. It comes at a time when a number of currents in the business are converging to create what many predict will be a talent crunch. The financial advisor population is aging, with the average advisor nearing retirement age, the retirements of the baby boomer generation are expected to increase demand for financial advice, and the recruiting deals being offered to experienced advisors at rival firms are still at record highs.
Merrill has plans to hire 2,400 trainees in 2011, a 50 percent increase over last year, for its Practice Management Development, or PMD program, according to a person familiar with the firm’s plans. That’s up from 1,600 in 2010. Merrill declined to comment on the numbers, but it did say that it’s planning to overhaul its training program to make it more effective.
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Bridging the Succession-Planning Gap
By Matt Matrisian
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Financial advisors work countless hours helping clients plan their financial futures. But, unfortunately, too many advisors need help planning their financial futures.
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From Registered Rep. Blogs
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The Slippery Slope to Serfdom
By David Geracioti
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Years ago when Nanny Bloomberg — oops, Mayor Bloomberg — outlawed smoking in pubs and restaurants, I told my wife that next it would be butter. I was wrong: It was margarine–trans fats — that were outlawed in restaurants. So, whose body is it? Yours or the states? In NYC, it appears it belongs to the government. McDonald’s — the Evil Empire!
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