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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

From why automation may promote engagement to the reasons behind Vanguard’s domination of ETF flows in Q1, here are the most notable quotes from the past week's stories.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

By downloading and disclosing nonpublic confidential information of his customers and other Raymond James and credit union customers, [Steven Robert] Tomlinson placed important and confidential customer information at risk and his own interests before his customers' privacy interests.


-- FINRA's National Adjudicatory Council on a former Wells Fargo advisor, Steven Robert Tomlinson, who, according to the agency, took more information than is allowed when he left a credit union affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services to join Wells Fargo Advisors (then Wachovia Securities) in late November 2008.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

Anytime representatives start downloading stuff to flash drives, it's immediately one of those things that's really hard to defend.


-- Patrick J. Burns, Jr., managing attorney with the law offices of Patrick J. Burns, Jr., P.C., in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the reasons and implications behind FINRA’s suspension of a Wells Fargo advisor.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

In the banking industry, we compete on how easy it is for new customers to find us and make deposits with us, to switch from their previous financial institution to our bank. ... By making it easier for our customer, we may be inadvertently making it easier for fraudsters.


-- Aaron Glover, senior analyst for fraud risk management at SunTrust Banks in Atlanta, on why many bankers believe a rise in digital banking heightens fraud risk.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

State Street and Barclays, now BlackRock, were the early leaders in the ETF industry, and as a late arrival, Vanguard made a name for itself by offering significantly lower management fees in its ETFs.


-- Brian Bush of Stephens Inc. Capital Management on how Vanguard has secured its position as the low cost provider in the market and continues to reap the benefits.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

I don't think the big full-service financial firms who provide private banking, lending and insurance are going to be hurt as badly -- but independent wealth managers are going to have to up their tech game.


-- Wallace Blankenbaker, a senior director at corporate advisory firm CEB, on why small and medium-sized RIAs may be left for roadkill if they don't integrate an online model with their personal service offerings.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

In the retail space, not only are they new products for the clients, they are also new products for the advisor. Many have never sold alternative investments before.


-- Josh Charlson, director of alternative funds research for Morningstar, on how interest in alternatives is rising as investors look to manage volatility – and why advisor education is critical to meeting that tidal wave of demand.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

The company has taken action to ensure the accounts of clients in the Capital, Sterling, or Advantage Programs have been properly linked for purposes of obtaining advisory fee discounts.


-- Transamerica statement on why, as one of the nation's largest independent broker-dealers, it has reimbursed more than 2,300 accounts in a settlement with the SEC after being charged by the regulator with improperly calculating advisory fees and overcharging clients.
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Week's Best Quotes: 'The More Automation, the More Employees Will Engage'

The more you can implement automation, the more employees will engage.


-- Kevin Crain, senior relationship executive for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, on why auto-enrolling employees in 401(k) plans may lead to higher contribution levels.
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