Top Stories
By Jerry Gleeson
Financial advisors like to peddle performance, and Talon Asset Management in Chicago is no exception. Senior Principal Terry Diamond says the practice, with about $1.1 billion in assets under management, has seen only three losing years over the past three and a half decades. But three years ago Diamond and his partners decided that the exclusive pursuit of alpha wasn't a good long-term strategy, and they began looking for a partner to help them fill out the firm's offering. In April of this year, Talon announced it was selling about two-thirds of its business to global investment manager BNY Mellon. Diamond, who is staying on with two other principals on his management team, said his clients needed more than just asset management, and BNY Mellon was bringing new abilities to the table, including private banking, wealth planning, and better reporting capabilities.
Read Full Story
By Kristen French
Raymond James on Thursday agreed to a multi-state settlement that will require the firm to buy back $300 million in auction rate securities (ARS) it sold to clients prior to the collapse of the ARS market in February of 2008.
But will it stick? The settlement comes on the heels of a decision by a U.S. judge Tuesday to reject SEC claims that Morgan Keegan had misled investors about the risks of the ARS it sold them. According to SEC claims, Raymond James “willfully violated” securities laws by improperly marketing and selling ARS to customers as safe and liquid alternatives to money-market funds when they were not.
Read Full Story
By Jerry Gleeson
On Tuesday Mark Tibergien, president of Pershing Advisor Solutions, asked a room of some 85 advisors representing about $30 billion in assets how many were considering mergers or acquisitions. About half the crowd raised their hands.
Not too surprising. The average age of advisors is around the mid-50s, and people start thinking about planning for retirement and business exit strategies at that time. Registered investment advisor mergers hit a record last year. But Tibergien raised some issues in his talk that are bound to give pause to potential sellers.
Read Full Story
By Charles Paikert
Four years ago, Abacus Planning Group, a 13-year old $700 million wealth management firm in Columbia, S.C., was growing at a good clip, gaining both clients and assets. But Cheryl Holland, president and founder of the firm, and a 25-year industry veteran, wasn’t satisfied.
“I felt there was a gap between our technical expertise and our emotional intelligence,” Holland said. “I had experience working closely with clients but knew that younger members of our team didn’t. I was looking for a way to help teach them skills that took me years to learn as quickly as possible.”
After listening to a presentation by Dr. Jim Grubman, a psychologist who heads the Family Wealth Consulting practice in Turners Falls, Mass., Holland hired Grubman to help improve her advisors’ client relationship skills.
Read Full Story
By Diana Britton
If clients spend three to five minutes a day picturing themselves in retirement and writing down how they would feel in retirement, they become 25 percent more likely to boost their savings rate, said Ted Klontz, principal of Klontz Consulting Group, citing research by ING Financial. Klontz spoke on investor psychology at last month’s NAPFA conference in a presentation called “When Logic Leaves the Room, and What We Can Do About It.” He also said that if you pick an exact age and year for when a person will retire, they’ll be willing to wait 40 percent longer to spend their money, according to Shane Frederick, a marketing professor at Yale School of Management. Why? According to research conducted by Paul MacLean, former director of the Laboratory of the Brain and Behavior at the United States National Institute of Mental Health, the language of two-thirds of the brain is not abstract and rational; it’s tactile, emotional and visual.
Read Full Story
|
