This one’s interesting. Normally, you hear about clients threatening their brokers for giving them the wrong advice. In this case, a man’s advisor tried to talk him out of tapping his IRA early in order to be spared from the early withdrawal penalty. Was the client pleased with this advice? Actually, no, he became homicidal….
Financial Advisors
You and Us. (*unless things get ugly, then you're on your own)
One of the more curious features of the wealth management business over the last few years was the unfair competitive advantage that some firms had over others because of their innate ability to offer tax-evasion-as-a-service to high net worth investors as a selling point. It’s nice to hear that someone out there in Governmentland actually cares……
Experts Predict the Death of the Broker (Yeah, that old chestnut)
“Bill Singer foresees stock brokers not existing after this generation and instead the market will have commission-paid telephone operators who dole out information.” Forbes, August 2009 Another era, another article discussing the Death of the Broker. My friend/buddy/pal Bill Singer, a maven on all subjects pertaining to the broker/dealer and regulatory world, is quoted in…
Red Flags in the Sky
“He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces” – Samuel Johnson If Bernie Madoff was the Harlem Globetrotters of stock fraud (undefeated for decades), then Ross Mandell and his Sky Capital crew are the Washington Generals. Mandell has been in trouble with regulators and officials on and off…
What Obama's "Brokers As Fiduciaries" Change Really Means
In Obama‘s new regulatory reform proposal, there is language concerning how brokers are looked at and treated versus investment advisors. From the Wall Street Journal: Currently, brokers are only required to offer investments that are “suitable,” which means they can’t put clients in inappropriate investments, such as a highly risky stock for an 80-year-old grandmother….
UBS: "Selling Tax Evasion as a Service"
From Bloomberg: Under threat of prosecution, UBS in February agreed to turn over about 250 names of Americans suspected of tax fraud. We’ve discussed this matter on TRB before, but frankly the longer this thing festers, the more it’s gonna piss me off. UBS has this enormous “Wealth Management” business here in the US and…
Perspective
When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. Ralph Waldo Emerson Thanks to all for the kind wishes…
Morgan Stanley, Meet Smith Barney…Play Nice, Boys.
“Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss” – The Who, Won’t Get Fooled Again The Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MS) experiment is underway. According to the AP, not much will change to start with, other than new business cards and a new phone greeting from the receptionist. The cultures of these two white shoe…
Advisors Doing Less Than 300k Are Not Cutting It at UBS
According to an article in Registered Rep last week, advisors producing less than 300k a year are no longer welcome at UBS. Merrill Lynch also rolled up the welcome mat on producing brokers and advisors below that threshold back in December. Now that the larger, inefficient firms have decided to no longer nurture smaller producers,…
Consolidate Your Brokerage Accounts in 2009: Your Friend, the ACAT
Consolidating your brokerage accounts isn’t the same thing as “putting all your eggs in one basket”. Rather, it’s about keeping a wide variety of different investments with only a few trustworthy and helpful people so you can keep track of what you’re doing. Putting all your eggs in one basket would be consolidating your whole…
